BUSINESSES, CONSUMERS COUNTING ON UPS LOGISTICS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

50,000 Seasonal Employees to Help Deliver

430 Million Packages the Month Leading up to Christmas

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Nov. 17 /CNW/ - UPS (NYSE: UPS) employees are as busy as Santa's elves as they prepare to deliver logistics and packages to and from businesses and consumers this holiday season.

In the month leading up to Christmas, UPS expects to deliver approximately 430 million packages around the world. And on the busiest day of the year for UPS - Wednesday, December 22 - the company anticipates delivering 24 million packages worldwide, a nearly 60 per cent increase over UPS's normal daily delivery volume of 15.1 million packages and documents.

To handle this surge in volume, the company plans to hire roughly 50,000 seasonal workers globally.

"UPS is at the heart of holiday logistics for millions of businesses and consumers. In fact, more holiday packages are shipped with UPS than any other company in the world," said Alan Gershenhorn, UPS senior vice-president of worldwide sales and marketing. "With movements to and from warehouses to boats, planes, trains and delivery vehicles and then to customers' doorsteps around the world, UPS's global logistics capabilities really deliver the holidays."

The reliable and unmatched UPS global logistics and delivery network enables on-time delivery of holiday packages to restock store shelves or deliver directly to customers' homes. UPS also takes out the guesswork of package delivery by providing shippers and receivers full visibility of their packages. Once packages are in the UPS network, customers can visit UPS.com to track their packages. In fact, UPS expects more than 44 million online package tracking requests on Dec. 22, the busiest tracking day of the season.

Most UPS ground packages reach their destinations in three business days or less. Last-minute shoppers and shippers can rely on UPS air services to ship as late as Thursday, Dec. 23, for delivery on Friday, Dec. 24. To ensure on-time delivery during the holiday rush, UPS Airlines will fly more than 350 additional flights per day during Peak Week, the five days leading up to Saturday, Dec. 25.

Like the resourceful elves at the North Pole, UPS offers a variety of methods to help manage holiday shipping logistics:

    
        -  Let Us Do The Packing. Shipping holiday packages is fast and
           convenient when customers enlist the specially trained and
           certified packing professionals at the 350 The UPS Store(R) and
           Mail Boxes Etc.(R) locations in Canada. And participating The UPS
           Store locations offer the Pack & Ship Promise where, if a
           participating location packs a customer's item, ships it via UPS
           and the item is damaged or lost in transit, the customer will be
           reimbursed for the value of the item (subject to the lesser of
           actual value, replacement or repair cost), the cost of packaging
           materials and service plus the shipping fee. Visit theupsstore.ca
           for more details on the Pack & Ship Promise or to find your
           neighbourhood location.
        -  Do It Yourself. UPS Internet Shipping enables do-it-yourselfers to
           choose service preferences, pay by credit card, print shipping
           labels and track packages. With a printed label affixed, a package
           can be picked up by a UPS driver, placed in one of 404 UPS drop
           boxes in Canada or dropped off at a UPS Customer Centre, The UPS
           Store, Mail Boxes Etc. or other authorized shipping outlets.
           Shippers can visit UPS.com to verify the time-in-transit for each
           shipping destination.
    

For those on the go, UPS Mobile(TM) Apps offer a suite of mobile shipping related applications via BlackBerry(R) and Android(TM) smartphones. The free apps allow users to prepare shipping labels, track a package, calculate shipping costs and find a UPS location. These UPS Mobile features can also be accessed from any web-enabled cell phone at m.ups.com.

For more information on the holiday shipping calendar, green packing and shipping tips and to watch videos about the holiday surge, visit these online venues:

    
        -  The UPS holiday season media resource site -
           pressroom.ups.com/holiday
        -  YouTube - youtube.com/ups
        -  Twitter - @UPS_News
        -  Facebook - facebook.com/ups
    

UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including the transportation of packages and freight; the facilitation of international trade, and the deployment of advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. The company can be found on the web at UPS.com and its corporate blog can be found at blog.ups.com. To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS.

For further information: Dan Ovsey, APEX Public Relations, [phone], ext. 239, [email protected]