Winter weather causes delays for FedEx holiday shipments

Christmas came late for some FedEx customers this year as the company scrambled to handle inclement weather in the Midwestern United States and record e-commerce orders.    Christmas came late for some FedEx customers this year.
   The parcel delivery company struggled to deliver all of its orders in time for the holidays and had drivers working extra shifts on Christmas day to help temper the effects of winter weather in the Midwestern United States and record online shopping volumes.
   Heavy storms reportedly affected operations at FedEx’s primary U.S. air hub in Memphis, Tenn. in the days leading up to Christmas Eve, one of the busiest times of the year for domestic shipping companies.
   “FedEx is operating with slight delays this morning, but we are continuing to make adjustments and do everything we can to minimize impact on our customers,” a FedEx spokesperson wrote in an email to the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 24.
   FedEx said on Friday, Dec. 25 employees in its Express division worked extra shifts on a volunteer basis to help lessen customer disruption and the company also opened some local offices on Christmas to allow customers to pick up packages that had not yet been delivered.
   “FedEx Express continues to run limited delivery operations in some markets to deliver shipments that couldn’t be delivered before Christmas due to unforeseen volume and severe weather in some areas of the country,” the spokesperson added Friday.
   FedEx has declined to comment on how widespread the disruptions were or how many packages were delayed. The company noted it has made similar Christmas day deliveries in each of the past six years, so the practice isn’t entirely surprising.
   Shipping companies have been handling a record number of e-commerce shipments this holiday season as consumers did even more of their shopping online than ever before. FedEx archrival UPS, however, said on Christmas Eve its operations had not been affected by the storms and it finished nearly all its deliveries by 8 p.m. that night.
   FedEx hasn’t issued an official statement about the delays, but some customers have taken to social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to voice their displeasure.
   Stock in FedEx has dropped around 2.3 percent on the news, falling from $150.77 per share at close of trading on Dec. 23 to $147.23 as of 11 a.m. today.