Editorial: Carriers Enjoy the Gift of Delivery
This Editorial appears in the Dec. 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Like life-giving rain on parched land, the December gift and package season brings joy and happiness to the recipients of holiday-themed freight and necessary sustenance to the people and carriers who deliver it. Our story shows this delightful, time-honored custom continues this year, although there are also some interesting changes in how the work gets done.
As usual, an astounding amount of money — $20.4 billion — was spent by U.S. consumers in stores on Nov. 27, Black Friday, the day retailers supposedly shift their account ledgers to black ink from red because of the deluge of cash. (Pens, ink and paper, wow, how quaint.)
But wait, there’s more! Another $3 billion, or 14.7%, to be precise, as shoppers sneaked in online orders for clothes, electronics and whatever on Nov. 30, a.k.a. Cyber Monday.
Analysts said Cyber Monday is expanding into a multiday event, as many people shopped from home on Saturday and Sunday beforehand, perhaps to avoid excessive crowds at the local mall. As everyone in logistics knows, spreading out the need for assets over a broader time is always a help for those who own and operate them.
The two parcel giants, UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp., still provide the lion’s share of services in the United States, but the U.S. Postal Service is getting a boost from Amazon Inc.
UPS and FedEx have long offered bargain shipping service lines where the private companies pick up packages from shippers and linehaul them to post offices, allowing federal letter carriers to do the last-mile work.
This year, though, Amazon is copying that model and pushing commercial parcel companies aside in many instances. Amazon management reasons their employees can go to the post office just as easily as UPS and FedEx.
This should not be seen as a permanent benefit for the Postal Service, though. Analyst Satish Jindel notes that Amazon is ever inquisitive and experimental. One day it might deploy its own drone-based air force to deliver video games and other goodies.
In general, we endorse competition and ingenuity with great enthusiasm. For now, though, let us enjoy the estimates that this year’s holiday shipping season will be busier than 2014, and that was a pretty good year.
Trucking and other logistics providers can take pride now in earning an honorable living by actually spreading some joy in the lives of their fellow citizens.
