Throughout its 109-year history, a reputable span that helps it to serve more than 220 countries and territories, the United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) has prided itself on figuratively going the extra mile for its client and customer bases. Starting this month, the global provider will literally cover additional turf for American markets, as it is expanding Saturday delivery and pickup services, a decision that will reap multiple benefits, including the creation of more than 6,000 jobs.
Fifteen markets will join Atlanta, whose metropolitan area includes the company’s Sandy Springs headquarters; Philadelphia; and Los Angeles as beneficiaries of the implementation, with heavyweight markets like Chicago, Denver, New York and San Francisco among them. The inaugural trio became test sites last year, so the announcement that, by the holiday season, residents of nearly 4,700 additional cities will be able to practice their penmanship in accepting packages puts UPS in a position to rival the Saturday success of FedEx and the United States Parcel Service.
“The addition of another ground operations day more efficiently utilizes our existing delivery network and offers customers an even faster ground delivery solution,” chief marketing officer Teresa Finley said of the expansion that her employer will eventually offer to more than 5,800 cities and towns.
While receiving items through the company’s improved initiative will delight the masses, those same individuals can also look forward to inspiring contentment, as Saturday’s ground pickups will allow for Monday delivery, with a UPS release stating online retail shippers utilizing a ship-from-store strategy will spearhead that rapid process. Realizing that Saturday delivery “allows you to stretch your business week even further,” UPS will boost its domestic operations by 1.7 percent come December 2018.
Through the added weekend presence, UPS will hire around 4,000 people this year and will swell the ranks by another 2,000 next year. Because of this news, one can easily imagine executives looking at regulatory filings and saying “Thank you, online shoppers,” as Internet-based sales certainly drove this push to be more competitive.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!
