The largest three national parcel carriers — FedEx Corp., United Parcel Service (UPS) and the U.S. Postal Service — each struggled with on-time performance in the peak period of 2024, according to new data from ShipMatrix Inc.
Compared with the 2023 holiday shopping season, all three carriers delivered a smaller percentage of packages on time from Dec. 1 through Dec. 31, 2024, ShipMatrix data shows. ShipMatrix says its data encompasses millions of parcels shipped during the peak period of 2024 surrounding Christmas.
UPS and USPS each fulfill deliveries for online orders from more than 1,000 retailers in the Top 2000 Database. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s rankings and more of the large online retailers in North America based on their annual ecommerce sales.
UPS and USPS serve 1,000+ leading online retailers in North America
Prior to peak season, USPS’ contract with FedEx for air cargo, which it held for more than 20 years, expired Sept. 29, 2024. As of Sept. 30, USPS and UPS have worked together on a new air cargo contract. The new contract will last for at least five and a half years, USPS said in a written statement on April 1, 2024, announcing the news.
“Our requirements were reevaluated in light of the dramatic changes in the mailing and shipping marketplace that have occurred since our 10-year Delivering for America plan was initiated in March 2021,” the agency said at the time.
The contract followed news from January 2024 that UPS would cut 12,000 jobs that year. That was part of a plan to generate $1 billion in savings as revenue and package volume decline, CEO Carol Tome said at the time.
How were US carriers’ on-time performance in 2024?
When factoring in commit times for all three carriers’ parcel services — such as express, deferred, ground and last-mile delivery — UPS led in December 2024 on-time performance.
At 96.5% on-time deliveries, UPS experienced the smallest drop in performance compared to 2023, when it was 98.7% for the carrier.
FedEx on-time performance in December 2024 was 91.8%, a drop from 98.3% the year before. Similarly, USPS’ 90.4% on-time performance in 2024 was a drop from 96.5% in 2023.
ShipMatrix said USPS’ performance drop “may be due to” USPS implementing its Delivering for America plan. Excluding Parcel Select performance, which is limited to last-mile, USPS’ on-time performance for its Ground Advantage and Priority Mail parcels drops to 84.7%, according to ShipMatrix.
“Even with a shorter peak period in 2024, the parcel industry delivered over 2.2 billion parcels,” ShipMatrix said. “However, the more noteworthy development was that Amazon, as a shipper delivered over 25 million parcels per day of its own and FBA [Fulfilled by Amazon] online orders, exceeding the volume delivered by FedEx, UPS and even USPS if its last mile deliveries are excluded.”
The shorter peak period is because in 2024, Thanksgiving weekend ended Dec. 1, with Cyber Monday landing Dec. 2.
Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 2000 Database. It’s also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. It ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
In an earnings call with investors for its most recent fiscal quarter, Amazon said it fulfilled more than 40 million customers’ orders with same-day delivery. That was 25% more than in its fiscal third quarter the prior year, CEO Andy Jassy said at the time.
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