Hi all...I'm a first-time poster, but have been lurking for a while. I'm not a UPS employee, but I got interested in what was going on when I happened to run into that "package smasher" site, so I looked for more info (that was possibly less biased) about UPS.
Anyway, long story short - I work from home and also have a small part-time photography business (also at home). I get a lot of stuff shipped to me, and I also ship quite a bit (compared to the average residential customer, I would guess). A lot of high-value stuff too (think $3000 camera, $2000 lens, etc).
I have had stuff shipped to me via all the major carriers (USPS, Fedx, DHL and UPS), so I am familiar with the performance of each of them. I have found UPS to be the best in my area, specifically because of my driver.
Because of the photography set up I have, the front door of my house is not easily accessible from the inside, so I always use the driveway side door. I have a huge sign on the outside of the front door, saying 'Visitors - Please use side door'. The UPS driver is the only one who delivers my stuff to the side door - the other carriers toss it on the front stoop (where there is no shelter, BTW).
It's because of this UPS driver that I only ship stuff via UPS now, and if I have a choice I have all stuff shipped to me via UPS. In case anyone is wondering, in my area (Morton Grove, Illinois) I rate the shippers as follows (best to worst):
UPS
Fedex Express
USPS
DHL
Fedex Ground
Fedex Home Delivery (they suck)