Parcel carriers transported 11 percent of the value of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2000, with UPS alone handling 6 percent. But as the global economy moves from the information age to the age of the supply chain, the way commerce moves changes, too. Limited inventories and time-definite delivery cycles create more frequent and smaller shipments – often on a global scale. This shift is ideal for expanding UPS’s core business.

Today’s UPS is more than a package delivery company, but packages remain the foundation of its business – a foundation that continues to grow. In 2000, UPS domestic volume increased 4.7 percent, roughly 563,000 packages a day. In fact, 81 percent of UPS’s revenue and 87 percent of its profitability were contributed by its core domestic delivery business.