Following an increase in package thefts during the holiday season, United Parcel Service has rolled out new access points to make package pick-ups safer and more accessible for customers.
“What’s great about the UPS access point locations is they are open late and on weekends. When the UPS driver can’t deliver a package to your home he will bring it to an access point location within 10 minutes of your home,” UPS spokesperson Natalie Norrington said. “The packages aren’t being exposed; they are not on your doorstep.”
UPS contracts small businesses like Oak Brook's Elegant Fashion which, in return for a monthly fee, will hold UPS packages for customers who are not at home to receive them, reducing package thefts during the holiday season.
“I go to the back, get their packages, scan it and then have them sign the tracking thing,” Elegant Fashion's owner Andre Clinton said. “I love it. It’s a win-win situation.”
UPS shipped a record breaking 5.9 million packages on Black Friday this year. On Monday, Dec. 15 the company is scheduled to process more than three million orders, the highest volume to date for a single day.
“That’s a heck of an increase,” said UPS’ Glenn Garvin, who works at their ground transportation facility that stretches larger in size than 80 football fields. “What that means is a whole lot of planning so that it works well for the customer. We’ve put an additional 1,000 people in this building alone for [the holidays].”
In addition to local business access points, UPS plans to roll out a locker system allowing customers the ability to pick up packages 24 hours a day, seven days a week by simply scanning their tracking slip.
