UPS is well-known for its brown trucks, internally known as package cars (hence the company nickname "The Big Brown Machine", and sometimes, because of its NASCAR-related commercials, "The #88 Car"). The brown color that UPS uses on its vehicles and uniforms is called UPS brown, which was chosen because it is the same color that that was used on Pullman railroad sleeper cars, which was seen as professional and elegant. UPS has trademarked the color brown, which prevents other delivery companies from using it as part of their brand. UPS also operates its own airline (IATA: 5X, ICAO: UPS, and Callsign: UPS ) based in Louisville, Kentucky.

In April 2003, UPS unveiled the new logo, replacing the iconic package and shield originally designed in 1961 by Paul Rand. It also shortened its name from "United Parcel Service" to simply "UPS".

Major competitors include United States Postal Service (USPS), FedEx, and DHL. Historically, UPS only faced competition from USPS for the inexpensive ground based delivery market. However, FedEx recently expanded into the ground market by acquiring RPS (originally Roadway Package System) and rebranded it as FedEx Ground. In addition, DHL acquired Airborne Express. This acquisition significantly increases DHL's presence in the U.S. which will add more competition to the ground delivery market.

UPS entered the heavy freight business with its purchase of Menlo Worldwide Forwarding, a former subsidiary of Menlo Worldwide. The purchase was announced on December 20, 2004, the price was US$150 million and the assumption of US$110million in long term debt. Menlo Worldwide was the successor of Emery Worldwide. Emery was grounded on August 13, 2001 after a DC-8-71F crashed in Northern California.

On August 5, 2005 UPS announced that it had completed its acquisition of Overnite Transportation for $1.25 billion. This was approved by the FTC and Overnite shareholders on August 4, 2005. On April 28, 2006, Overnite officially became UPS Freight.

UPS also owns Mail Boxes Etc. which franchises The UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. retail shops.

History

In 1907, 19-year-old Jim Casey founded the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Washington with $100 borrowed from a friend. In 1913, Jim Casey and Evert McCabe agreed to merge. Merchants Parcel Delivery was formed and focused on packages. In 1919, the company expanded beyond Seattle and changed their name to United Parcel Service.

• 1913: The first delivery car appeared, a Model T Ford. Merged with a competitor, Evert McCabe and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. Consolidated delivery was also introduced, combining packages addressed to a certain neighbourhood onto one delivery vehicle.
• 1918: A new member was recruited, Charles W. Soderstrom, who helped manage their ever growing fleet of delivery vehicles.
• 1919: Service expanded into Oakland, California. The name United Parcel Service was adopted.
• 1930: A consolidated service began in New York, and soon after began operations in other major cities in the east and midwest. First mechanical system for package sorting. Accountant George D. Smith joined the company. The name United Parcel Service was adopted all over the country. 'United' due to shipments being consolidated and 'Service' because service is all they have to offer. All UPS vehicles were then painted the familiar Pullman brown, chosen because it is neat, dignified and professional.
• 1940–1959: Services were expanded by acquiring "common carrier" rights to deliver packages between all addresses, any customer, private and commercial.

• 1945: The Blue Air Label began service in Toronto, Canada (YYZ) in 1945.
• 1952: Blue Label Air
• 1975: UPS were serving the 48 contiguous states of the USA.
• 1976: UPS established itself in Europe with a domestic operation in West Germany. Blue Label Air.
• 1982: UPS Next Day Air Service is offered in the US and Blue Label Air becomes UPS 2nd Day Air Service.

UPS' Political Action Committee has been the most generous corporate giver to federal candidates for every election since 1992, donating a total of $14 million through Dec. 31, 2005 according to Federal Election Commission records.

October 3, 2005, UPS in the United Kingdom completed the purchase of LYNX Express Ltd, one of the UK's largest independent parcel carriers, for £55.5 million (US$97.1 million) after having received approval for the transaction from the European Commission. The first joint package car centre operation, in Dartford, east London, was opened during mid-2006. Dartford Centre carries the SLIC GB1330.

UPS also recently partnered with competitor USPS in offering UPS Mail Innovations, a program that allows UPS to pick up mail and transfer it to a USPS center for final distribution. ^{citation needed]}

April 20, 2006, UPS today reported earnings per diluted share of $0.89, up 14.1% over the prior year. Results were driven by a 9% increase in global small package volume or 1.24 million packages per day, outpacing worldwide market growth.

Other codes

• AAR Reporting Marks: UPOZ, UPST, UPSZ, UPWZ
• Intermodal Reporting Marks: UPSU, FSTU, UPSC

Personnel structure

UPS employs approximately 407,200 staff, with 348,400 in the U.S. and 58,800 internationally.

