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Parcel carriers made good on peak delivery commitments, ShipMatrix says

Consultancy reports more capacity, flat demand gave carriers breathing room

UPS figured out a way to navigate through a difficult fourth quarter. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

The nation’s three leading parcel-delivery carriers performed well during the peak holiday shipping season, aided by programs to expand delivery capacity and flat year-over-year consumer demand, a leading consultancy said Thursday.

According to ShipMatrix, which has tracked peak-season parcel delivery activity for years, UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) hit its delivery commitments 97.5% of the time between the Black Friday holiday and Christmas Eve. FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) came in at 95.2% and U.S. Postal Service at 94.3%.

The carriers’ performance was better than in 2021, when capacity was tighter and demand much stronger, ShipMatrix said. UPS hit its delivery commitments 96.9% of the time, and the U.S. Postal Service came in at 96.5%. FedEx, whose ground-delivery unit struggled with worker shortages at its hub operations, brought up the rear at 88.2%.

The Arctic cold blast during the final days of the peak cycle caused 10 million parcels to not arrive by Christmas Eve. However, those volumes are not included in the performance figures because the delays are considered to be out of the carriers’ control.


The carriers delivered more than 3 billion parcels during the 2022 peak period, about the same as in 2021, according to ShipMatrix. 

Delivery levels in the 2022 peak season improved due to carrier investments in more capacity. In addition, consumers didn’t buy as many goods online in 2020 and ’21 as they returned more to stores and spent more on services.

ShipMatrix also noted that consumers were also constrained by higher inflation, which impacted their disposable income.


Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.