UPS has told drivers to stop picking up packages from some large retailers as the holiday shipping season picks up.
According to The Wall Street Journal, drivers received a memo that told them "no exceptions."
This short-term measure includes retailers such as Gap, L.L. Bean, Hot Topic, Nike, Macy's and electronics company Newegg.
"UPS continues to work closely with our largest customers to steer volume to capacity and ensure the UPS network is reliable for all customers," the company said in a statement to Business Insider. "This collaboration includes specific capacity allocations last weekend and throughout the holiday season.
UPS added it has "20 new facilities and 14 additional aircraft for the peak season, and have also expanded our weekend operations and significantly improved the speed of our ground delivery network," in order to help support the holiday surge.
Due to an increased demand for shipping items this year, there will be an estimated 7 million surplus packages carriers simply won't have capacity for.
In order to help offset this influx of packages, retailers have set earlier deadlines for guaranteed holiday shipping.
On top of setting capacity limits earlier, major carriers such as UPS, FedEx and the United States Postal Service began implementing holiday surcharges at higher and broader rates than previous years.
This news comes right on the heels of Cyber Monday, which has been described as the biggest shopping day ever, according to Adobe, as reported by CNBC.
Overall, this has been a record year for shipping providers, who have faced increased stress on their operations as the coronavirus pandemic keeps consumers at home and has led to more online shopping. In the second quarter of 2020, UPS alone was shipping 21 million packages a day.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider
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