Brown No Longer: UPS Struggles for Relevance

Changing Logistics, Despired Leadership

Jim Casey, the UPS founder, once declared, "We do what we say." This promise, once the bedrock of UPS's success, now rings hollow as the company grapples with eroding market position, faltering financial performance, and a carousel of strategies that fail to deliver results.

The numbers from UPS's latest quarterly release paint a stark picture of a company in decline. In the second quarter of 2024, UPS reported consolidated revenues of $21.8 billion, a 1.1% decrease from the same period in 2023. More alarmingly, the company's consolidated operating profit plummeted by 30.1% to $1.9 billion, with adjusted consolidated operating margin at 9.5%. Diluted earnings per share fell to $1.65, with adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.79 representing a staggering 29.5% drop from $2.54 in the previous year.

Since 2017, UPS has faced a stagnant package profile. While its duopoly with FedEx in the US allowed UPS to grow yields above inflation for most of the last decade, this advantage has evap…