United parcel service

Every day, the company delivers more than 16.9 million units of cargo to 9.4 million recipients in more than 220 countries of the world ^[3] .

The main activity of the company is express delivery of goods and documents, however, UPS also has a division responsible for supply chain management ( UPS Supply Chain Solutions , UPS SCS).

The company has its own airline , UPS Airlines , with its fleet of 237 jet aircraft , which is one of the largest fleets in the world. Serves more than 220 countries and territories of the world ^[4] .

The company employs 395 000 employees around the world, including 318 000 in the USA and 77 000 - in other countries ^[3] .

Creation

The creation of the primary courier service took place in 1907-1913. In 1907, Claude Ryan and Jim Casey borrowed $ 100 and opened a company called the American Messenger Company in a basement in Seattle , Washington.

The company of Claude and Jim was engaged in a variety of tasks, from executing one-time customer orders and delivering messages on foot or by bicycle to delivering purchases from drug stores.

By the time the company was established, Jim already had some entrepreneurial experience. He hired several teens as couriers, and his younger brother George received one of the leading roles. Guided by the principle of "highest quality at the lowest prices", the company began to excel. Jim has consistently placed reliability, courtesy, accuracy and commitment to high ethical standards at the forefront.

Retail

In 1913-1918, the formation of retail trade took place. A merger with a rival firm owned by Evert McCabe helped the company rethink the core purpose of its business. As the phone became widespread and people began to resort less and less to courier services to send messages, the American Messenger Company shifted its focus to delivering purchases from food and drug stores to customers' homes. To emphasize its new mission, the company was renamed Merchants Parcel Delivery.

After Everta motorcycles and a Ford Model T were added to the fleet, the company introduced consolidated delivery into practice, that is, goods addressed to areas located close to each other were delivered in one vehicle.

Jim Casey and his colleagues have turned into experts in processing requests from pharmacies and grocery stores. In most cases, company employees worked directly in stores to facilitate distribution.

The company's last founding father, Charlie Soderstrom, joined the business in 1916. He was well versed in cars and began to actively help in the management of an ever-growing fleet of delivery vehicles.

The leaders of the young company saw new opportunities for promoting their business, and in the end they managed to convince retail stores to outsource the delivery of goods to their company. By 1918, Seattle's three largest department stores became regular customers, abandoning their own delivery services and transferring this function to Merchants Parcel Delivery.

General Delivery

During 1918-1930, a transition to the principles of delivery on a common basis took place. In 1919, the company went beyond Seattle to Auckland , California , and adopted its current name, United Parcel Service. In the same year, Charlie Soderstrom put forward the idea of ​​using brown to paint the company's cars, which would give them, in his opinion, a majestic look.

In 1922, UPS acquired a company in Los Angeles that specialized in delivering goods from a manufacturer to a seller. This unit quickly began to provide goods transportation services to everyone, just as the USPostal Service did . This approach was known as the "provision of transportation services on a common basis." Obtaining the rights to “transportation on a general basis” allowed the company to deliver shipments to both private and commercial addresses.

20s of the twentieth century - an era of technological progress. UPS has developed another technological innovation: the first belt conveyor for sorting goods. In 1929, UPS began delivering air cargo through private airlines. However, the economic downturn in the USA and the lack of volumes of transported goods leads to the cancellation of the service 2 years later.

Territorial expansion was an important priority for the company at that time. In the late 1920s, UPS began offering retailer services in all major US Pacific cities, including San Francisco , San Diego, and Portland , Oregon . Despite the collapse of the US stock market, in 1929 the company began operations on the US East Coast and moved its headquarters to New York .

Expansion and Transformation

In the period 1930-1975 the expansion and transformation of the company took place. In the 1930s and early 1940s, UPS received delivery rights for department stores in Chicago , Cincinnati , Milwaukee , Minneapolis, and Philadelphia . During World War II, retail stores began to reduce their delivery services and encourage customers to carry their packages home on their own.

In 1953, it was decided to expand the range of UPS services. UPS began to transport goods on a general basis in cities where it was possible without having to obtain the permission of the State Trade Regulatory Commission and the Federal Commission (ICC). In the same year, Chicago became the first city outside of California where UPS offered general transportation services.

In 1975, UPS became the first express delivery company to ship to any address in the 48 continental states of the United States. This historic association of service areas has become known at UPS as Golden Link.

Business in Europe

UPS first entered the European market in 1976, having started delivering shipments in Germany. Since then, the company has been providing a wide range of services in Europe.

In 1989, UPS entered the Russian market through a joint venture with Sovtransavto, and in 2000 created its own full-fledged operating network.

• Logistics
• Hurried mail

• Friedman TL The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. - Updated and expanded. - New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006 .-- P. 167-176. (eng.)
• Niemann G. Big Brown: The Untold Story of UPS. - Jossey-Bass, 2007 .-- 256 p. - ISBN 0-7879-9402-2 . (eng.)

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  - the official website of the company