Shipping companies on overdrive to ensure Christmas delivery

It may be 50 degrees outside with no snow in sight, but the inside of the Postal Service facility in south Las Vegas could pass for a workshop at the North Pole.

Thousands of boxes travel on conveyor belts before dropping into individual bags that resemble Santa’s toy sack, ready to be loaded into a truck or a plane. Workers hustle around the facility, some dressed in sparkling Christmas sweaters, others with Santa hats or with jingling bells draped around their necks.

At 8 p.m. on a Friday, the facility is still bustling. Many employees are working overtime to ensure holiday presents arrive on time to families throughout the country. The Postal Service expects to deliver more than 8.3 million packages in Las Vegas this holiday season.

“It’s all about getting it home to the customer,” said Jason McMahill, senior plant manager of the Las Vegas mail processing facility.

With online shopping becoming more popular each year, shipping companies have had to make adjustments during the holiday season to keep up with package volume, hiring seasonal employees and leasing equipment. Even then, data show, it’s a challenge to keep ahead of late orders.

More shopping, more shipping

Package volume during the holiday season has been on the rise, said Rod Spurgeon, who works in corporate communications for the U.S. Postal Service.

The Postal Service mailing facility at East Post Road and South Sandhill Road sorts between 6,500 and 7,000 parcels each hour, running 20 hours a day during the holiday season. All of the Postal Service’s Southern Nevada facilities are expected to process about 6.9 million packages in December, a 46 percent increase from last year.

“We absolutely believe that we have the capacity and the people that can move the mail for our customers,” McMahill said.

This rush is common among shipping companies. Russ Roberts, a UPS division manager, said volume on a peak day during the holidays in Las Vegas is 456,000 packages, close to three times that of an average day’s 167,000 packages.

Spurgeon said business really started to pick up during the holidays with the proliferation of online shopping.

“Online shipping has taken over the shopping season,” he said. “We deliver more and more (packages) every year.”

According to a December report from Adobe Insights, shoppers nationwide plan to spend 57 percent of their holiday budget online this year. Holiday shopping revenue from November through December is expected to hit a record high at $124 billion, 14.8 percent higher than last year.

Preparations

Peak season for the Postal Service is between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, but preparations for the holidays begin early.

“We start planning for next year’s holiday in January,” McMahill said. “We do what we call peak season planning, and we meet to discuss areas we can improve on.”

Shipping facilities take a series of steps to stay on top of the volume increase — hiring seasonal employees, increasing hours for existing employees and renting vehicles.

The Las Vegas UPS rented 63 U-Haul trailers and opened an extra facility in Las Vegas for eight weeks to handle the package load. FedEx plans to operate on six- and seven-day weeks throughout the holiday season.

“We expect to add more than 55,000 positions throughout the season, with the majority of these within the FedEx Ground network,” said Rae Lyn Rushing, a FedEx spokeswoman, via email.

The Postal Service added more than 8,000 vehicles to its fleet this year and leased additional vehicles during the holiday season to keep up with demand.

Justine Gordon, an area manager at Amazon’s North Las Vegas fulfillment center, said the team is prepared for the holiday rush.

“We have a lot of packages that come in, but we have the staffing for it,” she said. “We go through all year making sure everything is laid out perfectly for those high-volume days.”

Roberts said the UPS team tends to work overtime during the season, with some working close to 60 hours per week.

“We work a lot of hours, but the camaraderie is really thick,” Roberts said. “We take pride in the service. … Everyone’s counting on us for their Christmas presents.”

Delays

With shipping carriers expected to see record volumes this year, not all of those goods and services will arrive under the Christmas tree on time, according to a recent report.

LateShipment.com’s 2018 State of Holiday Shipping in the U.S. report predicts three times more delays in deliveries compared with the rest of the year.

“It’s almost impossible to make up for the volume increase,” said Sriram Sridhar, CEO of LateShipment.com, an independent tracker of companies’ carrier packages. Shipping companies “are going to see a deterioration in performance. It’s inevitable.”

Last year, 7.9 percent of Nevada was affected by delays for UPS shipments during the holiday season, and 8.7 percent of the state was affected by delays from FedEx, according to the report.

Those delays take a hit on merchants’ business. According to the report, 1 in 3 customers choose to never shop with a merchant again after a negative delivery experience.

“If you mess up a Christmas delivery, that’s it,” Sridhar said. Customers “hold the merchant accountable.”

Still, shipping companies are optimistic that they can handle the rush this year. Rushing said FedEx is “well-positioned to meet this year’s record demand,” and McMahill said the Las Vegas Postal Service doesn’t expect delays.

“It is a high-volume day, but we’re ready for it,” Amazon employee Gordon said.

Contact Bailey Schulz at bschulz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0233. Follow @bailey_schulz on Twitter.