A new shipping option from United Parcel Service – UPS Express Critical– is meshing all of the carrier’s same-day and urgent capabilities into a single system so customers can more effectively manage both package and heavy freight shipments together.
The new service gives customers a single point of contact, regardless of whether they’re shipping a small package or a 1,000-lb machine part, or if it travels by air or ground, domestic or international, said Dan Brutto, UPS president of global freight forwarding
“Customers now have a single call center, one bill and one website to manifest and track their truly urgent shipments,” Brutto said. “A single integrated operation for all urgent transportation needs is different. Traditionally in our industry, you called different places to move something big vs. something small. We think our approach is really going to help our customers because when every second counts, they’ll be calling the same person no matter what they’re shipping.”
A single “touch point” for all urgent shipping is a convenience UPS has attained by meshing the capabilities of UPS SonicAir, the UPS Airlines, and UPS Freight, its LTL trucking arm, Brutto added. UPS Express Critical also simplifies things on the billing end, he explained, allowing package shippers to bill their freight shipments on their package account and vice versa.
“This is a same-day critical service that works for any size or weight shipment while bringing tracking and billing together on a single platform,” Brutto said. “In the not-too-distant past, the need for same day or urgent shipping was driven by crisis situations such as a critical part breaking at an assembly plant. Today, such services often become a normal response to the pace of business.”
