BrownCafe

When I decided to accept the role of chief executive officer of UPS, in the late winter of 2019, it seemed like a straightforward choice. Having recently retired from Home Depot after 24 years of service, nearly two decades of them as CFO, I wasn’t necessarily looking for a new job. But I’d been a UPS board director since 2003, and when the board started searching for a successor to the outgoing CEO, the directors created a leadership profile that matched my experience and skills. Up-and-coming internal candidates needed more time to develop, and as an outsider-insider, I could lead the company until they were ready.

I knew that UPS was an amazing organization with a powerful brand, a culture and values perfectly aligned with my own, operations in more than 220 countries and territories, and roughly half a million talented employees whom I hoped to inspire around a shared purpose. Because the company’s stock had been flat for six years, there was also an opportunity to create value for shareholders. And, frankly, my husband was keen to get me out of the house and working again.

So at the time, it was easy to say yes to the position. I formally accepted at the beginning of March 2020 with a plan to officially transition in June. Quickly, however, the job became a whole lot more complicated. On March 11 the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic, forcing many of us to shelter in place and UPS and its employees to step up its essential service as never before.

Package delivery company’s front-line workers exempted

UPS will require employees returning to work at its headquarters and other office buildings to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

But the package delivery giant isn’t requiring the same of its front-line workers, who represent the bulk of its workforce.

Those who return to work at UPS headquarters in Sandy Springs and support locations in Alpharetta will have to be vaccinated by Oct. 1 — either fully vaccinated or with at least the first of two doses and a scheduled date for a second shot, according to the company.

The mandate could mean fewer office workers return immediately after Labor Day than UPS had planned, as a surge in COVID-19 cases scrambles employer plans.

A coalition of more than 100 small delivery companies have come together to form the Frontdoor Collective. They claim that, together, they can make upwards of 1 million deliveries per day – and compete directly with delivery giants UPS and FedEx.

The giants of the delivery world have a new challenger to contend with, and it’s like nothing they’ve seen before.

It’s not a gig-economy startup or a massive foreign corporation coming to America. It’s the Frontdoor Collective, a coalition of more than 100 small businesses, the vast majority of them delivering packages for Amazon. Some say they are frustrated by deteriorating returns and limited growth potential, and they have banded together to form their own last-mile delivery company.

Their home, which doubled as a bed and breakfast, went up in flames this month in Scottsburg.

A United Parcel Service worker rescued a retired couple after their home caught fire in Scottsburg this month.

Pat and Shelly Ryan, who have lived in Scottsburg for nearly 15 years, had been using their home as a bed and breakfast in the summer, even taking guests out fishing on the water.

But last Thursday, their house went up in flames, destroying all the rooms, everything inside, their boat and their garage.

The couple recalls the scary situation as one that “could’ve been a lot worse.”