UPS expands Worldwide Express service offerings to three more countries

Global transportation and logistics titan UPS said this week it has added three countries–Myanmar, Albania, and the Dominican Republic-to its UPS Worldwide Express (WWE) package service.

UPS Worldwide Express was first introduced by the company as a branded service in 2007. This service provides customers with guaranteed delivery on the next possible business day by 10:30 a.m., 12 noon, or 2 p.m., based on destination. UPS said individuals and companies of varying sizes can use it, but it is geared towards ones with time-sensitive international shipments. 

With the addition of these three countries, this service is now available in 117 countries and territories, making up roughly 95 percent of global GDP and 96 percent of real imports, said UPS. The company added that the service has been introduced to 52 countries and territories in 2016.

The UPS WWE service is especially beneficial for shippers in the retail, high-tech, industrial manufacturing, and healthcare sectors, in addition to consumers using it for urgent global shipments, said UPS. It also said it is leveraged by businesses whose products have a short shelf life and companies producing goods for special events that require last minute order changes.

A UPS spokeswoman told LM that the driver for the expansion into the three new markets it announced is based on UPS trying to match the Worldwide Express service in areas where it thinks there will be future growth, coupled with UPS trying to cover the globe as much as possible with premium services.

Prior to this announcement, she said that UPS customers on Myanmar, Albania, and the Dominican Republic only had access to end of day WWE service, with this expansion now providing them with the ability to receive their products earlier in the day, which, in turn, “translates into getting products to their consumers even earlier.”

UPS cited various benefits for the expansion into Myanmar, Albania, and the Dominican Republic, including:
-the Dominican Republic having recently become a strong market for U.S. exporters with a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries;
-adding Albania and seven additional countries in Europe provides businesses more options and demonstrates UPS’s commitment to facilitate growth in the region; and
-Myanmar, with a unique geographical position between India and China, has benefitted from improved accessibility to the global marketplace, with average economic growth was boosted by increased trade and investments by more than 7% annually, as the market has the potential to become a much larger player in the global economy

Looking ahead, the UPS spokeswoman said the company plans to expand this service to more countries in the future.