With continued growth in U.S. ecommerce, shipping carriers are becoming adept at getting packages to homes, businesses and other destinations, according to new data from Parcel Monitor.

A big reason U.S. consumers and businesses are getting most of their packaging on time and undamaged can be traced to increased competition between UPS and FedEx to dominate the ecommerce logistics market, according to Parcel Monitor. Parcel Monitor said it uses data from more than 1.5 million monthly active users, 1,078 global carriers and 63,000 shipping routes for its report metrics.

“In line with the surge in ecommerce, leading logistics carriers like FedEx, USPS, and UPS have enhanced parcel delivery times through optimized routes, infrastructure upgrades, and advanced package tracking technologies,” Parcel Monitor says.

In the first quarter of 2024, FedEx and UPS implemented improvements in their average transit times to 2.08 days and 2.22 days, respectively, Parcel Monitor says. But the U.S. Postal Service faces an average transit time increase to 2.55 days “despite their recent efforts to reduce it,” according to Parcel Monitor.

“U.S. carriers are becoming increasingly adept at managing packages, reducing the incidence of issues that can erode consumer trust,” Parcel Monitor says.

In 2023:

• The issue ratio decreased by 3.6% year-over-year (YoY) to 6.4%.
• The on-time delivery ratio remained stable at 98%.
• The first-attempt delivery success rate improved by 12.2% to 97%.
• Average domestic transit times decreased by 24% to 2.56 days.

Specific transit times for leading U.S. carriers in 2023 include:

• LaserShip (1.44 days)
• OnTrac (1.47 days)
• FedEx (2.15 days)
• USPS (2.26 days)
• UPS (2.35 days)

On-time delivery rates in the fourth quarter of 2023 include:

• UPS (98.5%)
• LaserShip (89.8%)
• USPS (87.1%)
• OnTrac (83.1%)
• FedEx (67.8%)

“In an era where the immediacy of ecommerce transactions demands rapid, reliable logistics, the U.S. has become a battleground for legacy giants striving to dominate the marketplace,” says Parcel Monitor.

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