UPS announced that for the first time in the company’s 107-year history, it will operate all air and ground pickup, delivery and sorting networks on Black Friday.
The day after Thanksgiving, which this year falls on Nov. 28, is traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the holiday season. Online retailers, hoping to cash in on this phenomenon, have started offering special “doorbuster” discounts and other deals to try to appeal to bargain hunters and capture a larger share of the gift-buying public.
But up until now, UPS has only operated its domestic air-delivery network on that day. And last year the company was widely criticized for major problems that plagued its overburdened delivery system. By having all of its systems operational on Black Friday, the company is hoping to try to resolve some of those issues, according to Mark Wallace, UPS VP of engineering for US operations.
UPS hired a team of team of engineers and invested about $500 million in additional infrastructure — including about 6,000 new delivery vans 00 in an effort to avoid the problems that hurt the company’s reputation during last year’s holiday season.
Last year, a huge surge in shipments that came from online retailers as late as Dec. 21 strained the UPS network, causing millions of holiday packages to be delivered after Christmas Day.