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Dec 2, 2020 - Economy & Business

WSJ: UPS orders drivers to stop accepting packages from 6 major retailers

Orion Rummler
A UPS driver sits in his truck

A UPS deliveryperson in Kips Bay, New York City. Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images

UPS ordered drivers to temporarily stop accepting packages from Macy's, Gap, Nike, L.L. Bean and other large retailers this week, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing an internal message confirmed to the Journal by UPS employees.

The big picture: Thanksgiving Day online sales reportedly hit a record $5.1 billion this year, while Americans spent $10.8 billion in e-commerce for Cyber Monday — the biggest U.S. online shopping day ever, per the Washington Post.

  • UPS and FedEx prepared customers for limited capacity over the holiday season, but gift-giving plus homebound pandemic purchases could create a surplus of up to 7 million daily packages from Thanksgiving to Christmas, the WSJ reports.

What they're saying: A UPS spokesman told the WSJ that the company would pick up customer packages after capacity is available again.

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