On August 28, 1907, United Parcel Service is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington. From the article:
"On August 28, 1907, James Casey founded the American Messenger Company with Claude Ryan[9] in Seattle, Washington,[10] capitalized with $100 in debt.[11] Most deliveries at this time were made on foot and bicycles were used for longer trips.
The American Messenger Company focused primarily on package delivery to retail stores with special delivery mail delivered for its largest client the United States Postal Service. In 1913 the company acquired a Model T Ford as its first delivery vehicle. Casey and Ryan merged with a competitor, Evert McCabe, and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. Consolidated delivery was also introduced, combining packages addressed to a certain neighborhood onto one delivery vehicle.[11] In 1916 Charlie Soderstrom joined Merchants Parcel Delivery bringing in more vehicles for the growing delivery business. In 1919 the company expanded for the first time outside of Seattle to Oakland, California and changed its name to United Parcel Service. The name change to United Parcel Service was to remind the company expansion that operations were still United under the same organisation and Parcel identified the type of business offered as part of its Service. Common carrier service was acquired in 1922 from a company in Los Angeles, California. UPS became one of the only companies in the United States to offer common carrier service. At first common carrier was only limited to a small area around Los Angeles but by 1927 expanded to areas up to 125 miles outside the city. In 1924 a conveyor belt system was debuted for the handling of packages for UPS operations.[12]
In 1930, a consolidated service began in New York City, and soon after in other major cities in the East and the Midwest.[3] The use of common carrier for delivery between all customers placed UPS in direct competition with the United States Postal Service and the Interstate Commerce Commission. The common carrier service was applied in cities where UPS could use the service without the authority of the ICC and state commerce commissions. The first city for UPS to use common carrier status outside California was Chicago, Illinois in 1953.[13]
Air service through UPS was first used in 1929 through private airlines. However, The Great Depression and a lack of volume ended the air service. In 1953 UPS resumed air service called UPS Blue Label Air with two-day service to major cities along the East Coast and West Coast.[14]
Expansion and diversification Edit
In 1975, UPS moved its headquarters to Greenwich, Connecticut and began servicing all of the 48 contiguous states of the United States. The expanded operations to all 48 states made UPS the first package delivery company to serve every address in the Continental United States. UPS went international in 1975 establishing operations in Canada and in 1976 operations were established in Germany. On February 28, UPS Ltd. (later changed to UPS Canada Ltd.) began operations in Toronto, Ontario. UPS Canada's head office is located in Burlington, Ontario. In 1976, UPS established a domestic operation in West Germany.[15]
UPS Next Day Air Service was launched in 1985 for all 48 states plus Puerto Rico. In 1988, UPS Airlines was launched with authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration. UPS Airlines became the fastest-growing airline in FAA history and today is the 10th largest airline in the United States.[16] Domestic air service was added to Germany in 1989.[17] In 1991, UPS moved its headquarters to Sandy Springs, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. In 1992, UPS acquired both Haulfast and Carryfast and rebranded them UPS Supply Chain Solutions. Haulfast provided the pallet haulage and trucking network for the CarryFast group of companies. By 1993 UPS was delivering up to 11.5 million packages and documents per day.
The large volume of UPS customers in the 1990s made UPS develop new technology for better efficiency. A handheld device called Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD) was created to record and upload delivery information to the UPS network immediately upon pickup by every UPS driver. In 1992, UPS began tracking all ground shipments electronically. In 1994, UPS.com debuted, and provided the perfect interface to make what was primarily internal operational information available for customer access. In 1995, UPS acquired SonicAir to offer service parts logistics and compete with Choice Logistics. In the same year UPS launched UPS Logistics Group to facilitate global supply chain management solutions and consulting for customer needs. In 1997, a walkout by the 185,000 members of the Teamsters shut down UPS for 16 days.[18] In 1998, UPS Capital was established to enable companies to grow their business through a comprehensive menu of integrated financial services through UPS.[19] UPS acquired Challenge Air in 1999 to expand its operations in Latin America.[20]
On November 10, 1999, UPS became a public company."