Crunch time for US carriers as Christmas nears

Memphis, Tennessee

DONNER Pass, the icy stretch of road that cuts through the Sierra Nevada mountains, is about 3,200 kilometres away from FedEx's world hub in Memphis.

But as the holiday delivery season hits its peak, dispatchers here are keeping an eagle eye on weather conditions along the pass: Any trouble could make it impenetrable for the carrier's trucks, closing a crucial route out of California.

This year, FedEx says it has strengthened its contingency planning, after carriers were summarily slammed for delivery delays last holiday season. Those contingency plans sprang into action this month, when heavy rains drenched portions of California.

Acting on updates from his 15-person meteorological team, Paul Tronsor, who leads FedEx's Global Operations Control, ordered 10 delivery trucks in the area to stand down. Dispatchers instead flew two cargo planes to Oakland, California, to carry packages out of Northern California. Th…