FedEx expecting the busiest day in its history today

FedEx expected the busiest day in its history today, with shipments up 12 percent from last year's busiest day.

A total of 16 million shipments were expected on Monday, Dec. 13, the company said, up from 14.2 million on the busiest day of 2009.

Holiday shipments are expected to be up 11 percent from 2009, the company said, to about 223.3 million global shipments between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

About 50 percent of the shipment growth today is expected to be in FedEx SmartPost shipments, which are used by online retailers and catalog retailers who ship high volumes of lighter shipments to customers. FedEx Ground shipments today are expected to be up 1.8 million packages.

This week also is expected to be FedEx's busiest week of the year, with more than 63.1 million shipments. That is also projected to be up from last year, when the busiest week brought 57.5 million shipments.

“We are optimistic about the volumes during the holiday shipping season and expect growth to be driven mainly by FedEx SmartPost with U.S. domestic ground packages and global air express shipments contributing to volumes as well,” FedEx Corp. chairman and CEO Frederick Smith said.