Chief executives

• 1907–1962 James E. Casey
• 1962–1972 George D. Smith
• 1972–1973 Paul Oberkotter
• 1973–1980 Harold Oberkotter
• 1980–1984 George Lamb
• 1984–1990 John W. Rogers
• 1990–1997 Kent C. "Oz" Nelson
• 1997–2001 James P. "Jim" Kelly
• 2002–Present Michael L. "Mike" Eskew

System design

UPS's Parcel Network is based on a hub and spoke model. UPS operates centers which feed parcels to hubs where parcels are sorted and forwarded to their destinations. Centers typically are the point of entry for parcels and send the parcels to one or more hubs. A hub is a location where many centers send packages to be sorted and sent back out to other centers or hubs. For example, a parcel being shipped from Wilmington, NC to San Francisco, CA is picked up by a driver and taken to the 23rd street center in Wilmington, where it is loaded on a trailer and driven to Raleigh, NC. At Raleigh, the package would join packages from all over North Carolina and be forwarded to the Chicago Area Consolidated Hub in Hodgkins, IL. After arriving there, it would be loaded onto a trailer and sent by rail (trailer on flat car in most cases) to North Bay, CA where it would then be forwarded to the delivery center, loaded onto the delivery vehicle, and transported to its final destination.

UPS Airlines Fleet

Employees : 18,138
Delivery Fleet: 235 UPS Jet Aircraft (as of November 2005)

• 47 Airbus A300-600R
• 13 Boeing 727-100
• 7 Boeing 747-100
• 4 Boeing 747-200
• 75 Boeing 757-200
• 32 Boeing 767-300ERF
• 41 McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71/73
• 17 McDonnell Douglas MD-11F

UPS Airlines has ordered ten Airbus A380 freighters and has options on ten more. As part of the deal it is reducing an existing commitment for ninety Airbus A300 freighters to fifty three, forty six of which are already in service [1]. UPS Airlines will receive the A380 aircraft between 2009 and 2012 (ref: Airliner World, March 2005). UPS has also ordered eight Boeing 747-400 freighters to increase capacity on its major "trunk" routes to Europe, Asia, and North America. These are expected to be delivered in June 2007 and go on through 2008 (UPS press release, 17 August 2005).

Most UPS Airlines flights go through the UPS Worldport at Louisville International Airport.

Criticism

United Parcel Service is not without unhappy customers due to alleged incidents of mishandling of packages or difficulty making insurance claims for packages lost or damaged. Several unhappy customers have gone so far as to dedicate entire websites to their complaints about the company. A customer from Michigan created a site that allows others to post their experiences called United Package Smashers. Other customers have chosen to post only their own complaints, for example A Shipment to My Daughter. Still others have used consumer feedback sites like Epinions.com to register their unhappiness.

In addition, several hundred storeowners of both unrebranded MBEs and UPS stores are currently in litigation with their franchisor, UPS, over disputes surrounding the rebranding. Most claim that UPS bought the franchise to enrich UPS at the expense of the storeowners. A motion to dismiss the charges was denied, and the lawsuits continue forward. ^{citation needed]}

Trivia

• NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett has appeared in UPS commercials, and his No. 88 Ford Fusion is sponsored by the company. In most of the commercials, UPS employees (and sometimes his father, Ned Jarrett, even kids in the shopping mall where Jarrett is shopping, and well-known celebrities) constantly ask Jarrett to race their trucks, and one new ad features all company trucks' being replaced by copycats of his Ford, complete with the No. 88 and UPS logo.
• UPS delivered four whale sharks from Taiwan to the Georgia Aquarium.
• UPS recently announced that it will continue its relationship with Dale Jarrett by moving with him to Michael Waltrip Racing, racing Toyota Camrys in 2007. There was some speculation that UPS wanted to stay with Robert Yates Racing and hire a young driver to compete with competitor FedEx's NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin.
• UPS's total United Way contribution of more than $57.3 million sets a new national record.
• UPS Brown is a trademark of the company.
• UPS Brown is often erroneously referred to as Pantone color 0607298. 0607298 is not a valid Pantone number. ^{citation needed]}
• UPS inspired the off-Broadway musical Romance on Wheels during World War II.
• The body design of the "package cars" is unique to UPS, and are only operated by them. Retired cars are scrapped and dismantled, and never sold for reuse. The manufacturer's name, Grumman-Olson, is not displayed on the outside of the car.
• Ups in most languages other than English is pronounced "oops", the sound following a minor accident. The pronunciation "ups" is the same as the English "oops." ^{citation needed]}

See also

• List of United Parcel Service hubs
• Worldport (UPS air hub)
• MaxiCode — the new, square barcode-like symbols appearing on UPS packages
• Charles McKinley
• FedEx (competitor)
• DHL (competitor)
• USPS (competitor)

External links

• UPS corporate website, shipping, tracking, service information
• UPS Remote VPN Access — Requires RSA Token
• Yahoo! — United Parcel Service, Inc. Company Profile
• Brown Cafe — Information and resources for UPS employees, retirees and shareowners. Not sponsored or endorsed by United Parcel Service
• Ask Yahoo!: Who manufactures the brown UPS trucks?
• UPSers — Resource for UPS Employees
• Talkbrown.com
• UPS Racing
• U.S. Mail holidays - UPS holidays - FedEx holidays - Internet Accuracy Project
• UPS’s New Hydraulic Hybrid Available For Test Ride In NYC

References

• FleetOwner News UPS ups freight visibility Retrieved September 12, 2006
• Trains News Wire (May 17, 2005), UPS to buy Overnite trucking company. Retrieved May 18, 2005.
• SmartMoney Magazine (Nov 11, 2003), 10 Things Your Delivery Service Won't Tell You. Retrieved May 24, 2006.