FedEx’s Busy Day

“Green Monday” as it is sometimes called, will mark the busiest day of the year -and the busiest day ever – for FedEx. The Express company is expected to ship around 17 million packages today, a volume increase of 9% over its busiest day of 2010 and a jump of nearly 75% on this peak day since 2005.

“Green Monday” was coined as a term by E-bay in 2007, as late shoppers moved to buy their holiday gifts on the second Monday of the month.

This MD-11F (N578FE, msn: 48548) is seen operating FedEx 858 MEM-SEA, but in keeping with increased volume, this has been substituted this week with the 777F – an unusual substitution as SEA has not previously handled the 777F, which is mainly used on long-haul routes. This is only one of many substitutions and additional flights created by the holiday rush at both FedEx and UPS.

Both FedEx and UPS anticipate record December volumes, but traffic in non-express remains down this season. For express shippers, the increasing percentage of shopping done online mitigates any weakness in overall holiday season sales.

Photographer: Alex Kwanten