UPS has restarted normal deliveries to Puerto Rico after flying in 17 planeloads of emergency supplies to the hurricane-hit island over the last few weeks, and is separately also expanding in Vietnam.
The company said that air shipments, small package, and some freight services are now available in 149 of Puerto Rico’s 176 zip codes, although operating conditions remain difficult, deliveries may be delayed and transit time guarantees remain suspended while it works through a backlog of packages for delivery. UPS has more than 470 employees and seven package facilities on the island.
In addition, UPS has established a special hurricane aid rate discount, which can be applied at the time of shipping, for packages shipped from the U.S. to Puerto Rico and selected Caribbean destinations during the rest of October.
“We are pleased to begin operations again in Puerto Rico, though the situation is dynamic. Power outages, many impassable roads, and damaged communications infrastructure are impacting our ability to operate normally,” said UPS Americas Region President, Romaine Seguin.
UPS and The UPS Foundation have been supporting relief operations for Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria devastated the island, and have operated 17 relief charter flights, transporting more than 1.7 million pounds of relief supplies for organisations including UNICEF, FEMA, CDC, Salvation Army and others. At the same time, UPS employees have been working at a grassroots level throughout the Caribbean to support local relief activities.
Separately, UPS announced that it has enhanced its services in 10 provinces across central and southern Vietnam. The company has reduced transit times for export and import shipments moving within Asia from two days to one, and improved shipment times from Europe from three days to two. In addition, the cut-off times for pick-up have been extended by up to three hours.
UPS also recently enhanced services in nine Northern provinces. Customers in a total of 19 provinces across the country now benefit from greater control over import and export shipments with time-definite express and freight delivery services, better shipment visibility, improved regulatory compliance and other benefits.
“As a trade enabler, UPS is focused on reducing barriers for businesses looking to engage in cross-border commerce,” said Daryl Tay, Managing Director of UPS Vietnam. “Suppliers are under increasing pressure to provide more products and services of higher quality, at greater speed, and at lower cost. By offering later export cut-off times and improved transit times, UPS’s customers in Vietnam can extend their production lead times to process more orders and still deliver goods to satisfy their end-consumers’ needs.”
