LTL/transportation news: UPS Freight rolls out service improvements in Central Illinois

Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 12/15/2008

RICHMOND, Va.—As part of an ongoing initiative focused on service improvements, UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload (LTL) subsidiary of UPS, said today it has officially rolled out transit time improvements between central Illinois and various U.S. points.

UPS Freight said in a statement that these service improvements place all of its Illinois-based coverage under a “next-day” blanket for major markets, including Dallas, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis, to within two days of the Central Illinois region. This endeavor comprises 250 lanes to and from Central Illinois that will gain faster transit times, said UPS. 

And this effort coincides with a transit time improvement effort UPS Freight has been focused on for the last 20 months, which include:

• an October announcement focused on improved transit times on more than 1,900 traffic lanes in eight Western states, reducing transit times by at least one day for shipments originating in service centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon and Washington;
• an August announcement focused on improved transit times on more than 1,200 traffic lanes originating in the Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States—for two-day lanes from Chicago to Dallas, Boston to St. Louis, and Philadelphia to Miami; and
• a May announcement focused on reduced transit times on nearly 1,000 traffic lanes originating in metropolitan areas in the Southwest and Southeast regions of the U.S. to myriad domestic destinations.

UPS said it has augmented transit time performance in roughly 12,000 lanes over the past 18 months, which provides shippers with faster service in two-thirds of all U.S. ZIP codes.

In an interview with LM earlier today, UPS Freight Director-Media Relations Ira Rosenfeld said that today’s news regarding improved Central Illinois service is dictated by customer needs, and he added that UPS is up to the task.

"As always, changes in the network are dictated by our customers needs, he said. “Other carriers may claim similar standards but this is UPS. There is a long road from promise to performance and shippers are savvy enough to know the difference. UPS Freight does make the difference in both reliability and visibility and that is why we have entered the arena and will be successful.”

And he added that the faster transit times affecting central Illinois are part of the UPS Freight mission to make transit time improvements on the 12,000 transit time accelerated in the past 18 months—with more on the way in 2009. The key to this effort, he explained, is implementation, which Rosenfeld said comes only after a thorough testing to ensure that UPS Freight can meet the new standards safely and on a consistent basis.

At a difficult economic time when other carriers are taking cost-cutting measures, UPS Freight’s financial viability and ability to effectively manage costs continues to allow the company to expand its capabilities and give the shipping community [high] value for its dollar, said Rosenfeld.

A time-definite guarantee: UPS officials said that today’s news includes time-definite guaranteed service for all shipments when moving under UPS Freight's current 560 Tariff, along with improved visibility, due to all UPS Freight shipments being handled by company drivers equipped with handheld computers. The handheld devices allow immediate input into UPS's information data network, making it easy to manage inbound and outbound freight shipments, according to a company statement.

These guarantees, which were introduced in November 2007 and took effect last January, promise shippers on-time delivery performance with no additional financial strings attached. The on-time service promise is for LTL customers who ship using the current UPS Freight 560 tariff in the continental United States.  UPS said the guarantee promises that customers can request a waiver of their freight charges if their shipment doesn’t arrive on time. UPS’ Freight 560 tariff is its zip-to-zip class rate that applies in the contiguous 48 states.

“The no-fee guarantee promises that [customers’ shipments] will get there on time…allowing customers to better control their inventory,” added Rosenfeld.  He also said that these transit time improvements, coupled with the reliability guarantee, give shippers the ability to take full advantage of UPS Freight’s capabilities as a regional and interregional carrier.