LOUISVILLE, Ky — UPS has announced several enhancements to the virtual side of its network to give customers an integrated view of the progress of their shipments, no matter what mode of travel.

The changes are a result of the company integrating acquisitions to expand the geographic reach and shipping options for its customers.

One of the more visible improvements, to be unveiled later this month, will be a single Web page on ups.com where customers can track air freight, ocean freight and ground freight in addition to small package shipments. Customers can use this new page to track freight and small package shipments using either a tracking number or a customer-created reference number, such as a purchase order number.

On the freight side, customers using Flex Global View software, a supply chain management tool, will have access to the tool directly from the new tracking page at ups.com. Flex Global View users will be able to send, from this page, proactive delivery and exception notifications for freight shipments as well as get detailed visibility into the customs clearance process.
On the small package front, meantime, customers soon will have greater access to Quantum View visibility tools. For example, Quantum View Notify, which allows shippers to set up automatic delivery status alerts to their customers, will be accessible directly from the new tracking page at ups.com.

Just two months ago, Quantum View Manage was expanded from 22 to 31 countries and enhanced to give shippers more options to receive proactive alerts based on the level of service or exception, such as a shipment that needs additional information to clear customs.

Visibility into the movement of goods is vital to our customers success, said Dave Barnes, UPSs chief information officer, speaking today at the fourth annual UPS Technology Summit. Our technology integration efforts are focused on enabling our customers to know, with a simple mouse click, if their shipment left Europe on a plane, or on a ship crossing the Pacific and when it was delivered by truck in Tianjin.

In another key technology initiative, UPS will complete in 2007 the deployment of its signature handheld computer for drivers the DIAD or Delivery Information Acquisition Device to employees of several important acquisitions, including two in Europe. LYNX Express is one of the largest package delivery providers in the United Kingdom and the Messenger Service Stolica S.A. is one of the leading parcel and express delivery companies in Poland, Central Europes largest economy.

To integrate the DIAD IV at LYNX and Stolica, UPS modified software to enable the DIAD IV to scan non-UPS standard, barcoded shipping labels. The DIAD IV is being implemented at LYNX and has completed testing and is ready for implementation at Stolica. The deployment of approximately 2,000 DIAD IVs at both operations will be completed in 2007.

In the United States, approximately 4,800 DIAD IVs are being deployed at UPS Freight — the majority in 2006 — to provide customers with visibility into the movement of their ground freight shipments. UPS developed new software for the DIAD IV to accommodate freight shipments.