Logistics groups are investing in technology and expanding capacity to help meet soaring demand via online retailing and business-to-business ordering.

On the ground floor of United Parcel Service’s $2.2bn Worldport Hub, workers are stuffing into huge airfreight containers some of the roughly 1.1m packages that the centre in Louisville, Kentucky, handles every night.

Most of the containers have sped through Worldport’s maze of whirring conveyor belts and been reloaded in less than four hours. At 2.30am, some of the 100 or so flights that will carry the packages around the US and the world are starting to leave.

Amid the dazzling efficiency, however, is evidence of the significant challenge that UPS and FedEx, its main US rival, are facing. Many of the boxes bear the logo of Zappos.com, the internet footwear retailer. Another box contains frozen artificial skin for use in surgery, while one bears the simple legend, “Live Tropical Fish”.

Online retailing and business-to-business ordering are driving up traffic volumes for both #UPS and #FedEx but also making flows harder to predict.

UPS and FedEx invest in technology to meet soaring demand #USPS