United Parcel has served its customers for more than 100 years, but CEO Scott Davis insists that the company’s “just getting started”. The company’s dominant position in the ground package delivery business will get further impetus from the mushrooming online shopping growth. Budding international trade is playing into United Parcel’s hands, and greater investment in technology could take it to new heights.
By now, you’ve probably heard the news: FedEx is changing how it charges for delivery of light weight, but large size, packages to your home or business. Dubbed “dimension-based pricing,” FedEx’s pricing scheme isn’t exactly a new idea in the shipping business. But how FedEx plans to use the scheme here in the U.S. is. And it’s directly relevant to you both as a consumer — and also as an investor.
What dimension-based pricing is
Here’s how FedEx describes the plan:
“Effective January 1, 2015, FedEx Ground will apply dimensional weight pricing to all shipments. Currently, FedEx Ground applies dimensional weight pricing only to packages measuring three cubic feet or greater.”
“I have no use for class warfare.”
–Dave Beck, Teamster general president, 1952-57
DAVE BECK was an ambitious union politician who more than any other official in the history of the Teamsters was responsible for the union’s cozy relationship with UPS for years. Beck is a largely forgotten figure in Teamster history these days, however. If he’s remembered at all, it’s for facilitating the rise of the more ambitious and ruthless Jimmy Hoffa and his Mafia cohorts into the leadership of the union.
The first UPS drivers and package handlers were brought under a Teamster contract in the San Francisco Bay Area. Beck used his power to bring all UPSers on the West Coast into the Teamsters during that 1930s. From these small beginnings grew the enormous presence of UPSers inside the Teamsters–a literal “union within a union.”
Export Promotion Program, Focusing on Trade Facilitation, Supports Continued Business Expansion and Job Creation Efforts
UPS® (NYSE: UPS), a leading global logistics provider and advocate for global trade, applauds the launch of the next phase of the National Export Initiative (NEI), NEI/Next, by the Obama Administration today.
“NEI/Next and trade initiatives, such as the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), will streamline the flow of global commerce and open new markets to American businesses” said Scott Davis, UPS Chairman and CEO. “This is especially critical for UPS’s small- and medium-sized customers, many of whom are looking ‘to go international.'”
Categories
UPS Helps Small Go Big
Young entrepreneur’s lemonade stand makes a big social impact
In 2012, 8-year-old Vivienne Harr set up her lemonade stand, attempting to raise $100,000 for organizations making an impact on worldwide child slavery; she accomplished her goal in 173 days. Two years later, she, her business partner and father, Eric Harr, and their team at Make a Stand, Inc. – a new certified b corporation – have grown her lemonade stand into a fair trade business dedicated to responsible business practices that benefit suppliers and customers while earning her a place on the global stage.
“When I set up my lemonade stand, I knew that one person could make a difference,” said Ms. Harr, founder. “Having companies like UPS make a stand with us means we can make a stand for even more kids.” Like her business, Vivenne, now 10, has grown the past two years, and she is now a requested motivational speaker, a social media influencer (@vivienneharr, #standwithme) and an author, Make A Stand: “When Life Gives you Lemons, Change the World!”