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A UPS-USPS Reunion May Be in the Works for Ground Saver Last-Mile Delivery

Ina Steiner
UPS shipping
A UPS-USPS Reunion May Be in the Works

USPS used to deliver millions of UPS SurePost packages for the private carrier until the end of last year, when UPS renamed the service UPS Ground Saver and “in-sourced” delivery to its own drivers. But a reunion may be in the works, according to UPS.

Both UPS and FedEx offered lower-cost but slower-delivery services by handing off packages to the USPS for last-mile delivery (UPS SurePost – now Ground Saver; and FedEx SmartPost – now FedEx Ground Economy). It made sense, since the USPS delivers to every address 6 days a week.

But UPS said it experienced more delivery stops than it had anticipated with Ground Saver, whose volume declined 23% in the second-quarter, year-over-year. UPS said it has reengaged with the USPS and pointed to the Postal Service’s new leadership and its excess capacity. (See the rough transcript of UPS’s second-quarter earnings call via Fortune.)

UPS also pointed out it works with USPS on air cargo volume, business it won last year, which it said was fully implemented and “going great.”

According to Supply Chain Dive’s coverage of the Ground Saver news coming out of UPS’s earnings call, UPS “made more delivery stops for the service than expected in the second quarter, hurting results by about $85 million, according to (UPS CEO Carol) Tomé.”

Written by 

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.

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2 thoughts on “A UPS-USPS Reunion May Be in the Works for Ground Saver Last-Mile Delivery”

  1. Nope, won’t use UPS saver anymore, if broken or damage, neither will let you file a insurance claim.

  2. So USPS should lose the 85 million? Fact is packages slow the carriers down big time especially with their small little trucks where they gotta sift through the packages piled up in the back. They also dont go to every home “anyway” – many areas have cluster boxes – so its an added trip driving down to individual homes. USPS should say no thank you. There is no reason for them to agree to any negotiated rates its going to be more volume at a loss – saying no to UPS may boost their ground advantage volume by forcing UPS to raise their rates…

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