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About two dozen Louisville-area UPS drivers don’t like a tentative proposal to create a new tier of lower-paid “hybrid” drivers who would deliver packages on Saturdays and possibly on Sundays should the shipping giant expand to a 7-day operation.

The hybrid driver proposal is one of the more hot-button items that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is negotiating with Atlanta-based UPS as part of new, five-year labor contract to replace the one that expires July 31.

The contract covers about 260,000 union workers across the country, including about 12,000 in Louisville, where UPS maintains its Worldport global air hub.

A proposal that would allow United Parcel Service Inc. to use “hybrid drivers” — employees who work as drivers and in other roles — is causing tension as labor negotiations between the company and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters continue this week.

The two sides are negotiating a new national labor agreement that would apply to more than 250,000 employs across the country, including thousands in Louisville. In past years, details of the negotiations were kept quiet, but more information is getting out this year as various Teamsters groups and UPS have been posting online about the talks in recent months.

In a business where shaving off a mile per day per driver can result in savings of up to $50 million per year, UPS has plenty of incentive to incorporate technology to drive efficiencies in every area of its operations.

According to UPS’ Chief Technology Officer Juan Perez, “Our business drives technology at UPS.” Here are just a few of the ways UPS uses big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare for the 4^th Industrial Revolution.