FedEx Corp. FDX +0.46% and United Parcel Service Inc. have largely kept up with the record onslaught of packages since Thanksgiving, though that is in part because of efforts to lighten their loads.
Rather than risk having their systems clogged with packages, both FedEx and UPS UPS -0.26% are holding a harder line by enforcing a preset limit on the daily number of packages they will pick up. The policy is creating backlogs in some of the shippers’ warehouses, affecting retailers as large as Costco Wholesale Corp. down to small- and medium-size companies.