Watch: How UP Teams With UPS for E-Commerce Ground Deliveries – RailwayAge Magazine

(Photo Courtesy of UP)

If you’re like most consumers, you probably don’t visualize that gaming console or gym equipment you purchased last night on your cell phone as traveling on a Union Pacific (UP) train en route to your porch.

But you should, especially if you chose “ground” shipment.

UP, and the nation’s entire rail network, play an integral role in transporting e-commerce boxes and packages, especially over long hauls when customers choose ground over an expedited delivery service, said Bonnie Michael, a Vice President for Transportation with UPS, the world’s largest delivery company.

UPS moves an estimated 6.5% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) each day and is one of UP’s largest rail customers.

Every intermodal container that UP transports for UPS carries between 1,800 to 2,000 packages. (Video and Caption Courtesy of Union Pacific)

“Our partnership with Union Pacific is a deep one, with a long history and a rich culture,” said Michael. “For more than 50 years, we’ve been reliant on our railroad partners to move packages that are less time sensitive than other deliveries over long routes.”

It is a partnership that UP deeply values and works tirelessly to enhance, as surging e-commerce leads to greater demand for intermodal service and the accompanying need for greater integration between UP and UPS.

Every intermodal container that UP transports for UPS has between 1,800 to 2,000 packages. That translates into 4,000 potential customers—the person who is shipping the product and the person who is expecting to receive it.

To put it another way, a train with 100 containers is transporting packages for upwards of 400,000 customers, many of whom are tracking their product and waiting at the end of the line for their gaming console.

“UPS is a great partner and a fantastic customer who makes our company better,” said Todd Lenczowski, General Director, Premium, Marketing and Sales for UP. “They push us to be faster, more disciplined and creative in finding and implementing solutions needed to meet the high-performance demands expected of both sellers and buyers in the e-commerce market.”

In turn, UP offers numerous advantages when it comes to long-haul transportation, including the ability to reduce highway congestion, GHG emissions, and reliable service through all kinds of inclement weather. Products and goods can also be moved seamlessly from trucks to railroads and back to trucks, once deliveries reach a distribution center, said Michael.

“Rail transportation, particularly during our peak season, offers best-in-class service, meaning the delivery arrives on time, with effective service metrics met,” said Michael, who oversees UPS’s partnership with the nation’s Class I railroads.

For the past six holiday seasons, UP’s service has been deemed “perfect” by UPS’s metrics. That …….

Source: https://www.railwayage.com/freight/class-i/watch-how-up-teams-with-ups-for-e-commerce-ground-deliveries/