FedEx predicts 12 percent increase in holiday shipments

The holiday season might be bringing retailers more cheer than expected, and FedEx has announced it will hire 55,000 seasonal workers to handle an increase in holiday shipping.

UPS will hire as many as 95,000 workers, about the same number as previous year.

The National Retail Federation predicts that the industry will see a 3.7 percent increase in sales this holiday season, with even stronger growth – 6 to 8 percent – in the online channel.

The holiday shipment forecast from FedEx is already built into FY16 guidance.

The company, based in Memphis, Tennessee said it is expecting to handle more than 317 million shipments from Black Friday, which is traditionally the busiest shopping day in the US and Christmas Eve, a 12.4% increase from past year. This could equal about $105 billion in online sales.

Shipping will spike on Cyber Monday, which is November 30, and the first two Mondays in December, when FedEx expects package volume to be more than double its daily average.

“Understanding the trend of shifting consumer shopping habits, we will continue to work constructively with e-tailers and retailers and have placed volume caps where necessary to help ensure we provide our customers the world-class service they’ve come to expect”, Fedex said. However, the increase in volume has prompted investments from the shipping giants to improve their ground and air infrastructure.

Trying to smooth out their holiday volume, major carriers have been meeting with online retailers to discuss the upcoming holiday season, says Marc Wulfraat, founder and president of MWPVL global. During 2013, bad weather and a near end surge in retail packages from online sales caught both FedEx and its biggest rival UPS off guard that resulted in over 2 million packages not being delivered by Christmas Eve.

FedEx, in an emailed statement, said it “closely collaborates with our customers all year to set expectations early and understand their planned shipping needs leading into the holiday season”. Wal-Mart (60,000), Target (70,000), and Macy’s (85,000) are all also hiring staggering numbers of seasonal employees.

The number of planned seasonal workers is about 10 percent more than a year ago, spokesman Tim Miller said.