Hanukkah wasn’t so happy for many who didn’t get their gifts in time. And now Christmas could come late for millions of others who are expecting presents dropped on their doorsteps.
Deliveries nationwide are being slowed by record-breaking online ordering, a Nor’easter, COVID-19 vaccine shipments and workers laid up by the infection, new numbers show.
The delays are serious enough that retailers big and small are warning customers that their packages won’t arrive in time for the holiday.
“People aren’t visiting so they are sending gifts instead,” said Kathleen Deflaun, owner of Manhattan Mailboxes on West 12th Street. “It doesn’t matter if it’s going across the country or from Manhattan to Queens, things get stuck.”
The US Postal Service, FedEx and UPS saw their on-time delivery rates drop in the second week of December, compared with the previous two weeks, according to shipping-technology company ShipMatrix, which analyzed delivery schedules from more than 100,000 shipping locations nationwide.
USPS took the biggest hit for the week of Dec. 6. Mail carriers delivered about 88% of packages on time, compared with 93% for the weeks of Nov. 22 and Nov. 29. FedEx fell from 95% to 94% and UPS slipped only slightly — from 96.3% to 96.1%.
The numbers mean more than 3.5 million parcels are being delivered at least a day late, ShipMatrix said Friday.
This article originally appeared on New York Post
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