UPS weighs penalties on retailers with overload of boxes

DALLAS » UPS might levy surcharges or even turn away some holiday shipments this year if retailers surprise the delivery giant by dropping off more packages than they had planned. UPS executives discussed the possibilities Friday as they detailed plans for improving on last holiday season, when many consumers didn’t get their packages by Christmas as promised.

Online shopping is growing faster than the store-based kind. That’s good for United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp., and UPS predicted Friday that December shipments will rise 11 percent over the same month last year.

Last year a surge in late orders overwhelmed them and resulted in an estimated 2 million express packages missing their Christmas Eve delivery deadlines. About 1.3 million of those were UPS packages, according to tracking- software firm ShipMatrix Inc., which said the retailers were at fault about 70 percent of the time for over-promising on last-minute guaranteed deliveries.