Carriers add new technology for holiday shipping demand

The holiday season is here, and now is the time to send your packages so they can make it under the Christmas tree. 

Carriers like FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service and UPS are ramping up for their peak season. 

“We started planning the holiday season … not even before we had finished last year’s holiday season,” UPS Greensboro Hub Morning Manager Brian Egerton told FOX Business.

The hub says it’s all hands and bots on deck for the millions of packages that get processed there.

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Jotiva Hobbs, UPS engineer for the Carolinas said the company is looking at processing “over 2.5 million packages this year … on a single day.”

Hobbs says each year the facility does an assessment on what went wrong the year before and how to get better.

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When it adds new technology, efficiency improves by 3-5%.

This year, the facility added a camera scanning tunnel that sorts and distributes packages faster.   

There are also automated guided vehicles, or AGVs, to help get larger packages ready for shipment. 

“The AGVs, although they are moving the packages where we used to have the drivers, those drivers may now be assisting another employee,” Egerton said.

There are several UPS facilities that are mostly automated, like the one at West Charlotte UPS.

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Almost every step, from sorting packages to heading out for delivery, is automated. 

There is also a driving simulator to help train new drivers. 

And just like other delivery services, if you’re expecting a package from UPS, you’ll receive a picture when it hits your doorstep. 

“We have our drivers that go out there and not only do they scan the packages upon a delivery, but they take a photo,” said UPS Director of Health and Safety Henry Beards.