UPS Freight Sees Sales Growth, Aided by Technology, Marketing

The president of UPS Inc.’s freight division said he expects the carrier to continue expanding annual sales by about 10%, helped by better technology and marketing, Bloomberg reported.

Freight unit president Jack Holmes said UPS’ purchase of Overnite Corp. — which it renamed UPS Freight — plus the integration of 3,000 account executives from the package division into the LTL service and equipping all drivers with handheld computers composed the foundation for continued growth, Bloomberg said.

UPS — ranked No. 1 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers — expanded into the less-than-truckload segment in 2005 when it purchased Overnite Corp. for $1.3 billion.

Holmes noted that UPS will not combine the small-package and LTL divisions because of how the shipments are handled and because the parcel division is unionized and most Freight division terminals are nonunion, Bloomberg reported.