How Many Packages Are Shipped in the United States?
How Many Packages Are Shipped Daily in the United States?
By: Packola | Jun 14, 2024
More than 36 million packages are being shipped daily in America. USPS alone processes 23.8 million packages daily while UPS delivers 24.3 million packages per day and Fed Ex averages 16.5 million.
What seemed almost impossible and considered expensive decades ago is now a part of our everyday lives. Shipping packages throughout the mainland U.S. now happens at a significantly fast rate and in large volumes. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say that being able to ship your products fast is a prerequisite for businesses to be successful today—especially when they’re trying to expand their reach beyond their local distribution channels.
E-commerce, of course, is at the forefront of this rapid growth in parcel delivery volumes. Consumers want their packages to be delivered quickly and safely to their doorsteps. This is the main reason why businesses today demand speedy and low-cost package shipping services to meet the needs of their customers. As a result, millions of packages are being shipped daily to American households at dizzying speeds.
Exponential Growth Year After Year
In 2021, approximately 21.5 billion packages were shipped in the United States, marking a significant increase from previous years. By 2022, this number rose to about 22.7 billion packages, indicating a steady year-on-year growth rate of around 5.6%.
During the peak season of 2022, from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day, the volume of packages shipped reached an astonishing 4 billion. This surge is partly attributed to the continued rise of eCommerce and shifts in consumer behavior, even post-pandemic. The ongoing trend shows that more consumers are shopping online, leading to higher demand for parcel delivery services. This shift is not only a result of the pandemic but also due to the convenience and variety offered by online shopping, prompting more small businesses to adopt eCommerce strategies.
New Player in the Field of Packaging Delivery
The logistical challenges brought by the pandemic on top of the surge in online shopping has put so much pressure on retailers. But more so on delivery services such as the USPS, FedEx, and UPS.
This was an opportunity that Amazon didn’t pass up. 2020 was a year for the online retail giant to beef up its own delivery network: Amazon Logistics. The company hired 275,000 full-time and part-time workers and even added 100,000 seasonal workers last December to keep up with the increasing demand according to a report by the New York Times. As of now, Amazon delivers at least 67% of its own package volume. Their next goal is to bump up that figure to 85% by the end of 2022.
To show how much Amazon Logistics has grown in the last few years, the company delivered 1.9 billion packages in the United States in 2019—which is a 155% year-on-year growth when compared to its parcel delivery volume in 2018. This netted Amazon with over 53.7 billion U.S. dollars in revenue worldwide.
It’s exciting to imagine what the future holds for packaging. Will Amazon’s drone deliveries be the norm rather than the exception? Will forwarders find even more ways to make the shipping faster and more streamlined? Only time will tell.
