toledoblade.com --

PITTSBURGH - The chilly warehouse in Aleppo, Pa., had neither Christmas lights outside nor holiday tunes playing inside. Yet the boxes being sorted next to rows of white FedEx Corp. vehicles would have made a spiffy pile under someone's tree.

In addition to personal computers and live plants were boxes from Petco, Doctors Foster and Smith, L.L. Bean, Pampered Chef, Wine Country Gift Baskets, and a distinctive one covered in pictures of the hot new Rock Band video game.

"More and more, the economy is going to an online type of economy, and that's good for us," Vince Hamilton, vice president of FedEx Home Delivery, told drivers assembled for bagels before they rushed off with their loads. "That's what you're geared up to do."

Enabling the growing U.S. online shopping habit means coping with weather, rising fuel costs, messed-up labels, and even heavily decorated homes where wreaths and garlands obscure the house numbers.

The phenomenon takes place across the country - the FedEx Home division alone works out of about 300 facilities - but each market faces its own speed bumps.

Two snowfalls in the Pittsburgh area last week during morning rush hour triggered calls to extra drivers and fewer stops for trucks that would be slowed by the slick conditions.

No matter the weather, the goal for shipping companies is saving time and fuel - and avoiding putting too many boxes aside as undeliverable.

At the Sewickley, Pa., site, drivers line up each delivery day to pick up individual reports generated by a computer tracking system that can plot the day's stops "turn by turn."

High fuel prices have made such systems more critical than ever. The U.S. Postal Service estimates that every one-cent-a-gallon increase costs it $8 million a day. Both UPS and FedEx have warned of fuel surcharges coming soon.

Anything that can smooth the flow from mouse click to delivery is prized.

That includes the guy at the FedEx warehouse taping up the child's kitchen set that had come open and might jam the conveyor belt, as well as efforts to get new housing developments' information before it turns up on local maps.

At this time of year, schedules are extra tight. On a typical summer day, the 70,000-square-foot FedEx home center might set up 45 bins to sort out small packages, said Karin Tanny, senior manager of FedEx Home Delivery. This week, she said, the team may use 75 bins and empty each one two or three times daily.

Looking at the piles ready to go into the trucks, it's not clear which packages originated from online shoppers.

But tracking firm comScore Inc. reported that Dec. 6 produced $803 million in online sales, a 28 percent increase from a year ago and the heaviest online spending day on record.

Two-thirds of online retailers have set ground shipping deadlines on or before Dec. 18 for those trying to get packages delivered by Dec. 25, according to a survey by industry group Shop.org and online price comparison firm Shopzilla. Free standard shipping offers begin to expire this week.

Memphis-based FedEx is gearing up to move a record 11.3 million packages on Monday.

That same day, the Postal Service expects to handle close to a billion cards, letters, catalogs, magazines, and packages. Two days later, UPS planners are bracing for their biggest day with deliveries of more than 250 packages a second.

Those three businesses combined have hired 80,000 seasonal workers to help get it all out.

The Block news alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Teresa F. Lindeman is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.

Permanent Link