Massive last minute shipping volume leads to missed Christmas delivery

December 27 2013

For most people, the holiday season ends with Christmas gifts being exchanged on December 25. This is the deadline that many consumers have set in their minds, and disappointment is felt when there is nothing under the tree on Christmas morning. Unfortunately for some last minute shoppers that ordered online, that's exactly what happened, as shipping problems led to a major delay in deliveries.

According to multiple news sources, some customers who shipped last minute using delivery giants UPS or FedEx did not have their packages delivered on time, even though they ordered before the "guaranteed by" date had passed. Many users took to social media to express their outrage while the company issued apologies.

"We're sorry that there could be delays and we're contacting affected customers who have shipments available for pickup," Scott Fiedler, a spokesman for FedEx, told the Associated Press. "We give our apologies to customers."

The reason for the problem was two fold. First was the severe weather that affected many parts of the country over the week leading up to Christmas, causing a backlog. The other was a higher-than-expected volume of deliveries that exceeded the capacity in their network. This led to more packages ready for shipment and not enough drivers or trucks to get them all to their destination, even working 14 to 16 hour days.

Why were companies so unprepared?

A recent article for the Daily Beast examined the shipping disaster that has been this holiday season. According to Daniel Gross, the author of the piece, this should have been one of the best shopping seasons in years. The economy has been growing and sales numbers were higher than expected across the board.

Last year, we were on the verge of falling off the fiscal cliff. This year, Black Friday weekend set records for the number of items shipped.

Gross went on to say that there is a simple reason as to why online shopping has increased higher than organizations were prepared for. Ecommerce is more convenient. Black Friday has become more of a spectacle and potential frenzy of watching people instead of actually shopping for deals. This has helped remove the mysticism of going to the store for holiday shopping, and caused more people to use online options. On top of that, past success may have doomed delivery services.

"Today's tech giants have great faith in their ability to construct and manage complex systems," Gross wrote. "But the tremendous success they've had in constructing highly efficient logistics and delivery methods may have led to hubristic promises."

He went on to say that while many customers take advantage of last minute "guarantees," there is still an inherent danger to waiting so long to place orders. This all led to inflated volume that overwhelmed organizations at the worse possible time.

This is where a third party logistics and shipping service can become a valuable resource. Instead of hoping a shipping giant can answer your last minute needs, a smaller reliable service provider can roll out a complete logistics plan that can meet any changing landscape.