Category: UPS News

Key Points

• UPS is buying crowd-source delivery leader Roadie for an undisclosed sum.
• The deal gives UPS immediate national scale in delivering non-traditional packages.
• Roadie allows UPS to confront the threat posed by Amazon entering third-party delivery.

UPS finally filled a gaping hole in its business, one that allows the courier to expand beyond just delivering packages. Big Brown announced it was acquiring Roadie, a crowd-sourced same-day delivery company that gives UPS a big boost in staying competitive.

It’s a timely purchase as we head into the holiday shopping season, with analysts expecting robust Christmas sales, meaning more package deliveries. But it’s also anticipated that local same-day deliveries typically beyond UPS capabilities (meaning goods often not shipped in boxes) will also grow, and Roadie now provides the courier with the chance to get into that space, too.

UPS drivers make special connections with Lake Placid dogs

Everyone’s barking over Peter Baker.

One of Lake Placid’s UPS delivery drivers, Baker is a dog person, and it shows. He went viral on the UPS Dogs Facebook page last week when North Elba Transfer Station Supervisor Shannon Porter posted a photo of him with her dog Milo, who was recently diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Comments on the post also mentioned Baker’s fellow UPS driver in Lake Placid, Jeffrey Rock, as having a special bond with dogs along his route.

The post quickly gained attention from people all over the country and now has over 21,000 likes. Porter said the UPS Dogs page told her it was the second-most popular post the page ever had. The photo set shows Baker on the ground with Milo, both of them grinning as they strike different poses.

When “George Of The Jungle” debuted in theaters in the summer of 1997, it was a minor success for Disney, grossing $174.4 million at the Worldwide box office off a $55 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). The film wasn’t too big of a hit with the critics, earning itself a 56% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but would go on to become a cult classic. The film starred the internet’s boyfriend, Brendan Fraser, who at the time was on his way to becoming a big movie star with this being his first lead role in a blockbuster film, just two years before he would go on to star as Rick O’Connell in Stephen Sommers’ “The Mummy”. “George of the Jungle” also starred Leslie Mann, Thomas Haden Church, John Cleese, Richard Roundtree, and Holland Taylor and was directed by Sam Weisman.

The film, which was based off the classic Saturday morning cartoon, followed George (Fraser), a dimwitted man who was raised in the jungle and is now a Tarzan-like figure. After falling in love with Ursula (Mann), a wealthy American heiress, he learns that his jungle home is being threatened by poachers, which causes him to become the hero he was always destined to be. Despite being set in the African jungles, “George Of The Jungle” was actually filmed in Hawaii. In order to use certain jungle-specific props, the production team had to use UPS to send some unusual things to set.

UPS shipped an elephant to the set of George of the Jungle

UPS will kick off Saturday deliveries via UPS Ground from their Gautier-based facility starting tomorrow.

The facility will put five new package vehicles into service tomorrow with a celebration and a police escort to Highway 90.

This means local customers will no longer need to purchase UPS Air for Saturday deliveries.

UPS representatives said the expansion adds ten new jobs at the Gautier facility, which has grown from 13 delivery trucks to 30 trucks since 1990.