UPS Freight Accelerates Shipping for Customers in 11 States

BUSINESS WIRE--UPS Freight (NYSE: UPS) today announced it has reduced transit times on nearly 1,000 traffic lanes originating in metropolitan areas in the Southwest and Southeast to points across the United States.

Transit times have been reduced by one or two days from points in 11 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The customer improvements are being made without adjusting rates.

The latest round of enhancements follow the more than 8,000 lanes that were improved nationwide by the company in 2007.

“UPS Freight is on a path to create a combination of reliability, technology and speed that no other competitor can match,” said Jack Holmes, president of UPS Freight. “We are aggressively rolling out improvements in all areas of the business to keep pace with the evolving needs of our customers. This latest round of lane enhancements comes on the heels of a new on-time performance guarantee and freshly integrated shipping and visibility technology.”

Similar network improvements, in a phased plan, will be made throughout other regions of the country later this year. Specific lane enhancements and updated time-in-transit maps may be viewed on ltl.upsfreight.com.

Examples of the network enhancements include placing all of New England under a two-day delivery umbrella from Memphis, Tenn., and shipments from Charlotte, N.C., reaching destinations as far as Dallas and Columbia, Mo., in two days.

“There are clear customer benefits here,” Holmes added. “The expedited times allow customers to reduce the inventories they’re carrying. And the introduction of more direct routes also means that less handling of the freight is required.”

UPS Freight is one of the largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers and a leading truckload (TL) service provider in the United States with over 215 service centers and 18,400 employees. UPS Freight’s reliable, modern fleet of approximately 29,000 tractors and trailers offers a full range of regional and long-haul capabilities and an on-time delivery guarantee for all LTL shipments. UPS Freight also serves Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information visit upsfreight.com.