Whats in Store for Santa This Christmas Eve?

With Christmas Eve fast approaching, Santa must be nearly all loaded up and ready to go. He will have his sleigh ready and his route planned. But just how big a task does he actually have?

There are approximately 1.8 billion children aged under 15 in the world, of which around 630 million are of a religion that celebrates Christmas.





Globally, the average number of children per family is 2.33. This equates to over 270 million homes that Santa has to visit.




Using the UK average of children receiving 16 gifts each, Santa's sleigh would have to carry 10.08 billion parcels.




If we work on the fact that every gift was the size of a small parcel, which according to Royal Mail is 45cm x 35cm x 16cm, they would fill 7.7 million average 20ft shipping containers, enough to fill 400 of the world's largest container ship MSC Oscar.

In terms of weight, if we again use Royal Mail's average weight of a small parcel - 2kg, the total payload of Santa's sleigh at the start of his journey would be 20.16 million tonnes.

Once Santa has loaded his cargo and we work on the fact he has around 31 hours to deliver it all due to time zones and the rotation of the earth, this would mean he would have to visit 2,420 homes per second to be finished on time.






If we assumed that homes were evenly distributed across the land surface area of the globe (which we know is not the case but use it for this calculation), each home would be 0.46 miles apart.

This would mean that, not including times for drop offs, mince pie eating, brandy swigging etc. Santa's reindeer's would have to be travelling at 1,113 miles per second - 5,200 times the speed of sound, to get the job done.

No Problem!

If you want to help Santa out and get your parcels delivered for him, visit our website and get a quote now to send to your chosen destination.

Last Collection Dates for Delivery by Christmas 2016

Christmas is once again upon us and courier companies have hit their busiest time of the year. Getting your gifts to your loved ones before the big day can be a massive headache so making sure you get them on their way on time is essential.

Avoid those lengthy post office queues and enjoy huge discounts on a range of services with Transglobal Express. With services available from UPS, DHL, DPD, TNT, USPS and FedEx at much reduced costs.

To find out the recommended last delivery dates for the services we provide, please take a look at our handy guide below and click on the relevant link.

    No schedule available. Please use the UPS transit time calculator.

   See DHL Christmas Collection Dates 2016 (DHL Express only) or use    the DHL transit time calulator.

     See TNT 2016 Christmas Schedule or the TNT transit timecalculator.

See  DPD 2016 Christmas Schedule (PDF).

 
          No schedule available. Please allow up to 11 working days.

   See the DHL schedule or transit times calculator for dates/times from        our warehouse. Please add 1 - 2 working days if using out TNT                collection service.

   Please use the FedEx transit times calculator for times from our                warehouse. Please add 1 - 2 working days if using our TNT collection      service.



One thing to remember is that although most transit times won't be affected, we always strongly recommend allowing up to 1 extra working day due to high volume around the festive period.

Please also be aware that if you haven't got a printer you will require us to send you your labels and documents in the post so please allow time for postage.

Christmas is almost here. How are couriers coping with the last-minute demand this year?

In 2013, international couriers UPS and FedEx hit the news when they struggled to cope with seasonal demands, leading to millions of delayed parcel deliveries and a lot of angry customers.

Much of the blame was levelled at online retailers, who had heavily encouraged last-minute shopping—including Amazon, who promised Christmas delivery for orders placed as late as 11pm on December 23rd.

Last year things got better, but there was still room for improvement. So how have UPS and FedEx been attempting to cope with demand this year?

Temporary workers

UPS had added 55,000 temporary workers in 2013; FedEx, 25,000. In 2015, UPS recruited a staggering 95,000 seasonal workers, while FedEx upped their recruitment to 55,000.

Free shipping day

Many major retailers declared December 18th 'Free Shipping Day', waiving shipping fees on all online orders. Encouraged to do this by UPS and FedEx, the aim was to get customers to do their shopping earlier on to avoid the bottleneck immediately before Christmas.

Sophisticated technology

UPS is using a smart routing technology called Orion to manage up to 70% of the company's delivery routes within the U.S. The algorithmic technology analyses over 200,000 options for each 120-stop route, then selects the most efficient one. UPS saved up to 6-8 miles per route last year using this technology.

FedEx are using six-sided “scanning tunnels”, which can track weight and dimensions, make sorting decisions, and reduce human input and error.

Large scale operation

Worldport, UPS' sorting hub in Louiseville, Kentucky, has 155 miles' worth of conveyor belts. The facility is the size of 90 American football fields, and a plane lands every 60 seconds to unload goods.

UPS has 38,000 containers that hold 400 packages apiece, which are rolled across the floor and onto planes. 416,000 packages are signed every hour. It takes a package 13 minutes to make its way through the facility.

UPS expects to deliver 630 million packages overall this year.

So how will it go? We'll find out over the next day or two. It's a huge operation for both UPS and FedEx, but they seem to be pulling out all of the stops to deal with Christmas demand.

Sending a parcel with Transglobal Express? Stay apprised of our Christmas schedule.