Parcel service gets organised early

UPS wants to stay ahead of the rush this year. Photo / Getty Images

UPS is expecting an 11 per cent jump in December shipments as the holiday shopping season heats up.

The company is hiring up to 95,000 people to handle the tremendous volume this year, way up from the 55,000 seasonal workers it hired in 2013.

Major US shipping companies were caught off guard last year after an increasing number of Americans bought gifts online and shipped them at the last minute. Membership for Amazon.com spiked in the weeks before the holidays because of its free-shipping benefits, and traditional retailers who saw their sales take a hit followed suit with their own free-shipping programmes.

UPS was forced to hire an additional 30,000 people just to keep up, but it was too late and some deliveries did not make it until after Christmas.

UPS is doing everything it can to stay ahead of the rush this year, and chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn says the company is confident that it will operate at the highest level.

UPS also reported third-quarter earnings of US$1.32 a share on revenue of US$14.29 billion.

The stock rose US$1.22 to US$101.70.

UPS delivered 1.1 billion packages worldwide in the quarter, a 6.9 per cent increase from the prior-year period.

The company's daily packages in the US also climbed 6.9 per cent thanks to increased demand from business-to-business and business-to-consumer customers. International export shipments rose 9.4 per cent on strong growth in Asia and Europe.

Big delivery

*95,000 extra UPS staff over the holidays.
*1.1 billion packages delivered worldwide in the past three months.
*6.9 per cent up on last year.