Parcel Business Grew In The USA And Beyond

The private parcel business in
the USA was started by a
young man, 19 years old, by
the name of Jim Casey, who
had a six bicycle business
delivering packages around
Seattle in Washington State.
The business grew remarkably
into the biggest company of its
kind in the world called UPS or
United Parcel Services. It
started as an employee owned
company and this business has
continued in this manner, and
at the last count was still
employee owned with some
24,000 stockholders.
The business has not always
been kind to its employees and
there have been many strikes,
but each time it survives and
keeps fighting. From the small
beginnings it grew larger and
really did not lose its monopoly
until the 1970's when Federal
Express joined the fray and
expanded very quickly.
Federal Express was the
forerunner of quick delivery
times. Whilst UPS could deliver
quickly and parcels collected
one day were delivered the
next if possible, Federal
Express built a massive
business from flying its parcels
to destinations around the USA
and the rest of the World.
Many customers thought the
quick delivery times brought
about by flying was worth the
money and shipped most of
their deliveries to Fed Ex. UPS
responded by buying 8 Braniff
Airline jets and at the last
count had over 300 aircraft.
The fight between the two
giants has always continued,
but UPS gained the upper hand
in the 1990's, but its profit
margins had decreased and the
packages delivered went over
2 billion per annum.
These days all the companies
have to work with other
companies as the newer
worldwide companies have
started to expand. UPS tried to
fit into Europe by trying to gain
a foothold in Germany, and lost
a fortune but eventually has a
foothold but it is doubtful it was
ever worthwhile. They are still
small in Europe compared to
the larger local companies.
The development of these
companies set the bar for the
European countries even
though the local competition
was small. The development of
tracking parcels came from the
USA and now all the good
parcel carriers can supply it.
The benefit that worldwide
companies have is that they
have realised that you do not
have to own your own aircraft,
but that you can buy in the
services wherever you want.
This very often lessens the risk
and the extra costs are
minimal. The building of joint
relationships between parcel
delivery companies has
enabled companies to more
than compete with UPS and
Fed Ex without the capital
costs.