Behind the Scenes of UPS Summary

The United Parcel Services boasts one of the largest and most effective delivery services in the world. From Thanksgiving to Christmas alone, the company delivers more than 500 million packages around the globe. UPS provides a model that other delivery services aim to replicate by using an efficient cubing system to manage package costs and advanced logistics to ensure that packages arrive on time and in excellent condition.
Packaging
On the retail side of the UPS, everything is laid out for the customer and pre-printed packages and envelopes are ready for customers in a hurry. Packages are dropped off, paid for and customs forms filled out in as little as 15 minutes. The attendant taking the package is only one of the many people working in a typical office. Once you pay for your package and ship it off, the package goes through a remarkable sorting system with thousands of conveyor belts to get your package safely to its destination.
Sorting
The conveyor belts automatically sort packages based on the dimensions and shape of the box. A six-sided box gets sorted to a different conveyor belt and than an irregular shaped box. Humans play little part in the actual sorting of packages. These intelligently designed belts automatically detect the type of package and sort it through a series of belt loops to ensure that the package arrives at the correct location. Conveyor belts not only sort by size, shape and weight, but also by city, state, zip code and country. All of the belts operate seamlessly to organize and sort packages safely without the potential for dropping or breakage.
Irregular shaped boxes and small boxes get placed on trays to prevent them from getting caught along the belt loops. Standard sized boxes go through the belts on their own. Employees check for weak packages along the way and apply tape when necessary to prevent a package from opening up and creating a mess on the belts. At the end of the sorting process, the packages are placed on a plane quickly and efficiently to arrive at their destination. The packages get placed in large containers to prevent them from getting lost or moved around while in transit. A pre-load assist label, also known as a PAL, gets placed on each package that tells the employees where to send the packages. This makes it easier for delivery drivers to quickly determine the destination address.
Delivery
One little known fact about the delivery service involves the graveyard shift workers and how they unload cargo from jets in the middle of the night. Even though the offices close, these workers continue to accept and manage new packages. Imagine a 757 dropping down and within 30 seconds the workers start unloading packages from the plane. This time is just enough for the engines to slow down to a point where it’s safe to board. The plane blades haven’t even stopped spinning when the belt and deck loaders start taking packages off the aircraft. Each plane carries more than 14,000 packages that must be taken off the plane and transferred to the sort facility. It’s a mover companies worst nightmare, but these workers do it day in and day out with a nominal number of incidents.
In less than 90 minutes, packages are removed from the plane and placed on UPS trucks that go out for delivery. UPS manages this workload every morning at 96 airports in the continental United States and at 81 international airports. The secret to the effective and efficient system is world-wide consistency. Everywhere these workers go, the same system is used to unload these planes. This makes it possible to keep a streamlined and effective system that works in any country, irrespective of language barriers and cultural differences. The workers know the process and pilots know exactly what to expect no matter what country is accepting the packages.