Twenty eight million deliveries in one day. Even Santa Claus would be impressed.

This week alone, United Parcel Service shipped 135 million packages around the globe. On Thursday, Dec. 20, UPS estimated it will deliver 28 million packages, making it the busiest day of the holiday season.

“That’s about 300 packages per second,” said a UPS corporate spokesperson.

To help with the holiday rush, UPS added 55,000 part time employees to work through the season.  And it doesn’t stop with Christmas. Care to venture a guess how many packages UPS will be taking back to retailers? We’ll get back to that.

Heath Commeau, of Global Packing and Shipping at 25 Washington St. in Camden, said Monday and Tuesday of this week were their busiest days. Global doesn’t deliver, they ship.

“Between four and five o’clock on Tuesday, we did as much in one hour as we did all day," said Heath. "Hundreds of packages that filled the whole back of the store.”

UPS Airlines added 400 additional flights per day this week and some 3 million express shipments will be processed within 24 hours through the UPS Worldport international air hub in Louisville, Ky. Want some more statistics? With so many packages en route, UPS expects more than 69 million online tracking requests.

But, we were inside Global Packing and Shipping. Stop the presses! While talking and waiting for the UPS driver to arrive to pick up today’s packages, Kelly Bell of Owls Head, rushed in the door.

“I made it, and nine minutes to spare,” she said.

It was real time drama of last minute Christmas shipping. Kelly’s car broke down and she was rushed to get a package shipped.

“It needs to be in Massachusetts by Christmas Eve. My car broke down on the way here. I called my husband and he’s coming and well, I made it,” Kelly said with a relieved smile. Kelly works for Bay Chamber Concerts.

Heath said it was not unusual for people to knock on the door or window after they are closed hoping to get their package shipped.

“If you ship next day air by Friday,” said Heath, “Christmas Eve, it will be delivered. Regular shipping, if it’s going to New Hampshire, Vermont or Massachusetts you stand a pretty good chance it will get there.”

Our UPS spokesperson echoed those sentiments: “Friday is the last day you can ship next day air. It will be delivered on Monday. We’re sorry but, we don’t work on Christmas.”

Now let’s answer that question we asked earlier about returns. As more consumers shop online, they will return or exchange those unwanted holiday gifts. UPS expects to transport more than 2 million packages back to retailers during the first week in January 2013.

This year more retailers are focusing on reverse logistics and offering free returns. UPS encourages retailers to include a return label in the package, or have the labels available on the Internet for consumers to print themselves. National Returns Day - the busiest day for returns at UPS - is Jan. 3, 2013, when UPS anticipates more than 520,000 packages shipped back to retailers in a single day. They expect 2 million returns that week.

"We've seen a 15 percent increase in retail returns over last year," said David Sisco, UPS retail marketing director. "UPS research shows that 63 percent of online shoppers review a retailer's returns policy before making a purchase."

You can even set it up where UPS will text you updates on your package delivery.

UPS Holiday Facts