United Parcel Service (UPS) has informed MIT Mail Services that, as of May 1, the company will no longer deliver overnight express packages to MIT offices. Drivers will leave any express packages at the receiving docks in Buildings 3 and E19 when they deliver ground service packages.
The new UPS policy applies to all express shipments, including overnight "red" service, second-day "blue" service and three-day packages.
Mail Services will deliver the express packages to departmental offices after checking them in, along with the other several hundred ground packages received at the same time. Although workers will do their best to get packages to recipients as soon as possible, staffing is not sufficient to guarantee delivery of overnight packages as early as before. If a package is urgent and has come in via UPS, recipients may prefer to pick it up at the shipping docks in Building E19 or Building 3.
This decrease in service applies only to UPS air packages. DHL and Federal Express continue to deliver directly to MIT offices.
For those who need something shipped to them overnight, Mail Services strongly recommends that they have the shipper use either DHL (MIT's express partner) or Federal Express. Because many organizations use UPS as a matter of course, it's important not to ask simply for "overnight service."
Anyone with questions may call Mail Services at x3-6000.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 12, 2000.
