The UPS Store in Audubon, PA, is dedicated to providing the local community with the best shipping and packing services, especially during times of uncertainty. As schedules are upended by COVID-19 challenges, Audubon’s local UPS Store and UPS Stores across the country strive to be a haven for reliable services that customers and small business owners can trust.
USPS Delivery Delays in Pennsylvania and Across the Nation
When COVID-19 became a national concern in the early months of 2020, few suspected that the pandemic would continue to affect events as far off as Christmas. Yet, the virus persisted, and by the time Christmas arrived, Americans were still practicing social distancing, spending more time at home, and avoiding unnecessary public outings. As a result, many chose to purchase Christmas presents, holiday decor, and festive accessories from online retailers rather than take the risk of shopping at a brick-and-mortar location.
According to Criteo.com, four out of ten US shoppers planned to purchase more products online during the 2020 holiday season than they did during the 2019 holiday season. Digital Commerce 360 notes that “global digital orders continued to grow after Cyber Monday (Nov. 30), peaking to 71% growth year over year on Dec. 5 before slowing down on Dec. 7.”
Now, at the start of 2021, the effect of this unprecedented rise in online purchases has become apparent, especially as it relates to the ability of the United States Postal Service to deliver packages and mail on time. The USPS was swamped, not only by an excess of online orders but also by the need to process mail-in ballots for the 2020 election. This convergence of online holiday shopping and mail-in voting, coupled with cost-cutting endeavors and sick employees, has led to delivery delays that are still felt into 2021.
The USPS’s struggle to recover to a timely delivery schedule is no secret. The USPS website prominently displays an alert that reads, “USPS is experiencing unprecedented volume increases and limited employee availability due to the impacts of COVID-19.” Consumers across the United States have experienced the frustration of waiting for that long-overdue Christmas present, or more troublingly, for the medication that did not arrive on schedule. ROIRevolution reports that “36% of consumers have experienced substantial shipping delays due to COVID-19.”
Like the rest of the country, Pennsylvania has experienced its fair share of delivery delays. A December 18 article from The Philadelphia Inquirer described a major back-up for the state’s USPS facilities. “Facilities across the region are so full of packages, there is barely enough room to walk, employees in Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley, and South Jersey said. In Allentown, about 10 trailers filled with mail are sitting in the parking lot, with no room to unload the items. In Philadelphia, there are packages dated from before Thanksgiving scattered across the facility, employees said. Last week, a miles-long caravan of dozens of delivery trucks filled with mail waited for hours outside the Southwest Philadelphia site because there was no room to unload the parcels.”
How UPS and The UPS Store Provide an Efficient Shipping and Delivery Process
In light of USPS shipping delays and the continued disruptive impact of coronavirus, UPS and local UPS Stores are committed to ensuring that customers can rely on the company for a streamlined and smooth shipping and delivery process.
To prepare for the holiday rush from October 2020 to January 2021, UPS announced in September of 2020 that it planned to hire over 100,000 employees in order to rise to the challenge of delivering holiday packages. Chief Human Resources Officer Charlene Thomas said, “We’re preparing for a record peak holiday season. The COVID-19 pandemic has made our services more important than ever. We plan to hire over 100,000 people for UPS’s seasonal jobs, and anticipate a large number will move into permanent roles after the holidays.”
In addition, The UPS Store secured the number three spot on Entrepreneur’s 2021 Franchise 500 Ranking. The UPS Store’s corporate leadership was preparing for COVID-19 in the early stages of the coronavirus crisis, and The UPS Store President Tim Davis emphasizes that they did “scenario planning and created consistent guidelines and messaging for all our stores, even when there was a lot of misinformation running around.” Entrepreneur credits this preparation with The UPS Store’s ability to meet the challenges of the pandemic, writing, “The effort helped franchisees adopt new safety protocols on the fly, and the company managed to add 130 new stores even while rolling out a redesign and adapting to a surge in pandemic-related shipping.”
To learn more about shipping services in Audubon, PA, contact The UPS Store in Audubon, PA, by phone at (610) 650-8114 or by email at store2447@theupsstore.com.
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