BIGpedia - United Parcel Service - Encyclopedia and Dictionary Online

For other uses of the abbreviation "UPS", see UPS (disambiguation).

United Parcel Service, Inc. (also commonly known as UPS) is the world's largest package delivery company, delivering over 14 million packages a day to over 200 countries around the world. It has recently expanded its operations to include logistics and other transportation-related areas. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

UPS's previous logo used for over four decades. Designed by Paul Rand.

UPS is well-known for its brown trucks, also known as package cars (hence the company nickname "Big Brown"). The color brown that UPS uses on its vehicles and uniforms is called Pullman brown after the railroad sleeper cars created by George Pullman which used the same color.

Major competitors include United States Postal Service, FedEx, and DHL. Historically UPS only faced competition from the US Postal service 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 USA which will add more competition to the ground delivery market.

Contents

Brief history

UPS Drop Box

1907 - American Messenger Company was founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington. The company delivered messages and small packages in the Seattle area.
1913 - Merger with Evert McCabe , company renamed Merchant Parcel Delivery.
1919 - Renamed United Parcel Service and expands to Oakland, California
1961 - Familiar shield logo designed by Paul Rand introduced.
1975 - UPS completes expansion to all 48 contiguous states in the United States. UPS also begins International service to Canada.
1977 - After Congress deregulated air cargo industry in November, UPS started air delivery service.
1997 - On August 4, 185,000 Teamsters union UPS hourly employees walked off the job after contract negotiations stalled. UPS was effectively shut down for 16 days and lost a great deal of business to competitors. This was the first nationwide strike at UPS, although there had been numerous localized strikes in the past.
1999 - UPS changes from a private to publicly traded company. At the time, it was the largest Initial Public Offering in United States history.
2001 - UPS buys Mail Boxes Etc., a company primarily in the business of package shipping , receiving , and mailbox services , and renames the stores The UPS Store.
2003 - On March 25, UPS unveiled a new worldwide branding program including a new logo, web site and the redesign of all 66,000 UPS vehicles. The slogan "Synchronizing the World of Commerce" is introduced.

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 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 its destination. 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 would be picked up by a driver and taken to the 23rd street center, where it would be loaded on a trailer that is sent to Raleigh, NC. At Raleigh, this package joins packages from all over the state, and is forwarded to the next point along its way — let's say Chicago. Once the package is in Chicago, it would be sorted and forwarded to the appropriate delivery center where it would be loaded onto a package car and delivered.

UPS Hubs (United States)
City	5 letter Code	Comment
Greensboro, NC	GRENC
Raleigh, NC	RALNC
Charlotte, NC	CHANC
Richmond, VA	RICVA
Roanoke, VA	ROAVA
Columbia, SC	COLSC
Atlanta, GA	ATLGA
Pleasant Dale, GA	PLEGA
Charleston, WV	CHAWV
Knoxville, TN	KNOTN
White's Creek, TN	WHITN	In Nashville
Montgomery, AL	MONAL
Jacksonville, FL	JACFL
Orlando, FL	ORLFL
Lexngton, KY	LEXKY
Louisville, KY	SDFAS	Main Air Hub
Indianapolis, IN	I81IN
Chicago Area	CCHIL	Consolidated Hub
Saint Louis, MO	EARMO	Located in Earth City
Columbus, OH	COLOH
Middleburg Heights, OH	MIDOH
Toledo, OH	TOLOH
Detroit, MI	DETMI
New Stanton, PA	NEWPA

UPS Airlines

UPS Airlines has ordered 10 Airbus A380 freighters and has options on 10 more. It is purchasing 10 in return for cancelling part of an existing committment to the Airbus A300 freighter and will receive the A380 aircraft between 2009 and 2012 (ref: Airliner World, March 2005).