FedEx expects to hire more than 50,000 people company-wide for the peak season of 2016. This will include approximately 2,500 in the Memphis area. This is expected to be 10% higher than last year due to e-commerce orders.
UPS, Inc. estimates a roughly 14% increase over the 2015 holiday shipping season.
UPS, Inc. based in Atlanta Georgia is the number one for-hire carriers in North America and FedEx, based in Memphis, TN is Number 2. Both companies see a surge in shipments between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
On October 2, 2016, The National Retail Federation, based in Washington D.C., predicted a 7 to 10% increase in non-store sales in November and December.
ShipMatrix President Satish Jindel predicted Cyber Monday, following Thanksgiving, will be FedEx's busiest day for pickups. The Monday before Christmas will be the busiest day for deliveries. "The volume they're projected to hit is 370 million between Black Friday and Christmas, compared to 325 million actual last year," Jindel said. Last year FedEx easily beat its pre-peak growth estimate of 12.4%. ShipMatrix, Inc. is a software provider that includes in their product line predictive analytics for shippers of all sizes. ShipMatrix, Inc., is based in Sewickley, PA.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a senior vice president at the Memphis-based FedEx said of the upcoming holiday season: "We're expecting volume approximately 10% higher than last year, which was also a record." Fitzgerald went on to say: “We will have multiple days that we expect to be records." In addition, FedEx has said it expects the four Mondays before Christmas to be among the company's busiest ever as online holiday shopping gets closer to Christmas.
It is expected that Amazon will be the primary player in the flood of packages send by FedEx. To answer the expected surge, FedEx has added six temporary annexes to handle oversized items such as bicycles, TVs and mattresses. These annexes are located in Rialto, California; Metuchen, New Jersey; Chicago, Illinois; Sugarland, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; and Atlanta Georgia. These annexes are expected to help speed deliveries in the major metropolitan areas nearby each annex.
To help with FedEx’s air transportation, it has purchased 30 new, fuel efficient planes and has improved its hi-tech enhanced vision systems on 270 aircraft to further allow it to operate in bad weather.