BrownCafe

UPS said on Friday it was trying out a four-wheeled “eQuad” electric cargo bike for deliveries in densely packed urban areas, where bikes have better and easier access, to complement its push into electric vehicles.

The package-delivery giant is trialing around 100 of the electric bikes, designed and built by British firm Fernhay, in seven European markets and will also launch trials in the United States and some Asian markets, Luke Wake, UPS vice president of fleet maintenance and engineering, told Reuters.

UPS said it would also use four-wheeled electric bikes from other manufacturers for the trials, but did not disclose names.

As well as making public commitments to cut their carbon footprints, package-delivery companies are seeking new ways to cut the cost of last-mile deliveries given soaring e-commerce orders.

An Army reservist accusing UPS Inc. of improperly denying paid leave for employees who serve in the military advanced his lawsuit under the federal law giving job protection rights to servicemembers, according to a Washington federal court ruling.

Pay during an absence from work is a “right and benefit” protected by the “broad” statutory language of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington said Thursday.

And deciding whether short-term military leave is comparable to the other types of leave UPS gives its workers requires a “fact-based determination” that can’t be done at the motion to dismiss stage, Mendoza said, declining to dismiss the proposed class action.

Logistics company to gain network, storage and compute capacity to help it analyze new data coming from initiatives such as RFID chips on packages.

United Parcel Service Inc. is set Tuesday to announce an expansion of its 2019 deal with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Cloud as the logistics company rolls out new data initiatives.

As part of the expansion, UPS will receive increased network, storage and compute capacity. It will continue using Google’s artificial-intelligence and machine-learning tools to analyze its incoming data, which is expected to surge with the introduction of initiatives such as putting radio-frequency identification chips on packages.