With the holidays coming along, along with increased travel and increased thefts of unguarded packages, UPS has more delivery options available. They just sent an email to customers (in their email list) outlining some of these options. You need a (free) UPS account to make changes. Options include:
- directly ship the packages to your designated UPS Access Point without even attempting to deliver it at your home/office address
- deliver the package to your designated UPS Access Point after the first delivery attempt is not successful
UPS Access Points include their own locations, such as the UPS stores (that were formerly Mailboxes Etc), along with a variety of other local businesses that are participating in this program. You can search on their website by zipcode. A small number of these places have locker access (I’m guessing it works similar to how Amazon’s 711 pickup program), you can filter for those in the location search results.
You can also make adjustments on a package by package level using their website or apps. More details at their website.
PS: I am not sure how this works when it comes to packages that are shipped by UPS but delivered by the Post Office, the UPS Mail Innovations.
This kind of flexibility and added security is a terrific idea. The option to have an item go to an access point after one unsuccessful delivery attempt is an especially nice touch.
Yes, it’s surprisingly flexible. Sometimes when you expect a more expensive or fragile item, it’s a good item to have it sent to a safe UPS locker if they don’t find you on the first attempt. It probably saves them a lot of money on those 2nd and 3rd re-delivery attempts as well.