UPS has announced several enhancements to its web-based customer services to give customers anintegrated view of the progress of their shipments. It has also completed the launch of the UPS
Billing Analysis Tool, its global expense management technology for customers that convertstransactional billing data into a powerful solution for analyzing and managing globaltransportation costs.The Billing Analysis Tool not only enables customers to segregate, view and produce reportson international, ground and express shipping charges, but also breaks out associated costs such asduties, taxes and total customs and brokerage fees. It is now available in 36 countries and in 21languages.
UPS also said that one of the more visible improvements, to be unveiled later this month,will be a single Web page on ups.com where customers can track air freight, ocean freight andground freight in addition to small package shipments. Customers can use this new page to trackfreight and small package shipments using either a tracking number or a customer-created referencenumber, such as a purchase order number.
On the freight side, customers using Flex Global View® software, a powerful supply chainmanagement tool, will have access to the tool directly from the new tracking page at ups.com. FlexGlobal View users will be able to send, from this page, proactive delivery and exceptionnotifications for freight shipments as well as get detailed visibility into the customs clearanceprocess.
On the small package front, meantime, customers soon will have greater access to QuantumViewSM visibility tools. For example, Quantum View NotifySM, which allows shippers to set upautomatic delivery status alerts to their customers, will be accessible directly from the newtracking page at ups.com.
Just two months ago, Quantum View Manage™ was expanded from 22 to 31 countries and enhancedto give shippers more options to receive proactive alerts based on the level of service orexception, such as a shipment that needs additional information to clear customs.
“Visibility into the movement of goods is vital to our customers’ success,” said Dave Barnes,UPS’s chief information officer, speaking at the fourth annual UPS Technology Summit. “Ourtechnology integration efforts are focused on enabling our customers to know, with a simple mouseclick, if their shipment left Europe on a plane, or on a ship crossing the Pacific and when it wasdelivered by truck in Tianjin.”
In another key technology initiative, UPS will complete in 2007 the deployment of itssignature handheld computer for drivers – the DIAD or Delivery Information Acquisition Device – toemployees of several important acquisitions, including two in Europe. LYNX Express, Ltd. is one ofthe largest package delivery providers in the United Kingdom and the Messenger Service Stolica S.A.is one of the leading parcel and express delivery companies in Poland, Central Europe’s largesteconomy.
To integrate the DIAD IV at LYNX and Stolica, UPS modified software to enable the DIAD IV toscan non-UPS standard, barcoded shipping labels. The DIAD IV is being implemented at LYNX and hascompleted testing and is ready for implementation at Stolica. The deployment of approximately 2,000DIAD IVs at both operations will be completed in 2007.
In the United States, approximately 4,800 DIAD IVs are being deployed at UPS Freight – themajority in 2006 – to provide customers with improved visibility into the movement of their groundfreight shipments. UPS developed new software for the DIAD IV to accommodate freight shipments.
“We pioneered the use of wireless handheld computers to empower our drivers to collect andtransmit shipping data so that our customers could have immediate visibility into their shipments,”noted Barnes. “Technology is a key component of our corporate strategy. As a result, UPS has aglobal information technology infrastructure that is unmatched in the industry in its scope andscale.”
