United Parcel Service Inc. will begin Sunday pickup and delivery next year, joining competitor FedEx Corp., which announced the move to seven-day service in May.
The two largest U.S. couriers are under pressure to speed up deliveries as longtime customer Amazon.com Inc. morphs into a competitor by building out an overnight cargo-airline service, as well as a ground-delivery network.
“Building on an expanded relationship with the Postal Service to help deliver seven-day service to our customers makes good business sense,” UPS Chief Marketing Officer, Kevin Warren said in a statement Tuesday.
A five-year union contract approved earlier this year created a new class of driver that gave UPS the flexibility to deliver on weekends. UPS said it’s also starting next-day ground delivery and adding more points for customers to drop-off and pick-up packages, including 6,000 CVS Health Corp. stores.