Instead of stepping up to meet the 2021 pace of delivery, USPS announced a 10-year plan to extend service standards on their First-Class Mail. While FedEx offers same-day delivery services in select cities, they also recently attempted to clear backlogs by dropping 1,400 customers using their less-than-truckload service. Don’t worry– they were reinstated one week later. 

With same-day delivery services poised to be a $20 billion industry by 2027, UPS has announced that they’re considering joining the party.

When can we expect to see a UPS same-day delivery service?

At the moment, we don’t know. In their investor-day webcast, Chief Executive Officer Carol Tomé said, “We don’t have a same-day product today, as you know, and so we’re looking at it… We don’t have this all the way figured out, but we’ve got a team of people looking at it.”

However, it appears that UPS is already testing same-day deliveries in certain areas– they’re just not using UPS drivers. Bloomberg announced last week that UPS is using Roadie to execute same-day deliveries. The crowdsourced delivery platform utilizes unused space in passenger vehicles (they have 200,000 drivers across 20,000 zip codes) to move products efficiently. More than five years ago, UPS saw Roadie’s potential and invested in the startup. Now, it appears that they may be set to reap the rewards.

What logistical issues surround UPS same-day deliveries?

While Roadie seems like a perfect solution, the Teamsters union may believe otherwise. The union, which represents UPS drivers, is notorious for speaking up when UPS deliveries are outsourced. 

Amazon’s Same-Day Delivery is made possible by stockpiling inventory at warehouses across the country. However, the network of UPS warehouses are designed to sort and ship packages– not store them. When it comes to same day deliveries, UPS has infrastructure issues to overcome. 

One thing is for certain– the “bring it to me” economy is here to stay. The convenience of deliveries that arrive in record time is one of the only things we want to keep from the pandemic.

As we learn more about UPS same-day deliveries, you’ll be the first to know. In the meantime, reach out to the team at ShipRx if your next-day deliveries aren’t arriving on time. Our best in class parcel audit software verifies 40 factors to confirm refunds you’re owed. You’re paying for fast deliveries– you deserve refunds when you receive anything less. When you use ShipRx for your parcel audits, you don’t pay anything until we’ve recovered your refunds.

Brittany ShipRx Contributor