Retailers were motivated to spread out their sales with earlier orders to avoid a last-minute rush of shipments. Last year, UPS enforced shipping limits on some of its largest customers, declining to pick up some packages that exceeded set volumes during peak periods. UPS CEO Carol Tomé said earlier this year she expected holiday shipping demand would outpace capacity and that UPS would limit how much holiday package volume it handles "to control chaos costs." "They're balancing the capacity," said John Haber, CEO of Spend Management Experts, an Atlanta-based supply chain consulting firm.