Category: UPS News

A recovery in international trade is reviving demand for aircraft once proudly linked to long-haul passenger travel and now mainly dependent on hauling cargo to stay in production.

The upturn underscores a solid economic backdrop to this week’s Singapore Airshow, as the airline industry heads into its ninth year of global profits.

On the eve of the show, the world’s second-largest domestic cargo airline, United Parcel Service, handed Boeing a lifeline order for 14 more 747-8 freighters, easing doubts over the jumbo’s future.

 

The US patent office today revealed a United Parcel Service (UPS) patent application for a computerized item exchange “locker bank” that accepts numerous forms of payment including Bitcoin.

According to the application, UPS intends to build a storefront full of lockers for people to purchase items from without interacting with salespeople. It’s not explicitly stated in the document, but we’re pretty sure UPS just doesn’t want you to get stabbed to death trying to sell your Xbox

Getting more of its major retailer customers to share data on their holiday shipping needs will prevent a repeat of last year’s parcel delivery bottleneck, United Parcel Service Inc’s Chief Executive told Reuters.

The world’s largest package delivery company delivered a record 762 million packages, exceeding forecasts, during the peak U.S. holiday shopping season which runs from around the Thanksgiving Day holiday in late November through to Christmas in late December.

But around “Cyber Monday”, the first Monday after the annual Thursday Thanksgiving holiday in late November, those extra packages also exceeded its ability to handle them, adding about $125 million in fourth-quarter operating costs, UPS CEO David Abney said.

UPS credited the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act when announcing its purchase of 18 aircraft: 14 747 planes and four Boeing 767 freighters.

The company adjusted its guidance for 2018, announcing expected earnings between $7.03 and $7.37 per share for the full year.

The disclosure, which follows a 2017 holiday season that smashed online shopping records, will shed light on how the shipping giant is faring amid the widespread economic shift away from brick-and-mortar retail and toward online delivery.

If rank-and-file Teamsters can confront the package-delivery giant, they’ll win better conditions for the whole industry.

This Monday, negotiations began between Teamsters and the package giant UPS for a new national contract. The formal exchange of proposals was in preparation for July, when the national master UPS contract will expire.

Teamsters general president James P. Hoffa — son of the infamous Jimmy Hoffa Sr — refused to release the union’s official contract proposals to general membership before presenting them to the company. Up until January 22, members had no idea what was in the proposals. Teamsters United (TU), the reform campaign working to dislodge Hoffa’s old guard from the union leadership, called this a “brownout.”