UPS to begin delivery, pickup services seven days a week
The United Parcel Service Inc. announced Monday it would begin offering pickup and delivery services seven days a week in response to the growth of online shopping.
The Atlanta-based package delivery giant said the services would begin on Jan. 1 and would be assisted by the U.S. Postal Service. The company’s current pickup and delivery services are offered six days a week.
UPS also announced it would add 12,000 new package pickup locations inside CVS, Michaels Co. and Advance Auto Parts stores. The extra locations would bring the number of pickup points UPS has in the U.S. to 21,000 and 40,000 globally.
“We will leverage the combination of the UPS Network, UPS Access Point locations and SurePost in collaboration with the United States Postal Service to efficiently provide these exciting new capabilities,” Kevin Warren, UPS’ CMO, said in a statement. “Building on an expanded relationship with the Postal Service to help deliver seven day service to our customers makes good business sense.”
UPS said it was adding “10 million pounds of additional lift capacity, the largest current expansion of capacity by any carrier.”
The delivery giant said it was setting up a subsidiary that would focus on expanding its drone-delivery options, limited now to delivering medical samples at a group of hospitals in Raleigh, N.C. It filed for certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for the subsidiary, called UPS Flight Forward, to fly drones beyond the line of sight, at night and with an unlimited number of drones and operators in command.
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The move comes after FedEx announced in May that it would start seven-day delivery services to many homes in the U.S. Those seven-day deliveries will start in January.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.