UPS Announces Reverse Logistics Service

Package delivery giant UPS has announced UPS Returns Exchange, a combined delivery and pick-up service that aims to help businesses better control their reverse logistics for high-priority products. The new service is aimed primarily at shippers in the high-tech, healthcare and retail industries.

With the new service, a UPS driver delivers a replacement item while simultaneously retrieving the item marked for return such as a defective laptop computer. The driver assists the customer in packing the return item in the box used for the replacement, then it’s shipped back to the original company. UPS tracking tools link the replacement and return shipments, providing end-to-end visibility of the entire transaction, and customers receive a pre-alert the day before delivery.

UPS Returns Exchange is designed to reduce cost, cut CO2 emissions and optimize inventory management through improved visibility of the return and repair process. For example, those shippers who today send empty boxes to customers and then dispatch UPS a second time to retrieve an item no longer will have to take that first step, eliminating one delivery and saving fuel and cutting emissions. Also, waste is reduced by reusing the replacement item’s packaging for the return shipment. The new service will be available in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Mexico and Puerto Rico beginning in October.