The busiest shipping and mailing day of the year is upon us, with the U.S. Postal Service expecting to process more than 600 million cards, letters, postcards, periodicals, catalogs, and packages today alone. Gift givers who have already sent off their goodies shouldn’t encounter too many issues with their packages making it on time, but for the rest of us procrastinators, we might want to head to the post office, UPS or FedEx store sooner rather than later. [More]
delivery
Major Package Carriers Want To Help You Not Get Your Deliveries Stolen
By 12.11.15
No one wants to see their packages stolen from their front porch. Not even package thieves want anyone to steal their packages. That’s why, as we shift more of our shopping online, the major delivery services have devised new ways to ensure that our packages end up in our hands. [More]
Yum CEO Would Rather Pizza Hut Be More Convenient Than Have A Better Product
By 12.11.15
Pizza Hut has been fighting for a slice of the marketplace pie with a weapon that’s turning out to be rather ineffective namely, a complete menu revamp that added a bunch of new crusts, drizzles, toppings and doodads to their regular slate of pizzas. That whole idea of trying to compete with a better product is not the way to go, Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed says. Instead, Pizza Hut should focus on being more convenient than its rivals. [More]
UPS Having Trouble Handling Holiday Avalanche Of Online Orders
By 12.11.15
We already know UPS is renting additional vehicles to help with the onslaught of holiday deliveries, but it seems that’s not enough to help the company stay ahead of the avalanche of online orders this time of year. [More]
Amazon Adds 4,000 Items To “Prime Now” Delivery, Because You Never Know When You’ll Need A New TV In One Hour
By 12.10.15
When it launched, Amazon’s Prime Now service aimed to quickly provide customers with household necessities like toothpaste and paper towels. But now, just in time for the holidays, the company is apparently redefining what necessity means by adding some 4,000 items to the delivery roster including big-screen TVs, popular toys and baking supplies. [More]
Amazon Buys Its Own Fleet Of Branded Semi-Trucks (But Don’t Expect Them At Your Door)
By 12.4.15
You may soon see semi-trucks cruising around the highways and byways of America branded with the Amazon logo, not because the company is going to start delivering its own stuff, but because it wants to become more efficient at how its inventory gets from one company facility to another. [More]
Starbucks Starts Delivery Test In Seattle, Charges A $6 Fee For One Cup Of Coffee
By 12.2.15
Nearly two months after Starbucks launched a test of its “Green Apron Delivery” concept at the Empire State Building, the coffee giant’s drinks have hit the streets of select Seattle neighborhoods. While the service could no doubt be a welcome convenience for some, the added fee creates a bit of sticker shock. [More]
Amazon Shows Off Latest Prime Air Delivery Drone Prototype In New Video
By 11.30.15
Two years after Amazon debuted its delivery drone to the masses, the e-commerce giant is back with a new demo video showing the company’s latest prototype for its Prime Air unmanned aerial vehicle. [More]
Dunkin’ Donuts Now Testing Mobile Ordering, Delivery Service In Certain U.S. Cities
By 11.18.15
After announcing this summer that it would be dipping its toes into mobile ordering as well as mulling the idea of offering delivery service, Dunkin’ Donuts says it’s testing both features at various markets around the country now. [More]
Pizza Hut Delivery Guy Comforts Customer After She Takes A Spill
By 11.16.15
When you’re home alone, perhaps the thought has crossed your mind: “What happens if I hurt myself and no one is here to help me?” In the case of one Pizza Hut customer in Arizona who fell while waiting for her order, help came in the form of a pizza delivery man. [More]
Late Pizza Delivery Driver Calls Customer Morally Bankrupt And Fat
By 11.13.15
Pizza Pizza is a chain restaurant that some readers outside of Canada might remember faintly from a line in a Moxy Fruvous song. No? All you need to know is that it’s a pizza chain, it delivers, and it has a 40-minute guarantee. If your pizza arrives in 41 minutes, it’s free. Simple enough: unless the driver gets mad about it. [More]
KFC Is Getting Into The Delivery Game (But It Won’t Be Cheap)
By 11.12.15
If your dream is to be lying on your couch in your soft pants and eating from a bucket of KFC that you didn’t have to leave the house to get, your deep-fried wishes are about to come true. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Orange County or near Los Angeles that is, and don’t mind paying a hefty delivery fee. [More]
Amazon Expanding Restaurant Delivery Service To All Prime Now Markets
By 11.12.15
Just two months after launching the Prime restaurant delivery service in Seattle, Amazon plans to rapidly expand the service to 20 major cities already served by its quick-delivery Prime Now program. [More]
Target Expands Instacart Trial To San Francisco
By 11.3.15
Target started something new for that company about six weeks ago: grocery delivery service by partnering with the delivery service Instacart. It’s part of an effort to not only make same-day delivery an option, but to expand Target’s grocery business. The trial in Target’s hometown of Minneapolis was so successful, it’s expanding to another city already. [More]
Google: Delivery Drones Could Be A Reality By 2017
By 11.2.15
In the race to fill the skies with commercial drones, Google X Labs, the technology research arm of newly-formed company Alphabet, is throwing a potential date for when it could possibly start operating a drone delivery powered by its own drones: packages could be falling from above by 2017, says the company’s drone project leader. [More]
UPS Predicts 630 Million Packages Between Thanksgiving And December 31
By 10.27.15
FedEx predicted that they’ll process 317 million packages this holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, and now UPS has made their own prediction public: they anticipate processing at least 630 million packages this year, an increase of 10% over last year. There are two problems with that figure: UPS has been really bad at predicting package volume the last two years, and more of those items are being shipped to residential addresses. [More]
UPS Agrees To Pay $4.2M To Resolve False Delivery Claims With 17 States
By 10.21.15
We’ve all been there: you’re waiting for a package, you check the tracking, and it says they tried to deliver. Except you’ve been paying attention the whole time, and no knock has ever come. When it’s just one resident, that really stinks. When it’s a whole bunch of packages being delivered on government contracts, though, it’s lawsuit time. [More]
Amazon Expands Restaurant Delivery Service To Portland, OR
By 10.20.15
Consumers in Portland, OR, hungry for a nice dinner, but too tired to actually head out into the world, can now order via Amazon’s newly expanded Prime restaurant delivery service. Using the Prime Now mobile app, members of Amazon’s $99/year subscription program can view participating restaurants, browse menus, place orders and track the status of their delivery. Once an order is placed, Amazon delivery drivers pick up and deliver the food within an hour or less. The service first launched last month in Seattle. [Amazon] [More]
