UPS rolls out Saturday delivery, pickup to meet heavy e-commerce demand

[Shawn Knight]

Rising demand from online shopping is forcing the United Parcel Service (UPS) to make one of the biggest changes in the company’s 109-year history.

The courier recently announced it’ll be adding Saturday ground pick-up and delivery service to its repertoire, expanding a pilot program launched last year in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. UPS said it’ll be bringing the service to 15 additional metropolitan areas including Boston, Chicago and New York this month.

By November, Saturday delivery will be available in nearly 4,700 cities and towns across the country and more than 5,800 markets come 2018.

Teresa Finley, UPS’s chief marketing officer, said the addition of another ground operations day more efficiently utilizes their existing delivery network and offers customers an even faster ground delivery solution.

Likewise, Saturday service should benefit online retailers as they’ll be less likely to miss out on a sale due to abandoned online shopping carts. In its Pulse of the Online Shopper study, retailers reported to UPS that 46 percent of customers abandon an online shopping cart for reasons that include the shipping time taking too long.

What’s more, a sixth day to ship and receive will allow retailers to turn inventory faster, utilize space more efficiently and increase productivity as the planned expansion is expected to create more than 6,000 new jobs nationwide.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/68792-ups-rolls-out-saturday-delivery-pickup-meet-heavy.html

 

[MoeJoe]

UPS raises prices 5% every year and has been since the Recession.
Blame it on the Unions.
Crooks.

 

[wiyosaya]

Furthermore, ever watch the progress of a ground package across the country? I have frequently noted that a package stops at a major hub, sits there for several days, and then magically leaves in time to be delivered on the day it is due. This says to me that UPS could easily deliver packages much more quickly, however, they choose not to so that they can charge a higher price to deliver the package more quickly. Crooks is an understatement, IMO.

I also recently had a package delayed for three days due to "weather." Whenever possible, I will use FedEx.

 

[Reehahs]

Furthermore, ever watch the progress of a ground package across the country? I have frequently noted that a package stops at a major hub, sits there for several days, and then magically leaves in time to be delivered on the day it is due. This says to me that UPS could easily deliver packages much more quickly, however, they choose not to so that they can charge a higher price to deliver the package more quickly. Crooks is an understatement, IMO.

I also recently had a package delayed for three days due to "weather." Whenever possible, I will use FedEx.

The package is held back as it is more economic to bundle deliveries in a similar area together. The chances of bundling are higher the longer you wait so that is why it gets delivered on the last day.

To be honest, these businesses need to learn to operate 24/7. Hardly anyone goes to church these days.

 

[wiyosaya]

Furthermore, ever watch the progress of a ground package across the country? I have frequently noted that a package stops at a major hub, sits there for several days, and then magically leaves in time to be delivered on the day it is due. This says to me that UPS could easily deliver packages much more quickly, however, they choose not to so that they can charge a higher price to deliver the package more quickly. Crooks is an understatement, IMO.

I also recently had a package delayed for three days due to "weather." Whenever possible, I will use FedEx.

The package is held back as it is more economic to bundle deliveries in a similar area together. The chances of bundling are higher the longer you wait so that is why it gets delivered on the last day.

To be honest, these businesses need to learn to operate 24/7. Hardly anyone goes to church these days.

I'd buy your logic, but if the service is two-day, it will stop in the same hub, but delivery will be much sooner.

 

[Kenrick]

Thank you UPS for delivering a 40kg rack UPS in to my door last week. Gotta love Prime shipping!

 

[Camikazi]

Furthermore, ever watch the progress of a ground package across the country? I have frequently noted that a package stops at a major hub, sits there for several days, and then magically leaves in time to be delivered on the day it is due. This says to me that UPS could easily deliver packages much more quickly, however, they choose not to so that they can charge a higher price to deliver the package more quickly. Crooks is an understatement, IMO.

I also recently had a package delayed for three days due to "weather." Whenever possible, I will use FedEx.

Packages have different priorities, so will go out at different times. If you have a standard ground package that can be delivered in 4 days and an air that is 2 day you would send out the 2 day one first because it has higher priority. Yes, UPS (and the rest) will all hold a package at a hub for a bit if there are other higher priority packages that need to go first. Trucks have weight limits and the amount of work that can be done at any one hub on any day is limited so a 3-5 day ground on its 4th day will be sent to the final hub before a 3-5 ground on its second day, that is part of doing logistics. All the package companies do the same thing, that is how they make sure your next day package gets there next day by delaying a 3-5 day package for a day, that is also the reason why two and next day packages are more expensive. Doesn't take all that much thinking about it to figure it out.

To be honest, these businesses need to learn to operate 24/7. Hardly anyone goes to church these days.

Many hubs at UPS do work almost 24 hours a day but each shift does different things. You can't exactly deliver at night so they do the sorting and loading of the brown trucks at night (middle of the night actually), they load 18 wheelers in the evenings after brown trucks return and the brown trucks go out in the mornings. The only real time that nothing is being done in the building is when trucks are out because, you can't really do anything. As for more days, it would be expensive since they would need more drivers because of OSHA rules. A driver can't drive for more than a certain amount of hours per week without a set amount of cool down time. Doing so violates OSHA rules, would get the driver in trouble and cause UPS to get fined, UPS monitors that very closely.