Category: UPS News

United Parcel Service Inc. CEO David Abney is “relieved” that the U.S., Canada and Mexico have reached a deal to upgrade the rules of their trading relationship, potentially removing a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the global economy. 

“We’re very relieved; we went through a lot of anxiety,” Mr. Abney said during a luncheon discussion on “Rebooting Global Trade” hosted by the World Affairs Council of Atlanta. 

Trade is the lifeblood of the Atlanta-based package giant’s international business; UPS is estimated to carry up to 3 percent of global GDP by value, with 450,000 employees all over the world delivering 20 million packages per day. 

A baton is traveling the nation in the name of safety for UPS delivery centers and has made a stop in Newark, Ohio. Each week, the baton is shipped to a new center and on Monday, Oct. 1, it arrived at the Newark UPS center.

Josh Mason, Newark UPS safety chair and coordinator for the Newark safety relay, said “It was quite surprising and an honor to be chosen,” he said. “We’re such a small center and we were chosen among other big centers like Texas, California, and Florida. They were looking to feature a center in Ohio and other centers in Columbus and Cleveland also volunteered but we were chosen.”

The relay’s goal is to promote zero injuries and accidents. In Newark, they honored their workers with a breakfast for those in the circle of honor — employees that have promoted safety for more than 20 years.

I started my career at UPS and worked there for many years. Back then, they had a big promote-from-within culture (and they still do).

One day, I was a driver. The next day, I walked in wearing a suit and tie.

My first operations assignment was overseeing other drivers. Fortunately, the folks in the group I was supervising weren’t folks I had interacted with directly when I was an hourly employee. But six months later, that changed, and I was overseeing a group of guys I had been working with side by side less than a year ago. That presented some challenges that the average newly promoted person may not have to deal with.