Delivery giant UPS has a trio of announcements to make.
The first announcement concerns a pilot project with Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary and leading operator of self-driving vehicles. UPS will use some of Waymo’s self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to shuttle packages between some of its stores in the Metro Phoenix area and its hub in Tempe, Arizona. The minivans won’t be fully driverless; Waymo says it will keep trained safety drivers in the front seat to monitor operations. Despite the limited nature of the pilot, both Waymo and UPS say a “long-term plan” between the companies remains possible.
The pilot, which will kick off this quarter, is designed to “explore customer and operational benefits and illustrate how the Waymo Driver can deliver on behalf of clients safely, efficiently, and, eventually, at scale,” Waymo’s chief operating officer Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.
The second announcement relates to electric vehicles. UPS says it will purchase 10,000 electric delivery vans from a UK startup called Arrival, which it will then add to its fleet in the UK, Europe, and North America over the next four years. UPS’s venture capital arm will also make an investment in Arrival of an undisclosed amount.
Not much is known about the company’s Generation 2.0 electric vans, but Arrival has a unique approach to production. Arrival says it has developed a modular skateboard platform that can be adjusted to a vehicle of any weight, type, size, and shape. These vehicles are then assembled by the company’s low-footprint “microfactories,” which will be located to serve local communities. Arrival says its vehicles can go from the drawing board to shipped after just three months, and it claims it will be profitable after delivering just “thousands of units.”
Lastly, UPS says it will bring its drone delivery testing to San Diego. The company has been delivering pharmaceuticals and other lightweight cargo to people’s homes in North Carolina in partnership with CVS Pharmacy as well as Matternet, a drone logistics company. Now, it will start test deliveries with the University of California San Diego health system.
All three of these announcements dropped a few days before UPS is expected to report its quarterly earnings. The company’s stock price rose 20 percent over 2019, compared to a 13 percent decline for FedEx’s stock over the same period.
