Category: UPS News

UPS MADE an early leap into New York City’s retail delivery business.

With its dominance established on the West Coast, in 1930, it set up its delivery operations in Manhattan and aspired to become the premiere delivery service for all of New York’s leading and popular department stores and specialty shops. By the end of the decade, it had largely succeeded–it was the delivery service for over 350 of the city’s leading retail businesses. It continued to expand during the war years, and one year after the end of the Second World War, UPS got the jewel in the crown of New York’s retail trade–Macy’s, the city’s oldest and most venerated department store.

This seemingly innocuous takeover of Macy’s delivery service, however, set off a chain reaction of events that shut down UPS for 51 days in the fall of 1946 and overturned the leadership of the local Teamsters union.

Delaware State Police investigators say the driver of a UPS tractor trailer had fallen asleep at the wheel prior to crashing on I-95 in Newport Friday morning.

Preliminary investigation indicates that 45-year-old Phillip Bates of York, Pennsylvania was traveling from I-295 southbound, merging onto I-95 southbound, when the tractor-trailer traveled off of the roadway and onto the right shoulder of the I-295 merge.

Bates was issued a traffic citation for Inattentive Driving. Delaware State Police are continuing their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.

Brian O’Shea got a job with UPS during college, and never left. He worked his way up the management ranks, doing important undercover theft work up and down the East Coast.

In late 2008 he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. He kept working through brutal chemo. In fact, he used vacation days for treatment. When his supervisor encouraged him to take disability leave, he refused. His motto: “I live for my work.”

“Brian was so proud when he signed the paperwork UPS sent in December,” his siter Sharon recalls. “He was very happy, knowing UPS would take care of his 4 children after he died. They each would receive a monthly stipend for 10 years. That would be a life-changer for them. He had total belief in UPS, and was so dedicated to them.”

Brian died February 21.

“Someone in Atlanta headquarters said that because he died 7 days before he officially retired, he was still an employee, so he was not entitled to retirement pay.”

Just in case you have ever wondered, United Parcel Service has 96,361 trucks. If you live in any of the 175 countries that UPS services, you’ve seen them: They’re big, they’re fast, and, of course, they’re brown. Relatively few brands enjoy the luck of its workaday equipment becoming a universally recognizable icon. So it’s no surprise, as this 1992 ad shows, that those big brown trucks have taken center stage in the company’s marketing.

Why, then, would UPS ditch that terrific truck in favor of … a millennial entrepreneur holding her foam robot? “This 1992 ad was appropriate for its time,” observed Brian Ceraolo, president of Peerless Media, which publishes Logistics Management magazine. “But advertising has changed a lot over 20 years.” For UPS, that change came in the form of an IPO and another thing called the Internet. Together, they completely changed the way this 107-year-old shipper does business—a change in plain view in these two very different magazine ads.

If you heard management speak at United Parcel Service’s latest conference call, they sounded very upbeat about Europe. This might be surprising because although the region’s economy is slowly waking up after the recession, it could take some more time before the pace of growth gathers steam. In the first quarter, the eurozone grew just 0.2%. So what warrants the kind of enthusiasm that was audible in the words United Parcel’s top bosses?

United Parcel’s commitment to Europe was put into words by CFO Kurt Kuehn at the latest earnings call when he said, “Europe’s here to stay.” Although the GDP growth is taking time to pick up, better trade prospects, growing e-commerce, and increasing FDIs are making Europe a sought after destination among delivery companies. United Parcel is consolidating its strengths in the continent through acquisitions and capacity additions, and is well prepared to capitalize on these developments.