postal service see united states postal service . united parcel service inc. type public company traded as nyse ups dow jones transportation average component s & p 500 component industry courier founded august 28 1907 ; 109 years ago 1907 08 28 seattle washington u.s. founder james e. casey headquarters sandy springs georgia u.s. area served worldwide key people david abney ceo scott davis chairman products courier express services freight forwarding services logistics services revenue us 58.363 billion 1 2015 2 operating income us 7.668 billion 2015 2 net income us 4.844 billion 2015 2 total assets us 38.311 billion 2015 3 us 35.44 billion 2014 3 total equity us 2.47 billion 2015 2 number of employees 444 000 2015 1 subsidiaries the ups store ups supply chain solutions ups capital ups airlines ups express critical ups freight ups logistics ups mail innovations ups professional solutions ups i parcel website ups.com united parcel service inc. ups is the world s largest package delivery company and a provider of supply chain management solutions . 4 the global logistics company is headquartered in sandy springs georgia which is part of the greater atlanta metropolitan area . ups delivers more than 15 million packages per day to more than 7.9 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the world . 5 6 7 better source needed ups is known for its brown delivery trucks and uniforms hence the company nickname brown . ups also operates its own airline and air cargo delivery service iata 5x icao ups call sign ups based in louisville kentucky . ups boat on canal grande venice italy contents 1 history 1.1 foundation 1.2 explosion 1.3 expansion 1.4 freight business 1.5 recent years 2 company structure 2.1 u.s. domestic package 2.2 international package 2.3 supply chain & freight 3 competitors 4 characteristic features 4.1 brown 4.2 font 4.3 productivity 4.4 vehicles 4.4.1 package cars 4.4.2 other trucks 4.5 bicycles 4.6 trains 5 services 6 other codes 7 operating subsidiaries and alliances 7.1 ana ups all nippon united parcel deal 8 personnel dress 9 personnel structure 10 chief executives 11 system design 12 fuel economy 13 environmental record 14 employee theft 15 employment actions 16 brokerage fees for canadians 17 see also 18 references 19 further reading 20 external links history edit foundation edit on august 28 1907 james casey founded the american messenger company with fellow teenager claude ryan 8 in seattle washington 9 capitalized with 100 in debt . 10 ups logo 1919 1937 in 1913 the first delivery car appeared a model t ford . casey and ryan 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 . 10 ups logo 1937 1961 in 1930 a consolidated service began in new york city and soon after in other major cities in the east and the midwest . in 1937 the logo was redesigned to reflect the company s new name united parcel service . 11 all ups vehicles are then painted pullman brown . in 1937 the ups logo was revised for the first time ; it then included the tagline the delivery system for stores of quality . 1969 checker marathon from ups canada from 1940 to 1959 the company acquired common carrier rights to deliver packages between all addresses any customer private and commercial . citation needed explosion edit shortly before 3 00 a.m on the morning of december 5 1974 a package bomb exploded at ups s northside center on beaver avenue in pittsburgh pennsylvania killing 41 year old john metz and injuring 10 others . 12 13 the murder case was investigated by robert coll assistant superintendent of city detectives . the package originated in western ohio and its destination was believed to be a new kensington motorcycle shop . ups claimed no liability in the incident and the case was never solved . expansion edit in 1975 ups moved its headquarters to greenwich connecticut and 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 . ups canada s head office is located in burlington ontario . in 1976 ups established a domestic operation in west germany . 14 in 1982 ups next day air service was offered in the us and blue label air became ups 2nd day air service . in 1988 ups airlines was launched . 15 in 1991 ups moved its headquarters to sandy springs georgia a suburb of atlanta . in 1992 ups acquired both haulfast and carryfast and rebranded them ups supply chain solutions . haulfast provided the pallet haulage and trucking network for the carryfast group of companies . in 1995 ups acquired sonicair to offer service parts logistics and compete with choice logistics . in 1997 a walkout by the 185 000 members of the teamsters shut down ups for 16 days . 16 in 1998 ups capital was established . ups acquired challenge air in 1999 to expand its operations in latin america . 17 on november 10 1999 ups became a public company . in 2001 ups acquired mail boxes etc. inc. 18 in 2003 the two companies introduced the ups store brand and approximately 3 000 mail boxes etc. locations re branded . freight business edit in 2004 ups entered the heavy freight business with purchase of menlo worldwide forwarding a former subsidiary of menlo worldwide . ups rebranded it as ups supply chain solutions . the purchase price was us 150 million and the assumption of us 110 million in long term debt . on august 5 2005 ups announced that it has completed its acquisition of less than truckload ltl trucking company overnite transportation for us 1.25 billion . 