UPS to expand Access Point network

UPS said this week it plans to expand its Access Point network to 100 cities.

UPS Access Point locations serve as a replacement delivery address when consumers are not at home to receive a package or when consumers want a delivery to go somewhere other than their residence.

These points are geared towards consumers and small businesses that need convenient access to UPS, according to company officials. Typical UPS Access Point locations include local businesses, neighborhood convenience and grocery stores, dry cleaners, and delicatessens with extended evening and weekend hours, and they also include the company’s 4,400 The UPS Store locations in the U.S.

In October 2014, UPS announced plans to extend its UPS My Choice and UPS Access Point network. UPS My Choice gives consumers a one-day alert for when a package is coming and allows them to control the timing and location of the delivery. It helps both the consumer and UPS, because it makes it unlikely that UPS will not be able to make a delivery on the first stop or make multiple attempts to deliver a package. UPS said these services work in tandem to provide online shoppers and global retailers new personalized solutions geared towards managing residential package deliveries.

UPS Access Point locations are especially helpful for consumers in densely populated areas, for whom receiving packages can be difficult if they are not home to accept the delivery and UPS cannot leave the package in a secure location, UPS said. The UPS Access Point locations are already in place in Boston, Chicago, New York City, and the Washington, D.C. and San Francisco metropolitan areas.  UPS said that by the end of 2015, it plans on having more than 8,000 U.S.-based UPS Access Point locations and 22,000 throughout the world.

UPS said the Access Point locations benefit consumers receiving e-commerce orders following an initial home delivery attempt. And when a delivery cannot be made at a consumer’s residence, a UPS driver leaves a note indicating when and where the package will be available for pickup at a UPS Access Point location, with consumers needing a photo ID to get their packages.

In terms of how the UPS My Choice technology works in tandem with the Access Point network, UPS said consumers can use it to manage their home deliveries, with members able to reroute deliveries for free to a UPS Access Point location prior to the first home delivery or opt to have all deliveries taken directly to the location as their preferred delivery address.

With this week’s announcement, the company said these locations will be made available in roughly 100 more cities for consumers to pick up or return packages, including Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, and Tampa Fla.

UPS U.S. President of Operations Myron Gray said on yesterday’s second quarter earnings call that this news is beneficial all around for UPS and its customers

“It’s a win for the customer, for the companies and certainly for UPS as we’ll be able to drive delivery density,” he said. “Along with that we’ll continue to deploy operational technology at a faster pace. We’ll have over 70 percent of our drivers deployed on ORION (its On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation), a proprietary routing platform for its drivers rolled out in late 2013) by the end of the year. There are 10 projects that we certainly are addressing that either allude to hub modernization, automation or expanded capacity.”