[11] On August 28, 1907, James E. Casey founded the American Messenger Company with Claude Ryan[12] in Seattle, Washington,[13] capitalized with $100 in debt.

[17] The use of a common carrier for delivery between all customers placed UPS in direct competition with USPS, and delivering parcels beyond the California border brought it under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

[19] Shortly before 3:00 a.m, on the morning of December 5, 1974, a package bomb exploded at UPS's Northside center on Beaver Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing one man and injuring 10 others.

The package originated in Erie, Pennsylvania and its destination was the Spectrum Cycle Shop, Forks Church, Armstrong Co. UPS claimed no liability in the incident, and the case has yet to be solved.

[32] In 2001, UPS acquired Mail Boxes Etc., Inc., a franchised network of packing and shipping retail centers across the United States and Canada.

[37] On March 19, 2012, UPS announced that it intended to acquire TNT Express for $6.8 billion, in a move to help expand its presence in European and Asian markets.

[38] However, the deal fell through in January 2013, after it was announced that UPS had failed to obtain permission from the European Commission and as such had been blocked on competition grounds.

[44] On January 29, 2020, UPS announced it was investing in UK start-up Arrival and ordering 10,000 Generation 2 electric vehicles as a step towards a cleaner, more high-tech fleet.

It was viewed as a move to steer the parcel delivery company through the turbulence of trade wars, technological disruption and the risk of a pandemic-induced recession.

[46] In March 2020, UPS expands its autonomous trips with TuSimple by adding an extra route between Phoenix and El Paso, Texas.

At the time of the sale, UPS Freight had about 14,500 employees, approximately 11,000 of them represented by the Teamsters union, and generated an estimated $3.15 billion in revenue in 2020 offering services across the US, Canada, and Mexico.

[49] In 2021, following the company's shift to target smaller customers to boost profits during the COVID-19 pandemic, UPS reported a 21% jump in their fourth quarter sales to $24.9 billion.

[50] In September 2021, UPS entered into an agreement to acquire Roadie for an undisclosed amount with the transaction expected to be closed in the fourth quarter.

[51] In November 2022, it was announced UPS had acquired the healthcare focused, Europe-based warehousing and temperature-controlled transport company, Bomi Group.

[52] In September 2023, it was announced UPS had acquired the Long Beach, California-headquartered time-critical, health care logistics company, MNX for an undisclosed amount.

[53] In October 2023, it was announced UPS had acquired the Los Angeles-headquartered reverse logistics company, Happy Returns from PayPal for an undisclosed amount.

[58][59] The Worldport consist of: UPS has five large regional air hubs in the United States, located in Ontario, California; Dallas, Texas; Rockford, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Mysłowice was chosen as the location for the new facility in 2017 due to its proximity to various business distribution centers and Katowice airport, where UPS has invested in additional air cargo capacity.

[62] UPS has 15 small package and four SCS operating facilities in Turkey, located in various cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, and Antalya.

[64] The hub also features refrigerators and freezers that can maintain temperatures between −20 and 25 °C (−4 and 77 °F) to facilitate the temporary storage of shipments, especially for critical healthcare deliveries such as COVID-19 vaccines.

[86] In July 2023, before their contract was set to expire, a strike was threatened over union demands of increases in wages, benefits, and air conditioning in delivery vans.

[85] UPS had previously announced the non-economic portions of the agreement had been settled, including to equip new delivery vans with air conditioning starting January 2024 combined with retrofitting existing vehicles with 2 fans, additional ventilation of the cargo area and shielding to reduce heat from the exhaust being transmitted to the cargo area of delivery vehicles.

Historically, the bulk of competition for UPS came from inexpensive ground-based delivery services, such as Parcel Post (USPS) or Choice Logistics.

[98] More recently, the continued growth of online shopping, combined with increasing awareness of the role of transportation (including package delivery) on the environment, has contributed to the rise of emerging competition from niche carriers or rebranded incumbents.

[106] In 2008, UPS started hiring bicycle delivery personnel in Vancouver, Washington, and in several cities in Oregon (Portland, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene, and Medford).

[107] In fall of 2018, UPS announced a new program in Seattle, Washington using pedal-assist electric cargo bikes (made by Portland-based Truck Trike) around Pike Place and other congested downtown areas.

[101] Consisting of a fleet of over 260 aircraft,[citation needed] the airline competes directly against FedEx Express, facilitating air shipments by the company in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.

UPS Sans was created by slightly altering certain parts of FSI FontShop International's font FF Dax without permission.

[131] UPS received a "striding" rating of 80 points out of 100 totals on the environmental scorecard by the Climate Counts Group for its efforts to lessen the company's impact on the environment.

[134] In October 2009, UPS became the first small-package carrier to offer customers the chance to buy carbon offsets to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the transport of their packages.