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Home » New UPS service simultaneously picks up returned item and delivers replacement
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New UPS service simultaneously picks up returned item and delivers replacement

June 13, 2011
Toby Gooley and Mark B. Solomon
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UPS Inc. said today it will launch a product returns service that, for the first time in North America, will allow shippers to receive a replacement item while simultaneously tendering the defective product to the same driver. The new offering will launch in October.

The service, called "UPS Returns Exchange," will be the first on the continent to combine delivery and pickup services to support reverse logistics operations, according to the Atlanta-based transport and logistics giant. It is primarily aimed at businesses in the high-tech, electronics, and retail industries, which have high-value products requiring special attention and handling, said Director of New Product Development Sumeet Shroff.

Under the new service, a UPS driver will deliver a replacement item while at the same time retrieving the item marked for return. The driver will help the customer unpack the replacement product, and then will pack the returned item in the same packaging before sending it through the UPS system back to the shipper.

These added steps will not compromise the carrier's tightly engineered time standards, Shroff said. "I can guarantee that we can do this very, very efficiently. We've built in appropriate time allocations to account for this. It is not going to have any measurable impact on the overall efficiency of operations or on other schedules."

UPS said shippers that use the service would no longer need to first send an empty box for the customer to pack a return thus cutting down on packaging material waste. In addition, the risk of any further product damage should be reduced because a UPS driver is overseeing the return's packing and handling, the company added.

The company said its tracking technology links the replacement and return shipments, providing real-time, end-to-end visibility of the entire transaction. This allows shippers with sophisticated information systems to track as a single movement transactions that typically are handled separately, Shroff said. It also enables more automation of returns management by allowing shippers to automatically issue credit to customers as soon as the driver scans the returned item. Additionally, shippers can automatically send a pre-alert by e-mail, voice, or text the day before the driver is scheduled to arrive, he said.

UPS Returns Exchange will be rolled out in October in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Puerto Rico. For several years, UPS and some of its rivals have offered a similar "swap" service in Europe, where packaging waste is highly regulated.

Transportation Parcel & Postal Carriers Reverse Logistics
KEYWORDS UPS
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Contributing Editor Toby Gooley is a writer and editor specializing in supply chain, logistics, and material handling, and a lecturer at MIT's Center for Transportation & Logistics. She previously was Senior Editor at DC VELOCITY and Editor of DCV's sister publication, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly. Prior to joining AGiLE Business Media in 2007, she spent 20 years at Logistics Management magazine as Managing Editor and Senior Editor covering international trade and transportation. Prior to that she was an export traffic manager for 10 years. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies from Cornell University.
Marksolomon
Mark Solomon joined DC VELOCITY as senior editor in August 2008, and was promoted to his current position on January 1, 2015. He has spent more than 30 years in the transportation, logistics and supply chain management fields as a journalist and public relations professional. From 1989 to 1994, he worked in Washington as a reporter for the Journal of Commerce, covering the aviation and trucking industries, the Department of Transportation, Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he worked for Traffic World for seven years in a similar role. From 1994 to 2008, Mr. Solomon ran Media-Based Solutions, a public relations firm based in Atlanta. He graduated in 1978 with a B.A. in journalism from The American University in Washington, D.C.

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