The powerful Teamsters union is aiming to stop UPS from using drones or driverless vehicles to deliver packages in future, according to US media reports.
The union made the headline-making demand as part of an overall package of proposals sent to the package delivery giant earlier this week to kick off pay talks. The current agreement between UPS and the union, covering some 260,000 workers, expires in July this year.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Teamsters wants a new agreement to prohibit UPS from using drones, driverless vehicles and other new technology to transport, deliver or pick up packages. The union also wants the company to take on 10,000 more workers and eliminate late-night deliveries after 9pm, including in the peak delivery months of November and December. But it has not yet made any specific pay increase demands.
CNBC said UPS had confirmed the details of the Teamster proposals. "UPS is focused on a contract that provides the flexibility needed to remain highly competitive, given the challenge of an increasingly crowded logistics segment," the company stated.
UPS last year successfully tested a drone flying from the top of a parcel delivery vehicle which autonomously delivers a package and then returns to the vehicle while the delivery driver continues along the route making a separate delivery in the meantime. The test of the Workhorse HorseFly UAV Delivery system in Florida was in cooperation with electric truck and drone developer Workhorse Group.
Mark Wallace, UPS senior vice president of global engineering and sustainability, said afterwards: “This test is different than anything we’ve done with drones so far. It has implications for future deliveries, especially in rural locations where our package cars often have to travel miles to make a single delivery. Imagine a triangular delivery route where the stops are miles apart by road. Sending a drone from a package car to make just one of those deliveries can reduce costly miles driven. This is a big step toward bolstering efficiency in our network and reducing our emissions at the same time.”
The US delivery sector is undergoing rapid changes at present, with diverse challengers to the dominant package delivery giants UPS, FedEx and USPS. These include low-cost market entrants using crowdsourced delivery workers, the expansion of own delivery operations by retail and e-commerce leaders such as Amazon, and automated technologies that bypass traditional deliveries by people.
* Deutsche Post DHL has started new pay talks with German services union Verdi, which represents about 130,000 workers at the mail and logistics group. The union is seeking a 6% pay increase in a 12-month deal.
