By Robert Wright

UPS plans to add up to 40.000 persons to its staff in order to cover the activity peak that occurs at end of the year. That way, the package delivery service made clear its’ decision to avoid the serious congestion that caused delays during such an important season in 2013.

The company assured that it is planning to hire between 90.000 and 95.000 workers for the Christmas season, compared to the 55.000 people hired last year. Furthermore, a large part of the temporary staff will have the opportunity to become permanent employees.

During 2013 Christmas, there was such chaos in the UPS delivery system that some packages – for example packages sent through the online sales website, Amazon-, arrived with strong delays. This year the company reduced its profit prediction in July as it increased the capital investment in order to avoid the problems suffered by the ends of last year.

Electronic commerce grows immensely during the festivities in many places around the world. In the United Kingdom, Royal Mail has also started to hire workers for the Christmas season. Next week, the delivery group listed in the London stock exchange, will announce its plans to hire 20.000 people, a similar number to the one of last year.

UPS hiring additional employees is part of a set of measures that includes more collaboration with big clients over the probable volumes, more investment on flexible processing capacity and better informational technology.

As deliveries to particular consumers are representing a larger portion of the activity, electronic commerce is transforming the business model of UPS as well as of its rival, FedEx, and of other companies in the industry. When the destination is companies, deliveries are easier to handle.

Source: Financial Time