United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS), commonly referred to as UPS, is the world's largest package delivery company. UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Since 2005, its operations include logistics and other transportation-related areas. It has been headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, USA since 1991; headquarters had previously been located in New York City from 1930 until 1975 when it moved to Greenwich, Connecticut.

UPS is well known for its brown trucks, internally known as package cars (hence the company nickname "The Big Brown Machine"). UPS also operates its own airline (IATA: 5X, ICAO: UPS, and Callsign: UPS ) based in Louisville, Kentucky.

UPS also owns The UPS Store (formerly Mail Boxes Etc.), a franchise chain which provides shipping, packaging, and copy services.

History

• August 28, 1907: 19-year-old Jim Casey and 18-year-old Claude Ryan founded the American Messenger Company in Seattle, Washington, capitalized with $100 in debt.
• 1913: The first delivery car appeared, a Model T Ford. Merged with a competitor, Evert McCabe, and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. Consolidated delivery was also introduced, combining packages addressed to a certain neighborhood onto one delivery vehicle.
• 1918: A new member was recruited, Charles W. Soderstrom, who helped manage their ever-growing fleet of delivery vehicles.
• 1919: Service turned into Oakland, California. The name United Parcel Service was adopted.
• 1930: A consolidated service began in New York, and soon after began operations in other major cities in the east and midwest. First mechanical system for package sorting. Accountant George D. Smith joined the company. The name United Parcel Service was adopted all over the country. All UPS vehicles were then painted the familiar Pullman brown, chosen because it was considered neat, dignified, and professional. Headquarters moved to New York City.
• 1940–1959: Services were expanded by acquiring "common carrier" rights to deliver packages between all addresses, any customer, private and commercial.
• 1952: Blue Label Air
• 1975: UPS began servicing all of the 48 contiguous states of the USA. UPS also established Canadian operations in 1975. On Feb. 28, UPS Ltd. (later changed to UPS Canada Ltd.) began operations in Toronto, Ontario with a single delivery vehicle. UPS Canada's head office is located in Mississauga, Ontario.
• 1976: UPS established itself in Europe with a domestic operation in West Germany. Blue Label Air.
• 1982: UPS Next-Day Air Service is offered in the US and Blue Label Air becomes UPS 2nd Day Air Service.
• 1988: UPS Airlines is launched.
• November 10, 1999: UPS became a public company
• August 28, 2007: Marks the 100th anniversary of United Parcel Service.

In March 2003, UPS unveiled a new logo, replacing the iconic package and shield originally designed in 1961 by Paul Rand.

UPS entered the heavy freight business with its purchase of Menlo Worldwide Forwarding, a former subsidiary of Menlo Worldwide, and rebranded it as UPS Supply Chain Solutions. The purchase was announced on December 20, 2004; the price was US$150 million and the assumption of US$110 million in long-term debt. Menlo Worldwide was the successor of Emery Worldwide. Emery was grounded on August 13, 2001 after a DC-8-71F crashed in Northern California.

On August 5, 2005 UPS announced that it had completed its acquisition of less-than-truckload (LTL) trucking company Overnite Transportation for US$1.25 billion. This was approved by the FTC and Overnite shareholders on August 4, 2005. On April 28, 2006, Overnite officially became UPS Freight.

On October 3, 2005, UPS completed the purchase of LYNX Express Ltd, one of the largest independent parcel carriers in the United Kingdom, for £55.5 million (US$97.1 million) after receiving approval for the transaction from the European Commission. The first joint package car centre operation, in Dartford, east London, was opened during mid-2006..

UPS's Political Action Committee has been the most generous corporate giver to federal candidates for every U.S. election since 1992, donating a total of $14 million through December 31, 2005 according to Federal Election Commission records.