19 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 center operation in dartford kent is opened in 2006 . on august 28 2007 united parcel service celebrated its 100th anniversary . in june 2009 united parcel service lobbied to have language added to the federal aviation administration reauthorization act . fedex ran a negative ad campaign called brown bailout . on march 19 2012 ups announced that it intended to acquire tnt express for 6.8 billion in a move to help expand its presence in european and asian markets . 20 however the deal fell through in january 2013 after it was announced that ups had failed to obtain permission from the european commission and as such had been blocked on competition grounds . 21 recent years edit during christmas 2013 ups as well as fedex failed to meet guaranteed christmas delivery deadlines for a small percentage of customers . 22 ups blamed the delays on large numbers of last minute online holiday sales which were spurred by retailer delivery guarantees and an unusually short holiday shopping season due to a late thanksgiving . 23 ups did not deliver on christmas day but sorters worked christmas afternoon and evening to load planes . most affected shipments were delayed by one day . 24 company structure edit ups s primary business is the time definite delivery of packages and documents worldwide . in recent years ups has extended its service portfolio to include less than truckload transportation primarily in the u.s. and supply chain services . ups reports its operations in three segments u.s. domestic package operations international package operations and supply chain & freight operations . u.s. domestic package edit u.s. domestic package operations include the time definite delivery of letters documents and packages throughout the united states . international package edit ups has service worldwide including israel s ben gurion international airport pictured above . international package operations include delivery to more than 220 countries and territories worldwide 7 including shipments wholly outside the united states as well as shipments with either origin or distribution outside the united states . supply chain & freight edit supply chain & freight ups scs for ups supply chain solutions includes ups forwarding and contract logistics operations ups freight and other related business units . ups forwarding and logistics business provides services in more than 175 countries and territories worldwide and includes worldwide supply chain design execution and management freight forwarding and distribution customs brokerage mail and consulting services . ups freight offers a variety of less than truckload ltl and truckload tl services to customers in north america . other business units within this segment include the ups store and ups capital . 25 competitors edit major competitors in the united states include united states postal service usps and fedex as well as regional us carriers such as ontrac eastern connection and lso formerly known as lonestar overnight . in addition to these domestic carriers ups competes with a variety of international operators including canada post purolator transforce dhl express deutsche post and its subsidiary dhl royal mail japan post india post and many other regional carriers national postal services and air cargo handlers see package delivery and mail pages . historically the bulk of ups competition came from inexpensive ground based delivery services such as parcel post usps or choice logistics . but in 1998 fedex expanded into the ground parcel delivery market by acquiring rps originally roadway package system and rebranding it as fedex ground in 2000 . in 2003 dhl expanded its us operations by acquiring airborne express significantly increasing its presence in the united states and adding more competition in the ground delivery market . in response to this ups partnered with the us postal service to offer ups mail innovations 26 a program that allows ups to pick up mail & packages separately from the main ground network and transfer them to a usps center or destination delivery unit ddu 27 for final distribution . this process is also known as zone skipping 28 long used by parcel consolidators . 29 ups also has a separate product called surepost which uses the ups ground network to deliver packages to the nearest ups depot which transfers them to the usps ddu for final delivery . 30 more recently the continued growth of online shopping combined with increasing awareness of the role transportation including package delivery has on the environment has contributed to the rise of emerging competition from niche carriers or rebranded incumbents . for instance the us postal service claims greener delivery of parcels on the assumption that usps letter carriers deliver to each us address six days a week anyway and therefore offer the industry s lowest fuel consumption per delivery . other carriers like parcelpool.com 31 which specializes in residential package delivery to apo fpo addresses hawaii alaska puerto rico and other us territories arose in response to increased demand from catalog retailers and online e tailers for low cost residential delivery services closely matching service standards normally associated with more expensive expedited parcel delivery . characteristic features edit brown edit the brown color that ups uses on its vehicles and uniforms is called pullman brown . the color is also mentioned in its former advertising slogan what can brown do for you 32 originally founder james e. casey wanted the trucks to be yellow but one of his partners charlie soderstrom stated they would be impossible to keep clean and that pullman railroad cars were brown for just that reason . 8 font edit ups commissioned brand consultancy futurebrand to develop its own font ups sans for use in marketing and communication material . ups