Parcel express carriers collectively ensured Christmas presents were placed under the tree in a timely manner last month, according to data issued today by ShipMatrix, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based SJ Consulting.
For the parcel peak season, which ShipMatrix defines as from December 1-December 31, the firm said that on-time performance (OTP) for FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Service (USPS), based on their actual commit times, saw annual improvements, at 95.3%, 97.2%, and 94.1%, respectively. ShipMatrix explained that these gains were paced by ‘capacity being in excess of demand with many new players in the market.” For the same period in 2024, OTP performance for FedEx, UPS, and USPS was at 91.8%, 96.5%, and 90.4%.
In looking at the difference between FedEx and UPS OTP, ShipMatrix President Satish Jindel noted that is partly a function of differences in commit times during peak, with FedEx having commit times of 12 noon or earlier moved 90 minutes, from 10:30 AM to 12 noon and 12 noon to 1:30 PM. And UPS moved its 12 noon or earlier time definite commitments to 3 PM, with UPS subsequently having a higher overnight express service OTP. What’s more, Jindel added that, for Ground service, UPS added an extra day to more lanes than FedEx, which had the impact of packages that would be late per FedEx commitment to be on time for UPS.
“It is also worth highlighting that OTP for Ground Advantage service of the Postal Service in 2025 compared very favorably to that of Ground services of FedEx and UPS, and its rapid growth in volume surpassed the volume of Parcel Select for the first time in many years,” said Jindel. “And, its Priority Mail service was the major contributor in a lower overall OTP and decline in volume. In addition, even with a shorter peak period in 2025, the parcel industry delivered about 2.3 billion parcels for a 5 percent increase over peak of 2024 and consist with the previous forecast by SMx on September 29, 2025.”
