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The UPS Store was deemed an essential business in 2020, and the business-services franchise is still as important as ever, coming in at #2 on our Franchise 500 ranking.

In early 2020, the UPS Store needed all hands on deck. Its stores were deemed essential businesses, which meant franchisees were stepping up to help local business owners print free signs and menus in addition to managing their own staff.

Now, nearly two years later and out of crisis mode, its client base has changed. Customers have relocated, businesses have hybridized, and e-commerce is surging. But the UPS Store has only become more central as the world settles into its new patterns, which has helped it secure its highest spot on the Franchise 500 since 2001.

“We’re at an inflection point of e-commerce and digital transformation,” said Sarah Casalan Bittle, president of The UPS Store. The swell in online purchasing habits has coincided with an increase in returns, which has been demanding for both the franchises and the small businesses who depend on them to move products.

In a TikTok posted on Jan. 5, UPS driver @banee392 shows his truck, just about full with packages to deliver.

“This is how you know [you’re] gonna have a bad day,” Banee (@banee392) wrote in the overlay text of the video, which shows UPS drivers looking into his truck after it’s been loaded. “When drivers are looking in your truck,” because there are so many packages in it.

Banee’s TikTok is one of many that shows the large amount of packages drivers deliver during the holiday season.

Formula One team Scuderia Ferrari have ended their nine-year partnership with US-based shipping firm UPS.

UPS has been Ferrari’s official logistics partner since 2013 and the deal was last renewed in 2017.

However, UPS is absent from Ferrari’s recently updated sponsor list on their website and the brand later confirmed it had ended its deal with the team to Sports Business Journal (SBJ).

With the holidays now over, UPS is turning its attention to handling millions of returns.

According to UPS, the shipping company will handle more than 60 million return packages from Nov. 14, 2021 to Jan. 22, 2022. The new record is a 10% increase from last year.

One in four Americans are expected to make a return. Of those returning items, 41% say they plan to return three or more items.

Despite snowy weather conditions like what the Quad Cities experienced over the weekend, delivery drivers are still out delivering packages.

Amy Cook, a local UPS driver, is urging people to be aware of who they share the roads with this winter.

She says delivery drivers are trained to drive through what are considered less-than-perfect conditions and also gave some tips for other drivers who are on the roads with them.