WLWT: Shipping companies encourage early holiday orders
UC supply chain expert Chuck Sox discusses the logistical challenges of this year's holiday season
With the holidays less than a month out, the chances of gifts purchased online arriving on-time diminish with each passing day.
With online ordering at an all-time high because of the coronavirus pandemic, shipping companies such as UPS and DHL are busier than ever. WLWT-5 reporter Todd Dykes talked to Chuck Sox, associate dean of impact and partnerships in the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business, to see if pandemic-related package delays will cause online orders to not arrive on time this holiday season.
Sox, an expert on supply chains, told Dykes when the virus caused more people than ever to shop online last spring, shipping companies like DHL, UPS and FedEx had to adjust to the unexpected e-commerce surge.
"Companies have hopefully worked out a lot of those bugs," Sox told Dykes.
"Sox said shoppers also have more ways to get the stuff they order online, including picking packages up safely at a store," Dykes said. "He credits retailers and shippers for scrambling to meet the new, COVID-19-related concerns of customers."
Featured image: Claudio Schwarz/Unsplash
Related Stories
New vending machine helps people with addiction
October 8, 2026
The University of Cincinnati's Daniel Arendt was featured in a Spectrum News report on a new harm reduction vending machine installed at the IPM Food Pantry in partnership with the Hamilton County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.
UC study correlates increased physical activity with slower Parkinson’s progression
October 7, 2026
Higher levels of physical activity were associated with slower declines in thinking and memory as well as slower worsening of movement symptoms for people with Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study led by University of Cincinnati researchers published Oct. 7, 2026, in Neurology.
Defying the demographic cliff
October 7, 2026
Despite the looming demographic cliff, the University of Cincinnati and five other major Greater Cincinnati universities grew enrollment this fall, with UC reaching a record 54,437 students, helped by strong first-year demand.