Category: UPS News

UPS posted its best year ever in 2021 and announced substantial price hikes in 2022, according to the New York Attorney General’s office. It is not unusual for regulators to go after manufacturers and retailers, but the NY AG is including shipping firms as part of her investigation into possible “price gouging and pandemic profiteering” announced on Friday.

Online sellers may be wary of investigations into price gouging after some were targeted for raising prices of essential goods in the early days of the pandemic. They may feel they should be able to price their products as they see fit, even for items like face masks and hand sanitizer during a global health crisis.

On the other hand, sellers may welcome scrutiny of shipping carriers’ pricing practices. UPS and FedEx have been accused of raising rates in lockstep for many years. Both instituted fuel surcharges, and both generally hike rates by about 5% each January.

Juan Perez, chief information and engineering officer, spent 32 years at UPS, embedding technology across lines of business.

Perez raised the profile of technology at UPS, weaving it into every area of the business. He pushed the evolution of the logistics company into a technology company, allowing it to recruit talent and compete with companies like Google and Apple.

“We need to continue to disrupt ourselves to remain competitive,” he said, speaking at a conference in 2018. “If we don’t … who will?”

CEO Carol Tomé credited Perez with the creation of the company’s Advanced Technology Group, launching smart package efforts and deploying network planning tools, she said in the announcement Tuesday. Perez also boosted information security and helped modernize the company’s IT.

Shortly after Carol Tomé took over as CEO of UPS in early 2020, she made a troubling discovery.

After serving on the UPS board for 17 years, she assumed she already knew everything she needed to know about the shipping giant. But just like your neighbor can look fit and healthy right up until the day you hear the ambulance race down your street, Tome couldn’t believe that only (51%) of the company’s 543,000 employees would tell a friend that Big Brown is a good place to work.

“That meant 49% of our people would not recommend us…my hair was, like, on fire!” Tomé told Fortune.