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FedEx announces holiday shipping deadlines

Postal Service also has set deadlines but UPS has yet to do so

Mark Solomon
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FedEx announces its holiday shipping deadlines (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) disclosed on Tuesday its holiday shipping deadlines for domestic packages that need to arrive on or before Christmas Eve, which this year falls on Sunday.

Customers using FedEx Ground, the company’s U.S. ground delivery business, will need to ship by Dec. 20 if they choose two-day shipping, the company said. Customers using FedEx Home Delivery, the company’s residential delivery operation, will need to ship by Dec. 21 for two-day shipping. Parcels tendered to FedEx Ground for one-day shipping must ship by Dec. 21. For Home Delivery, the deadline is Dec. 22.

For three-day shipping on FedEx Ground, parcels must be shipped by Dec. 19. On Home Delivery, the deadline is Dec. 20.

For FedEx Ground Economy, which operates under the slowest transit times, parcels must be shipped by Dec. 13, FedEx said.


Shipments tendered to FedEx Express, FedEx’s air and international unit, for next-day delivery must ship by Dec. 21, though parcels can be shipped by Dec. 22 if Saturday delivery is requested. Packages moving in second-day delivery services must ship by Dec. 20, FedEx said.

Packages shipped via FedEx Freight, the company’s LTL unit, must ship by Dec. 21 if the customer requests one-day delivery under FedEx Freight’s priority service, which offers more expedited deliveries than the unit’s Economy service. Customers opting for two-day shipping must ship out their parcels by Dec. 21.

Shippers using the unit’s Economy service must arrange for shipping no later than Dec. 12 to ensure deliveries on or before Christmas Eve.

Last week, the U.S. Postal Service announced that holiday shipments using its Ground Advantage two- to five-day delivery service must ship no later than Dec. 16 to arrive by Christmas Eve. Shipments moving under the Postal Service’s Priority Mail two- to three-day delivery service must ship no later than Dec. 18. Customers using Priority Mail Express, the company’s next-day delivery service, must ship parcels no later than Dec. 20, the Postal Service said.


The schedule applies to shipments moving within the lower 48 states, the Postal Service said.

UPS Inc. (NYSE: UPS) has yet to announce its holiday deadline shipping schedule.

Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.