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United Parcel Service Inc. has been experimenting for years with drone deliveries, but that doesn’t mean the tech is ready for prime time.
“You can’t fly them when it’s windy. You can’t fly them when it’s rainy,” Chief Executive Officer Carol Tome said Tuesday during an American Chamber of Commerce event. “There are lots of issues with drones.”
Last week, customers at the UPS Store in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood got a pretty good demonstration of what the global supply chain looks like when you try to run it backward.
The first Monday of the year marks the traditional start of the holiday return season, which this year is expected to break records for returned purchases — and by late afternoon, the line of box-bearing UPS customers snaked nearly out the door.
“Oh my goodness — wow,” said Erin Metzger, half a dozen returns in hand, as she surveyed the crowd and the Jenga-like towers of outbound packages behind the counter. “I did not expect this at all.”
“It comes in waves,” employee Rebecca Yazzie said. “It’ll be quiet for a little bit and then we’ll get a ton of people all at once.”
A UPS delivery driver injured in a hit-and-run last month could leave the hospital Friday, officials said.
The 18-year-old was delivering a package on the 400 block of Irving Avenue in Bridgeton around 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 22 when he was hit by a car, according to police.
The vehicle was described as a silver sedan traveling west at a high rate of speed. The injured driver was taken to Cooper University Hospital, Camden, where he has remained until this week.
The UPS Store was deemed an essential business in 2020, and the business-services franchise is still as important as ever, coming in at #2 on our Franchise 500 ranking.
In early 2020, the UPS Store needed all hands on deck. Its stores were deemed essential businesses, which meant franchisees were stepping up to help local business owners print free signs and menus in addition to managing their own staff.
Now, nearly two years later and out of crisis mode, its client base has changed. Customers have relocated, businesses have hybridized, and e-commerce is surging. But the UPS Store has only become more central as the world settles into its new patterns, which has helped it secure its highest spot on the Franchise 500 since 2001.
“We’re at an inflection point of e-commerce and digital transformation,” said Sarah Casalan Bittle, president of The UPS Store. The swell in online purchasing habits has coincided with an increase in returns, which has been demanding for both the franchises and the small businesses who depend on them to move products.
In a TikTok posted on Jan. 5, UPS driver @banee392 shows his truck, just about full with packages to deliver.
“This is how you know [you’re] gonna have a bad day,” Banee (@banee392) wrote in the overlay text of the video, which shows UPS drivers looking into his truck after it’s been loaded. “When drivers are looking in your truck,” because there are so many packages in it.
Banee’s TikTok is one of many that shows the large amount of packages drivers deliver during the holiday season.