Delivery services ready for Cyber Monday boom

GRAYS FERRY (WPVI) -- After what's being called a disappointing holiday weekend at shopping malls across the country, Cyber Monday could take on an added importance.

It is the biggest online shopping day of the year, and that means FedEx and UPS offices are bracing for the onslaught of packages soon to be shipped.

'Tis the season for big numbers of packages to be shipped to the Fed Ex Express station in Grays Ferry.

Items from around the world destined for the Delaware Valley arrive very early in the morning and then go onto Express delivery trucks.

Normally, a driver might have 90 to 100 stops, but this time of year that number can double.

The biggest issue for those of us who fill out shipping labels is to make them legible and complete, and include, if you can, a contact phone number for the recipient.

Ryan Alston from FedEx explained to us what they need, saying, "Proper address, name, all the correct information so that we can get it there to you on time. So, making sure everything is as detailed as possible, and try to ship it as early as possible, if you can."

Last Cyber Monday Amazon says it sold 426 items per second. To speed up things this year Amazon is trying out small orange Kiva robots that zip around some of big fulfillment centers.

Alas, no robots yet at Amazon's local operation in Middletown, Delaware, which employs a couple thousand people.

"We do not have Kiva here, no. But Kiva is a really great program for us. We actually have over 15,000 robots in ten of our fulfillment centers, and we're excited to see where the program goes," says Kiesha Cochrane.

Many of those Amazon packages are destined to move through FedEx's Grays Ferry Station. It was busy there Monday morning, but the big push yet to come.

System-wide tonight will be one of, if not THE biggest night for FedEx operations.

Suzanne Martin Short of FedEx explains, "Tonight we expect to be very busy. Tonight's one of our peak nights... We'll probably hit on our heaviest night 22.6 million [packages] - about 11 percent more than last year."

On this day of days in cyber retailing the FBI is reminding us of online bad guys.

The FBI's JJ Klaver says, "The scams and frauds that come are sometimes deceptively simple."

Klaver says beware of unsolicited emails offering great deals and a link... DON'T CLICK THAT LINK.

Got questions about cybercrime, Klaver says a good resource, co-sponsored by the FBI, is called IC3.gov.