UPS steps on the pedal for European coverage

Parcels giant UPS has redesigned its European ground network in order to offer faster deliveries from six countries in the European Union (EU) to Switzerland.
Customers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland and Sweden will benefit from a faster UPS Standard delivery service, with improvements of up to two days when shipping to 60% of the population of Switzerland, including the areas around Basel and Zürich.
Nando Cesarone, president of UPS Europe, said: “With this enhancement, we have now improved our transit times from 22 countries across Europe for our most economical service.
“UPS has committed to invest $2bn into its European network and infrastructure by 2019. These network upgrades are part of that investment which helps our customers to export their products in a more efficient way.”
The UPS move could be viewed as a reaction to rival US-based parcel carrier FedEx, which in May this year completed its €4.4bn takeover of TNT, an acquistion which brought with it a substantial improvement in FedEx’s European delivery capability. UPS tried to buy TNT in 2013 but the takeover was stopped by the European Commission.
FedEx has also announced plans to build a €200m parcels terminal at its mega European parcels sortation and freighter hub at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport.
The recent ground time in transit improvements are made possible by UPS’ "continued investment" in its integrated transportation network, including “several hundred million dollars” spent on facilities in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK.
“UPS has been helping to reliably connect European businesses of all sizes to the world for more than 30 years,” said Cesarone, adding: “These network enhancements are further proof of our long-standing commitment of providing high quality service.”