12 % more packages…
317 million packages is a 12.4 % increase than in the same month last year. “eCommerce’s growth and the changed consumer behaviour keep driving up our volumes. According to E-commerce Europa, 15 % of citizens in the European Unions has bought services or goods on a foreign website, a 25 % increase compared to last year”, FedEx’ Vice President Operations Southern Europe, Alain Chaillé, said.
To handle this number of packages, the company will hire 55,000 temporary employees on top of the 16,000 employees it currently has. It also has more than 3,000 vehicles, 39 planes and 327 agencies across Europe. “Over the course of the year, we have taken several precautions, both worldwide and in Europe, to handle this increased seasonal peak smoothly for all our customers”, Chaillé assures.
FedEx already started processing packages that have a relatively low added value, like Christmas decorations, back in July. In September and October, more valuable items were sent because plenty of stores start stocking up on products then and with the holiday season closing in, the number of valuable packages (like household devices) sent to retail and consumers also increased.
… and 5 % more turnover last quarter
The American express delivery service also divulged excellent quarterly results yesterday. Second quarter turnover for its broken fiscal year grew 5 % to 12.5 billion dollars (some 11.5 billion euro) and the company now looks forward to finalizing the acquisition of Dutch TNT.
Net profit grew 4 % to 691 million dollars (some 636 million euro), while operational profit reached 1.1 billion dollars (1 billion euro).
