BrownCafe
United Parcel Service Inc.’s CEO keeps his eye on the future, and he anticipates big changes in what now are called “emerging markets.”
“You can think about it as a challenge, or you can think about it as a concern or you can embrace it as an opportunity, which is what we think we have to do,” David Abney, UPS’ top executive, told a Kiwanis Club of Atlanta luncheon on Tuesday.
A look at the UPS timeline
United Parcel Service (UPS), originally called American Messenger Company, was founded in 1907 by 19-year-old James E. Casey with $100 borrowed from a friend. It started as a messenger service in the Seattle, Washington, area with just one bicycle. Most deliveries were done on foot. More distant ones were done by bicycle.
In 1913, the company acquired its first delivery car, a Ford Model T. UPS took its first steps outside Seattle in 1919, when it expanded its operations to California and Oakland. In 1924, UPS became the first courier company to introduce the conveyor belt system for handling packages.
Legacy delivery companies like FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. played a huge role in the decline of the U.S. Postal Service, but it’s time for them to pay the piper–technology has brought them face-to-face with their own competitive threat: Amazon.com Inc., Uber and other startups.
Mobility, brought upon by the proliferation of smartphones, apps and connected devices, has created a climate of instant gratification and given way to a fast-growing market for on-demand delivery services, such as Postmates.
“It’s a changing of the guards,” said Roger Kay, a technology analyst and founder of consulting company Endpoint Technologies Associates “If the old guards can’t provide a comparable experience and comparable price, in some sense they aren’t going to be competitive anymore.”
Package-delivery giant UPS will pay more than $25 million to settle charges it submitted false claims to the federal government in connection with delivery of Next Day Air overnight packages, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
UPS provides delivery services to hundreds of federal agencies through contracts with the General Services Administration and U.S. Transportation Command, which supports Department of Defense agencies. The company guaranteed next-day delivery of packages by specified times under those contracts, federal officials said.
However, UPS concealed the company’s repeated failure to meet those delivery guarantees from 2004 to 2014, federal prosecutors said. The subterfuge allegedly prevented government customers for seeking refunds for late deliveries.
Running comes naturally for Issac Rivera, a 43-year-old local marathoner who quit smoking a decade ago to start serious training.
Rallying to support fellow United Parcel Service driver Tom Ryan is another easy task for Rivera and his fellow “Brothers in Brown.”
The Race for Recovery 5K Run and Walk will be held Sunday morning (10 a.m.) at Clove Lakes Park in an effort to raise funds for Ryan, who who seriously injured by an out-of-control car as he was unloading his truck on Hylan Blvd. in Grant City last month.