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FedEx, UPS Struggle to Keep Up With Holiday Deliveries

“And that goal is to get all those letters and cars and packages home by the holidays”.

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A record breaking Cyber Monday could also impact your package arriving on time. Packages shipped using that service will even be delivered on Christmas day. Hundreds of major retailers will offer free shipping on every order, with no minimum requirements. If you ship with UPS, Friday, December 18th is the deadline for your gifts to arrive by Christmas, without paying for more than 3 day shipping. Take advantage of this year’s free shipping day, which falls on December 18th.

Nationwide, the United States Postal Service predicts delivering more than 600 million packages over the holiday season.

For standard mail to be received by Dec. 25, the post office says it must be mailed by Dec. 15; first class mail by Dec. 19; priority mail by Dec. 21. Those with the fastest fulfillment included Amazon footwear subsidiary Zappos (delivery time: one day); Lowe’s (delivery time: two days); and Amazon itself (delivery time: three days).

Most delivery companies allow you to register for delivery alerts so you’ll know when your packages really are coming and can arrange to be there or have a neighbor grab them off your porch before a crook does.

If you have a very last-minute gift idea or wake up panicked on the big day itself that you forgot to ship your presents, only FedEx offers same-day shipping and delivery for Christmas Day.

FedEx (NYSE:FDX) and UPS (NYSE:UPS) are struggling to keep up with holiday deliveries this year.

Finally, a $500 50-inch television purchased online at Walmart the day before Thanksgiving was never delivered.

“Our goal is to make sure that you get the delivery”, said Dando.

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Another delivery of a gift basket ordered through Amazon around Thanksgiving missed its Prime two-day delivery promise by eight days. With more distribution points and packages per order, but less revenue from shipping (only 10 percent still charge a fee), merchants are facing higher-than-ever fulfillment costs.

Order early to get your presents delivered on time