UPS Inc. has pushed back its delivery commitment times for Next Day Air service to certain residential locations to noon from 10:30 a.m., effective October 18, the company said in a note on its website.
The change will remain in effect until further notice, UPS (NYSE:UPS) said. It is unclear when the note was posted.
The affected residential locations will be those with “typical” delivery times of 10:30 a.m., UPS said. All service guarantees will be based on the revised delivery commitment times, UPS said.
On April 5, UPS reinstated money-back guarantees on next-day air delivery services in the U.S. after suspending them in late March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has not reinstated money-back guarantees on all of its products.
UPS, along with other parcel-delivery companies, is coping with pressures on its network due to the increasing demands for e-commerce orders and deliveries. The company was not available to comment on the reasons behind the decision.
Demand for business-to-consumer (B2C) deliveries is likely to put carriers under tremendous strain this holiday peak season. It is expected that the volume of packages requiring delivery each day during peak season will exceed total network capacity by 4.7 million. Though this would be less than 2020’s total of approximately 7 million, the supply deficit will still be challenging.
In an email Monday, Trevor Outman, founder and co-CEO of parcel consultancy Shipware LLC, said 2021’s peak will likely be worse than 2020 for parcel deliveries, with retailers, carriers and consumers all significantly affected. Outman cited the massive backlogs at West Coast ports and labor shortages up and down the supply chain. Problems that existed in 2020, such as escalating delivery surcharges, lack of capacity and already erratic delivery reliability, will be present during this peak as well, Outman said.