Ups Swot Analysis

Brief history on UPS UPS still relies on its chocolate-colored trucks, but United Parcel Service (UPS) aims to be more than a plain-vanilla delivery business. Seattle teens, Jim Casey and Claude Ryan started American Messenger Company, a phone message service, in 1907. They were soon making small-parcel deliveries for local department stores and in 1913 changed the company's name to Merchants Parcel Delivery. Service expanded outside of Seattle in 1919 when Merchants Parcel bought Oakland, California-based Motor Parcel Delivery. By 1930, the company, which had been renamed United Parcel Service, served residents in New York City (its headquarters from 1930 to 1975); Newark, New Jersey; and Greenwich, Connecticut. Starting with Los Angeles in 1952, UPS grew in relative obscurity as it expanded westward from the east coast and eastward from the west. The company was noticed nationally in 1972 when the US Postal Service referred to UPS as a competitor. In 1975 UPS crossed the border by serving Canada, and in 1976 it expanded to West Germany. It started air express delivery in Louisville, Kentucky, in the late 1970s. By 1982 UPS Blue Label Air Service (now UPS 2nd Day Air) guaranteed 48-hour delivery anywhere on the mainland and Oahu, Hawaii. Overnight service (UPS Next Day Air) began in 1982 and became nationwide by 1985. Moving to Atlanta in 1991, the company began to focus on customer service. As part of a technology revamp, UPS created the electronic clipboard used by drivers to track packages and digitize signatures. UPS broadened its services and expanded geographically to better compete with rival FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service. In 2000, the company formed its e-Ventures unit to develop subsidiaries focused on supporting e-commerce businesses. In 2001 UPS bought Mail Boxes Etc., a franchiser of stores that offer mail, packing, and shipping services. It also acquired global logistics management provider Fritz Companies, which was