For many FedEx Couriers then Christmas time can mean arduous 12 to 14 hour shifts, often in very cold wintery weather. But Ray Beltrane does not mind so much as at this time of year he spreads some of the holiday spirit by delivering gifts to people in time for Christmas. “I love it,” Beltrane said, “as at this time of year everybody's happy to see you”. The bulk of Ray’s parcels these days are coming from online retailers such as Radioshack, Amazon and Walmart. FedEx is expecting to handle around 17 million packages this coming Monday, which will make it FedEx’s busiest day of the year. The good news for the parcel business is it is a 9% increase on last year, and staggeringly around double what they deliver on a normal day. In the N Santa Fe Avenue depot in Oklahoma around fifty five van drivers do the deliveries for that region, with an early start as they begin loading up vans at about 6 a.m., to start their deliveries around 8 a.m. They then finish around 5 O’clock. In this region a FedEx driver such as Beltrane makes a stop an average of every three minutes. But do not worry if you are still waiting for a parcel, as FedEx makes sure every single package gets delivered for Christmas, with some vans doing a 2 hour run on Christmas day. UPS is running later than FedEx though as they expect 22nd December to be their busiest day with around 26 million parcels being shipped that day. UPS also allow you to ship parcels as late as Friday the 23rd, though delivery on the 24th will incur an additional $15 charge.