12.24.14 In October the president of U.S. operations for UPS, Myron Gray, said that if retailers exceed their shipping quotas, UPS might “mute what they are giving to us.” The company’s chief commercial officer, Alan Gershenhorn, said there could be surcharges. Asked to clarify the remarks, UPS officials said they would first work with retailers to reschedule unexpected shipments but might have to turn some away. Surcharges would be possible for shipments that force UPS to hire more truck drivers or reserve airfreight capacity, they said.

Last year, a surge in late orders overwhelmed UPS and Fedex that resulted in an estimated 2 million express packages missing their Christmas Eve delivery deadlines. About 1.3 million of those were UPS packages, according to tracking-software firm ShipMatrix Inc., which said the retailers were at fault about 70 percent of the time for overpromising on last-minute guaranteed deliveries.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

Sorry, last-minute holiday shoppers.

United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. started capping air express deliveries in recent days after an 11th-hour increase in packages caused some retailers to exceed agreed-upon limits, according to people briefed on the situation.

Tom Barone, the vice president of North American operations for eBay Enterprise, which handles shipping and other logistical issues for close to 100 brands and retailers, said delivery companies had asked Tuesday for his clients to scale back last-minute shopping

Surging online shopping over the holidays fueled by offers of free shipping and deep discounts tests the limits of the infrastructure—planes, trucks and sorting hubs—used to deliver the gifts to tens of millions of homes in neighborhoods from Miami to Seattle.

Some customers had already experienced delays. Rob Whitemore ordered eight items on Dec. 20 using Amazon.com Inc. ’s two-day shipping guarantee for members of its Prime service. As of Monday, the 65-year-old project engineer said five of those items were still stuck in an Amazon facility in Kenosha, Wis., about 80 miles from his home. Amazon handed it off to the U.S. Postal Service for delivery, and the tracking number says it was delivered today.