On January 1, the SurePost relationship between Atlanta-based global freight transportation and logistics services provider UPS and the United States Postal Service (USPS) officially came to an end, upon the expiration of the companies’ negotiated service agreement (NSA).
Introduced in early 2011 by UPS, SurePost is an economy ground service for delivery to residential locations. It is a “contract-only service that combines the consistency and reliability of the UPS Ground network, from pickup through transferring to the Post Office, with the cost benefits of using the United States Postal Service (USPS) for final delivery,” according to UPS.
“As we continue to leverage our track record of industry-leading service and reliability, we are insourcing our SurePost product, effective January 1,” UPS said in a statement on the Investors section of its website. “This product is an important part of the broad portfolio of end-to-end services available to UPS customers. By leveraging the strength and flexibility of our integrated network, insourcing will allow us to control the SurePost volume from point-to-point, provide reliable service and meet our customers’ needs more efficiently.”
For its part, USPS recently explained that prior agreements it has had with package consolidators have “failed to reflect operational and financial realities,” adding that its Parcel Select product, (which SurePost is ostensibly part of, in that SurePost packages were shipped using USPS’s Parce Select service) remains available for any business to use at its published rates.
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