Does UPS provide service on Saturday and Sunday?
If you would like to ship something through UPS, you would want to know whether it could be shipped on any day of the week. However, that is not so. There are a number of reasons why UPS has such strict rules around deliveries that are made on the weekend. We at RunRex will try to explain this to you in the simplest manner possible.
It is pure economics
Most companies involved in shipping offer different services . They run business-to-business, business to customers and customer-to-customer operations. The mix of revenue offers them a spread of revenue, which allows them to support a very expensive shipping network.
Although they get good profits from operating in the single customer business, the bulk of their revenue comes from the business-to-business market. This huge chunk of low margin revenue is required to fund operations at UPS. However, most businesses operate only on Monday to Friday. Thus, they have to shut down on the weekends, which allow them to save costs. Generally, on the weekends, few packages are running, but the costs of the network are still there.
For them to operate all days of the week, they would need to have enough business to run on weekends. The cost of labor is a major consideration. By running on these two extra days, it would cause their cost of labor to rise by almost 40%. They would need to increase prices or increase volume to cover this cost. However, that would make UPS unattractive since others would still be cutting costs on the weekend.
It could still be economical
Under certain conditions, it could still be economical for UPS to operate on the weekends. For instance, there are certain routes where this could make sense. However, for the entire country, they would incur some major losses that are just not worth it.
It could also work if all the UPS customers were 24/7. That means they will still maintain the same volume on any day of the week. Sadly, this is not a reality in the US. Most businesses are not open on the weekend. Besides that, when they are open on the weekend, they have cut down their operations. It thus means, UPS operations on the weekend will still continue to be lacking on weekends or available at a premium.
UPS does work on the weekends
There are always some UPS operations working up to Saturday. However, these operations only run up to 8 pm. If a package goes beyond that time, it can only be delivered on Monday. However, UPS does not offer any delivery for Sunday. Thus, you should not count Sunday when trying to send a package.
The air packages have to be processed and labeled for Saturday
For the package to be delivered, the shipper has to pay extra to qualify for a Saturday delivery. The reason is that all employees working Saturday are paid overtime. If a shipper uses the UPS 2nd Day Air option on a Thursday, that package will only arrive on Monday. However, if they specify Saturday delivered, it will arrive on Saturday.
There is pickup on Saturday
UPS will still offer pickup services on Saturday as usual for international and air packages. They can be picked up via the UPS retail outlets, Saturday pickup, or the ON-Call Pickup.
There is no extra cost for the ground service
For those that utilize UPS Ground, packages will be delivered on Saturday at no extra charge. However, this is mainly restricted to metro areas. The pickup services in these select metro areas will also be offered on Saturday. The pickup is done via Saturday pickup, at all retail outlets run by UPS and the On-Call pickup service. For commercial customers, there is the option to opt-in to Saturday deliveries at no extra charge. However, a commercial customer has to ensure they operate on Saturdays so they can receive the packages.
Drop Box services are not available on weekends
As part of the cost-cutting measures, Drop Box services from UPS are not offered on weekends. However, if a person has a very urgent package, they can still use the UPS Express Critical service. These services run all year round no matter the day or time.
What it will take to offer full weekend delivery
UPS has really worked hard to ensure their services are offered at least six days a week. However, they run on an unionized workforce that is expensive to maintain. It is thus unlikely that full services will be offered seven days a week anytime soon. The only way that would happen is if all other companies also offered the service. Then UPS would have to join in to stay competitive.
Summary
Unless you really need to send the package, waiting the extra day to send a package is not that bad. UPS is a reliable service, and your package will eventually get there.