Locator: 48665UPS.
UPS drivers: $170,000 in pay and benefits.
United Parcel Service is offering buyouts to delivery drivers for the first time in its 117-year history. The company is seeking cost savings because of stagnant parcel volumes, rising labor costs and a long slump in the company’s stock price.
UPS employs around 330,000 full- and part-time delivery drivers, clerks and package handlers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Full-time drivers are eligible for a buyout, the company said. UPS and the union declined to say how many full-time drivers UPS employs.
In 2023, UPS offered buyouts to its pilots in an effort to reduce head count and costs; nearly 200 pilots took the offer.
UPS decided to offer buyouts to its drivers because the company is navigating “an unprecedented business landscape” and reorganizing its network, a company spokesman said.
UPS drivers are among the highest-paid delivery drivers in the U.S. The average full-time driver will earn around $170,000 annually, including benefits, by the end of a five-year contract that UPS signed with the Teamsters in 2023. Many investors thought the company conceded too much ground to the union. UPS shares are down about 45% since July 24, 2023, the day before the company and the union reached their agreement.
UPS reported a 3.5% decline in the average daily package volume in the U.S. for the first quarter of this year, and has said it would deliver fewer packages for its largest customer, Amazon.com, because they aren’t profitable enough. In April, UPS said it would cut 20,000 operational jobs this year.
In our apartment complex:
- for every UPS truck that drives through the complex, I see six or seven Amazon vans and/or contracted POVs
- when getting out of a truck, a UPS driver has one package/box; the Amazon driver has three to five packages/boxes
