Tag: USA

Delivery Problems

Posted by | Feb 28, 2005 | |

Pitney Bowes throws off lots of cash but hasn’t yet figured out what to do with it. Pitney Bowes generated USD879 million in cash on USD5 billion in sales last year, enough to hand back USD482 million to shareholders in dividends and stock buybacks and run a USD317 million capital spending budget. It’s like that when you have a license to print money. Ever since Arthur Pitney and Walter Bowes convinced the U.S. postal authorities to authorize the then-novel idea of a prepaid-postage machine in 1920, Pitney Bowes has dominated the business. It built an empire around the ubiquitous postage meter, now selling customers USD4.2 billion a year in equipment, services and financing in addition to the USD840 million a year it takes in on rent (U.S. law requires meters to be leased, not sold). Yet the company now finds itself in a quandary any other businesses would kill for–how to spend all that cash.

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New package-flow technology not delivering at UPS

Posted by | Feb 25, 2005 | |

United Parcel Service Inc. has acknowledged that its highly touted package-flow technology isn’t flowing as smoothly as expected, with problems at about a third of the 300 or so centers where it has been implemented.
The package-flow software suite, a UPS initiative unveiled in October 2003, was developed in-house to help the company more efficiently plan deliveries made by its drivers in the U.S. At that time, UPS said it would deploy the technology at its 1,000 U.S. hubs by 2005 (see story). However, now it seems that full implementation won’t be achieved until the end of 2007, said UPS spokeswoman Donna Barrett.

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UPS to close hub in 2006, laying off 1,400

Posted by | Feb 25, 2005 | |

UPS Inc said Thursday it plans to close its recently acquired freight sorting hub in Dayton in 2006, eliminating 1,400 jobs, in a move the company said would make its overall operations more efficient. The facility is the company’s only sorting hub for heavy airline freight. A new hub for handling cargo weighing more than 150 pounds will be built at another UPS facility in an effort to improve efficiency, said Norman Black, spokesman for Atlanta-based UPS. UPS has operated the hub at Dayton International Airport since Dec. 20, when the company bought it from Menlo Worldwide Forwarding for USD150 million. It also assumed USD110 million in debt in that deal.

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UPS CEO optimistic about growth prospects in 2005

Posted by | Feb 23, 2005 | |

Despite concerns rivals are gaining ground, United Parcel Service Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eskew said on Wednesday he was optimistic about the package deliverer’s growth prospects in 2005. Atlanta-based UPS has been battling in the past year to overcome a perception that it is underperforming FedEx Corp, its main competitor, in the giant US ground delivery market. While UPS remains the leader in the US ground delivery market, its volumes in this key area grew a sluggish 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004, down from 2.5 percent growth in the same period in 2003. “We had a tough December, but we’re optimistic about this year,” Eskew told reporters on Wednesday after a speech to an Atlanta business group.

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UPS Wins Tentative Go-Ahead for Expanded Access to China

Posted by | Feb 22, 2005 | |

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has tentatively authorized UPS to significantly expand its air operations in China. The decision, tripling UPS’s access to China over the next year, will provide significant opportunity for UPS to continue growing its business within the region while providing customers with service in all segments of the market – from general freight to express delivery. UPS currently flies from the United States to China six times per week. Today’s tentative decision grants UPS six additional frequencies to Shanghai immediately and six new frequencies to Guangzhou next year. The new frequencies will allow UPS to connect Shanghai to Japan for the first time with non-stop service, and the 2005 frequencies will allow UPS to offer non-stop service from the US to Guangzhou for the first time.

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