UPS Revs its Engines for the Holidays

Atlanta, November 16, 2009

UPS To Deliver About 400 Million Packages Around the World During the Holiday Period

Bolstered by a brigade of brown-suited Santas and 102 years of experience, UPS (NYSE:UPS) is set to deliver another season of holiday magic.

UPS has circled Monday, Dec. 21, on the calendar as its busiest day of the year when the company anticipates delivering approximately 22 million packages worldwide. That's about a 40 percent increase over normal daily delivery volumes. 

For the entire holiday peak season - stretching from Thanksgiving to Christmas - UPS will deliver approximately 400 million packages around the world, up slightly compared to the 2008 holiday season. And to support this holiday package volume spike, UPS expects to hire roughly 50,000 seasonal workers.

"Each holiday season, UPS delivers more packages than anyone in the world," said Alan Gershenhorn, UPS senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. "Our customers know our shipping process is fast, easy and convenient and our team is dedicated to smoothly delivering the holidays."

UPS has a reliable and unmatched global network that does everything possible to ensure on-time delivery of holiday packages. Most UPS ground packages reach their destinations in three business days or less. Procrastinators can rely on UPS air services to ship as late as Wednesday, Dec. 23, for delivery on Thursday, Dec. 24.

To ensure on-time delivery during the holiday rush, UPS Airlines will fly more than 330 additional flights per day during Peak Week, the four days leading up to Friday, Dec. 25. The company's highest volume day for handling air express packages will be Wednesday, Dec. 23, when it will deliver more than 6 million air packages.

Once packages are in the UPS network, shippers can visit UPS.com to track their packages.  UPS expects more than 35 million online package tracking requests on Tuesday, Dec. 22, the highest tracking day of the season.

From expert packing and shipping to self-serve options, UPS offers a variety of methods to help customers manage their holiday packages:

• Let Us Do The Packing. Shipping holiday packages is fast and convenient when customers enlist the specially trained and certified packing professionals at the nearly 4,800 The UPS Store® and Mail Boxes Etc.® locations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. And participating The UPS Store locations offer the Pack & Ship Promise where, if a participating location packs a customer's item, ships it via UPS and the item is damaged or lost in transit, the customer will be reimbursed for the item's value (subject to the lesser of actual value, replacement, or repair cost), the cost of packaging materials and service plus the shipping fee. Visit theupsstore.com for more details on the Pack & Ship Promise or to find your neighborhood location.

• Do It Yourself.  UPS Internet Shipping enables do-it-yourselfers to choose service preferences, pay by credit card, print shipping labels and track packages. With a printed label affixed, a package can be handed to or picked up by a UPS driver, placed in one of 40,000 UPS drop boxes or dropped off at a UPS Customer Center, The UPS Store, Mail Boxes Etc. or other authorized shipping outlets. Shippers can visit UPS.com to verify the time-in-transit for each shipping destination.

For those on the go, UPS Mobile (m.ups.com) offers a suite of mobile shipping applications compatible with the most widely used mobile platforms, online browsers and devices, including the Apple iPhone®. In fact, UPS has just announced a new application for the iPhone that not only ships and tracks but also uses the phone's built-in GPS to direct users to the nearest UPS location. Users can download the free UPS iPhone App at apple.com/iphone/apps-for-iphone. For more information on the UPS iPhone App, users can also visit ups.com/iphone.

For more information on the holiday shipping calendar, green packing and shipping tips and to watch videos about the holiday surge, visit these online venues:

• The UPS holiday season media resource site - pressroom.ups.com/holiday
• YouTube - youtube.com/upscommunications
• Twitter - @UPS_News