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Analysts Say You Should Expect Delays on Your UPS and FedEx Holiday Packages

Lucinda Shen
By
Lucinda Shen
Lucinda Shen
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Lucinda Shen
By
Lucinda Shen
Lucinda Shen
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December 13, 2016, 5:50 PM ET
Fed-Ex Names December 10th "Busiest Day" In Its History
Joe Raedle Getty Images

After drawing the ire of consumers in 2015 for failing to deliver some holiday packages on time, UPS and FedEx hired tens of thousands of seasonal employees to match the winter shopping rush.

Still, that hasn’t been enough, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In fact, both companies have underestimated the holiday shipping season demand, resulting in the delay of million of online orders placed since Thanksgiving, according to the Journal.

In general, both companies deliver ground packages on time 98% to 99% of the time, according to ShipMatrix, a software company that analyzes millions of packages.

But last week, on-time deliveries for UPS(UPS) ground packages fell slightly, to 96.3%, while on-time FedEx (FDX) ground deliveries slid to 96.9%. Granted, that is better than how both companies did in the same week last year when about 95% of packages were delivered on time.

Fortune has reached out to both companies for comment.

Previously, when responding to a different data set from ShipMatrix that showed an unusually high volume of delays in UPS’s holiday shipments, UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told Fortune that it doesn’t validate the company’s data “because there are too many ways that measurement methodologies can vary.”

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Lucinda Shen
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