UPS adds sixth day delivery

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Apr 5, 2017

UPS is expanding its delivery capabilities, announcing the national roll out of its Saturday delivery service.

UPS began testing Saturday ground pick-up and delivery services in 2016, choosing Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles as its first three markets.

The tests proved successful, with UPS announcing plans to launch Saturday deliveries across the nation. Fifteen major metropolitan cities will be added to UPS’s Saturday service area by the end of the month. 4,700 more cities and towns in the United States by the end of this year. UPS plans to reach a grand total of 5,800 markets with Saturday service options by the end of 2018.

UPS’s Saturday service will be available for both home deliveries and in-store capabilities via the 8,000 UPS Access Points. 6,000 new jobs will be created thanks to the Saturday program.

This option will allow UPS to keep up in the growing world of e-commerce. With the option of Saturday delivery, UPS customers can now receive packages a full two days before the typical Monday delivery window. In turn, businesses have an extra day to send out and receive inventory for a more effective business. 

UPS’s increased service schedule will give the shipping company a foothold to compete against e-commerce giants like Amazon, which is making investments in its own logistics infrastructure that includes its own trucks, drones and even planes. Amazon has also found great success in its Prime program – allowing users to opt-in to free two-day shipping with a monthly membership. Thanks to Amazon’s astounding success with this program, other retailers, and, in turn, delivery companies, have now felt the heat to offer shorter selling times. Ebay has just rolled out one, two, or three-day guaranteed-delivery windows in an effort to step up its shipping options.