Did you know that in its earliest days, UPS actually started out on bicycles as the American Messenger Company? Originally founded in 1907, it wasn’t until 1913 that the company acquired its first automobile – of course a Ford Model T. In 1919 the company changed their name to United Parcel Service, and the rest is well, history.
Things have obviously changed substantially since those early days. UPS is now the world’s largest package delivery company operating in more than 200 countries world wide. Why does all of this matter for a bicycle related website? Because Bikeflights.com just announced that they are shipping through UPS.
Bicycles are expensive to ship. Even though they are often light, the boxes are big and push the dimensions of what’s considered oversize. Because of that, Bikeflights.com realized they could offer lower prices if they had a high volume of bike shipments. We’ve shipped a number of bikes with Bikeflights.com over the years, and the pricing has always been quite reasonable – though the bikes were shipped via FedEx.
Now, the brand is switching primary carriers to UPS. According to Vice President Sue George, that doesn’t mean that BikeFlights will no longer use FedEx at all, but that the switch to UPS will offer more benefits to their customers. Pricing should stay the same (or potentially lower) given that UPS has an increased reach to more countries and possibly better rates. They also have three times as many partner carrier locations for pickup and dropoff, and apparently better service for e-commerce customers.
Mostly, the experience with BikeFlights.com should remain the same, just that your bike will arrive in a brown truck rather than white. UPS services are effective immediately, though some features will be rolled out over the next few months.
