LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Most physical businesses shut down in March, which has led to an increase in e-commerce business. UPS has been busy keeping up with the demand of products coming in and out of the Worldport global air hub in Louisville.
The volume of products has gone up 8.5% in the first quarter of the year via both air and ground.
UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer says next-day delivery has also been rising over the past year due to the popularity of e-commerce, but coronavirus has also been a factor.
“Because of the pandemic, more people are at home, they’re not going to stores because they want to shelter in place, so they’re ordering online and depending on UPS to deliver it,” Mayer said.
The numbers show people are staying home and ordering their packages to be delivered there. By the end of March, about 70% of UPS’s deliveries were business to consumers, meaning packages are delivered to a home rather than a business. Typically, the split is even, with about 45 to 50% of deliveries going to homes.
There has been more than just an increase in deliveries, there have been more flights scheduled too.
In the month of April, UPS added 200 flights to support FEMA’s Project Airbridge and other healthcare-related missions.
These flights are going from Asia to the U.S. and Europe, carrying PPE, ventilators, and other supplies.
“There’s this huge backlog of volume that needs to move, so we scattered all these additional airplanes for the purpose,” Mayer said.
For the supplies brought to the U.S. as part of Project Airbridge, the flights will land in cities across the country and then FEMA will distribute the supplies where they are needed.
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