Holiday shipping deadlines to know

If you’ve wrapped up your holiday shopping and are sitting back waiting for everything you ordered online to be delivered, don’t relax so much that you fall for these holiday scams. “We’re also projecting that we will get over 7 million people going to our website”. Amazon also offers one day shipping until December 23rd.

The three major shipping carriers in the country suggest you get your packages on the truck by the week before Christmas if you want them to arrive on time.

UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service are expected to deliver more than 1.5 billion parcels this holiday season.

We’re only two days away from the busiest shipping day of the year.

Despite efforts to bump up hiring this year, United Parcel Service and FedEx are struggling with the volume triggered by the uptick in e-commerce sales this season.

As for that delivery date, Monday, Dec. 21 will be the biggest delivery day.

Like the post office, FedEx was expecting to handle a spike in packages on Monday, as more than twice the volume of a normal day is expected for the first two Mondays of December, according to information provided by FedEx spokesman Jack Pfeiffer. Similar alerts and tracking can be found at FedEx, UPS and through retailers. After Tuesday, you’ll have to pay extra to make sure gifts arrive on time. The UPS mobile phone app sends a notice the day before delivery, allows you to leave instructions on where to drop a package at your house, and for a fee gives you a two-hour window for delivery. We’ve already seen some reports of people lifting packages off other people’s doorsteps.

If you’re using FedEx, Wednesday, Dec. 16 should be on your calendar. This is the one day smaller retailers like Harry & David, Keurig and Fisher Price make the offer. This is traditionally the day when many retailers offer free shipping with no minimums to entice consumers to finally cross everything off their Christmas lists.

With these steps you should have a good chance of having presents under the tree.