A special delivery: UPS revisits two-wheel roots

In an industry that relies on high technology to provide ever-faster, more reliable deliveries, United Parcel Service Inc. has rediscovered a low-tech tool from its past.

The company founded in 1907 as a Seattle bicycle messenger service has gone back to its two-wheeled roots in downtown Atlanta.

Late each afternoon, two UPS couriers leave Peachtree Center riding silver mountain bikes instead of driving brown delivery trucks. Pedaling to pick up urgent next-day shipments in and around the city's high-rise office towers is faster, they say, than trying to drive vans through the rush-hour gridlock.

"Bikes are definitely quicker," said Reggie Kempson, a part-time UPS courier who has been riding bikes since the company began using them here in March. "We take shortcuts down alleys and across paths that trucks could never make it through."

Riders carry brown UPS satchels that can hold 60 or more next-day letters. The bicycles allow UPS to extend its geographic reach downtown and push back evening cutoff times for premium-priced shipments. Next-morning deliveries are a key battleground between UPS and rival FedEx, which holds a larger share of that highly profitable business.

UPS riders generally cover the area bounded by Civic Center on the north, Georgia State University on the south, Centennial Olympic Park on the west and Piedmont Avenue on the east. Riders travel those routes five days a week except when it rains.

Then the bicycles remain parked inside the company's downtown air center at 231 Peachtree for safety reasons. Bike couriers only pick up packages; deliveries are still made by truck or on foot.

"UPS started out 93 years ago in a small office with messengers on bikes," said Steve Ramsey, manager for the UPS center downtown. "Essentially that's what we've got at this location right now."

Of course, today's riders carry portable computers and digital pagers that would have been tough for UPS bicycle messengers to imagine nearly a century ago. The bikes have improved, too. UPS' 24-speed, all-aluminum mountain bikes are lighter and stronger than their clunky steel predecessors.

At $600 each, bikes are a lot less expensive than $40,000 delivery vans — and bikes don't have to stop at gas pumps. Couriers are paid the same hourly rates whether they collect packages on foot, riding bikes or driving — and Ramsey said he's had no shortage of bike volunteers.

Ramsey is considering expanding bike routes north to Colony Square by allowing couriers to take their bikes on MARTA trains. The bikes carry stickers showing the UPS logo and Web address, and Ramsey said they get lots of attention.

"The visibility is great advertising," he said.

The UPS bike program launched in Atlanta is likely to spread to other urban centers where the delivery giant faces similar traffic snarls. In fact, a few UPS managers in other large cities have already called Ramsey with detailed questions about how the program here works.

"I can't take any credit for the idea," said Ramsey, 52, a 28-year UPS veteran. "I just tried to make it work, and so far, it's been successful."