Services
UPS, FedEx and Postal Service Have Last Shipping Day on December 23 (Mostly)
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It’s tough to beat the free holiday shipping offers from nearly every online retailer, but there are still plenty of U.S. shoppers that still like to hit the retail shops, buy a gift, take it home, wrap it and then send it on its merry way.
The holiday season is the busiest time of year for package delivery services (no surprise there), as they have to deal with packages sent directly from retailers as well as those from individuals. And it seems that every year there is a small percentage of packages that just don’t make it on time.
Because there are so many packages, however, that small percentage translates in millions of packages. In 2015, for example, the U.S. Postal Service estimated that it would handle 600 million packages between Thanksgiving and the end of December. Even if just 0.5% were late, that works out to 3 million unhappy gift givers.
We noted earlier the shipping dates being offered by some online retailers  that guarantee delivery to last-minute shoppers that further clog the system at peak delivery times. The obvious moral to the story is to ship packages as early as possible.
Here is a list of deadlines for each of the three major package delivery services in the United States compiled by BestBlackFriday.com, a consumer retail website. For exact rates, visit the shipper’s website.
FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX):
United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS):
U.S. Postal Service:
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