Category: UPS News

United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) reported higher first-quarter net profit on Thursday, driven by strong package volumes in its core U.S. segment, but higher costs from Saturday delivery and nasty winter weather weighed on the bottom line.

Shares were up 2.2 percent in morning trade after the world’s largest package delivery company said revenue increased 10 percent to $17.1 billion in the first quarter from a year ago, topping analyst expectations of $16.47 billion.

Revenue at its core U.S. package service rose 7.2 percent to $10.2 billion from a year-ago, driven by a 4.6-percent rise in parcel volumes that reflected growth of online purchases.

The timeworn apartment building in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood hardly looks like the corporate headquarters of one of the world’s largest shipping companies.

But for a few recent months, that’s essentially what it became — at least as far as the U.S. Postal Service was concerned.

Federal court papers unsealed last week revealed an astonishing but ultimately bungled scheme to file a change-of-address form claiming that shipping giant United Parcel Service had moved its headquarters from a bustling business park in Atlanta to a tiny garden apartment.

Not only did the change go through, but it also took months for anyone to catch on.

One Florida United Parcel Service center saw a lot of action last Saturday.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, at a little after midnight on April 14, a pickup truck matching the description of a truck that had been reported earlier as driving erratically was seen busting through a chain link fence at the UPS center in Lakeland.

“Was this guy’s package delivered to the wrong address?” read the PCSO Facebook post. “Maybe he just really prefers Fed-Ex?”

Deputies descended upon the area, along with a K-9 team and air support.

United Parcel Service Inc is taking a page out of a retailer’s playbook, offering discounts on everything from Costco memberships to luxury clothes and Disneyland tickets to loyal customers, UPS said on Wednesday.

The UPS My Choice Deals program, first reported by Reuters, appears to mark the first time the world’s largest package deliverer is hoping to cash in on shippers’ products directly.

More than 43 million global consumers will get access to some 500 deals – like 10 percent off Goodyear tires, 20 percent off Neiman Marcus luxury clothes, or the ability to donate half of one percent of an Amazon purchase to charity.

Mississippi native and UPS CEO and Chairman of the Board David Abney, shared insights on the rapid pace of technological change over the past two decades at the Rotary Club of Birmingham.

He points out that at the turn of the 21st century, no one would have imagined that people one day would be communicating with just their fingers and thumbs.

“When I was in New Jersey 20 years ago, if human beings were communicating with their fingers, that usually wasn’t a real good thing,” Abney said to laughter during a talk he gave to the Rotary Club of Birmingham on Wednesday.