Category: Industry News

On Thursday, FedEx announced that it will “temporarily suspend service in and out of Ukraine until further notice.” The decision to suspend service was to protect its team members, which is a “top priority,” according to FedEx.

The company says its monitoring the unraveling situation “and implementing contingency plans to minimize impact.”

Less than 24 hours later, UPS issued the same warning, saying that all of its shipping services into and leaving Ukraine have been suspended. Any international shipments with a destination in Russia are also temporarily suspended, according to the company.

UPS driver Seth Johnson made a bold bet one day when he was delivering to Sheldon Auto Supply.

After Seth arrived, a FedEx truck pulled up and a woman was the driver. So, Seth bet one of the workers at the business $100 that he could get a kiss from the FedEx driver.

The guy took Seth up on the bet, and Seth went out there and gave the FedEx driver a big kiss without any hesitation.

The catch: The FedEx driver was Jen Johnson, Seth’s wife of 14 years.

UPS. FedEx. Amazon.

All three logistics giants have set root at San Bernardino International Airport in recent years, fulfilling a grand plan to transform the former Norton Air Force Base into an economic engine for the surrounding area.

A pair of joint powers authorities oversee activity at the Third Street airport: the Inland Valley Development Agency and the San Bernardino International Airport Authority.

Formed in 1990 — four years before the U.S. Defense Department closed Norton as a military base — the Inland Valley Development Agency handles non-aviation operations, including development projects pitched for the 600 acres at the airport and 14,000 acres nearby.

A new Federal Aviation Administration regulation prohibiting Boeing 747-8 freighters and all 777 widebody aircraft from landing at airports where 5G towers might interfere with onboard safety equipment could have a disproportionate impact on major cargo airlines like UPS, FedEx and Atlas Air.

The airworthiness directive issued Tuesday said the FAA has identified an additional hazard from interference with radio altimeters beyond creating a landing danger in low-visibility conditions. Specifically, the signal interference could result in altimeters delivering faulty data to flight computers that control the aircraft’s pitch and put it in an inappropriate “up-down” position regardless of weather conditions, which is “especially hazardous” at low altitude.

Other systems could also be compromised, which combined with the uncommanded, inappropriate pitch inputs, “could affect the flightcrew’s ability to accomplish continued safe flight and landing,” the directive said.

Last week, customers at the UPS Store in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood got a pretty good demonstration of what the global supply chain looks like when you try to run it backward.

The first Monday of the year marks the traditional start of the holiday return season, which this year is expected to break records for returned purchases — and by late afternoon, the line of box-bearing UPS customers snaked nearly out the door.

“Oh my goodness — wow,” said Erin Metzger, half a dozen returns in hand, as she surveyed the crowd and the Jenga-like towers of outbound packages behind the counter. “I did not expect this at all.”

“It comes in waves,” employee Rebecca Yazzie said. “It’ll be quiet for a little bit and then we’ll get a ton of people all at once.”