Skip to main content

UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC

For the period ended Dec 31, 2024. Filed Feb 18, 2025.

View on SEC.gov

About this filing

A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.

FY2024 · Filed Feb 18, 2025

UPS$108.30-2.5%Stored close · as of Nov 6, 2026

Extracted filing text, with the paragraph anchors used by the comparison.

See the whole filing, with its images and exhibits
Contents

Supplemental Information - Items Affecting Comparability

We supplement the reporting of our financial information determined under generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") with certain non-GAAP adjusted financial measures.

Non-GAAP adjusted financial measures should be considered in addition to, and not as an alternative for, our reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our non-GAAP adjusted financial measures do not represent a comprehensive basis of accounting and therefore may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

Non-GAAP adjusted amounts reflect the following (in millions):

Year Ended December 31,
Non-GAAP Adjustments20242023
Operating Expenses:
Transformation Strategy Costs:
Transformation 1.0$—$13
Spans and Layers—86
Business Portfolio Review2984
Financial Systems5436
Other Initiatives—4
Transformation 2.0 Total83210
Fit to Serve204212
Network Reconfiguration and Efficiency Reimagined35—
Total Transformation Strategy Costs322435
Gain on Divestiture of Coyote(156)—
One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter88—
Goodwill and Asset Impairment Charges108236
One-Time Compensation Payment—61
Expense for Regulatory Matter45—
Multiemployer Pension Plan Withdrawal Expense19—
Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Operating Expenses$426$732
Other Income and (Expense):
Defined Benefit Pension and Postretirement Medical Plan Loss$665$359
Interest Expense Associated with One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter6—
Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Other Income and (Expense)$671$359
Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Income Before Income Taxes$1,097$1,091
Income Tax (Benefit) Expense:
Transformation Strategy Costs:
Transformation 1.0$—$3
Spans and Layers—21
Business Portfolio Review715
Financial Systems1310
Other Initiatives—1
Transformation 2.0 Total2047
Fit to Serve4952
Network Reconfiguration and Efficiency Reimagined8—
Total Transformation Strategy Costs77102
Gain on Divestiture of Coyote(4)—
One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter——
Goodwill and Asset Impairment Charges2743
One-Time Compensation Payment—15
Expense for Regulatory Matter——
Multiemployer Pension Plan Withdrawal Expense5—
Defined Benefit Pension and Postretirement Medical Plan Loss15985
Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Income Tax Expense$264$245
Total Adjustments to Non-GAAP Net Income$833$846

The income tax impacts of these items are calculated by multiplying the statutory tax rates applicable in each tax jurisdiction, including the U.S. federal jurisdiction and various U.S. state and non-U.S. jurisdictions, by the tax-deductible adjustments. The blended average effective income tax rates for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 were 24.1% and 22.5%, respectively.

We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of the following items:

Transformation Strategy Costs

We exclude the impact of charges related to activities within our transformation strategy. Our transformation activities have spanned several years to fundamentally change the spans and layers of our organization structure, processes, technologies and the composition of our business portfolio. While earlier stages of these transformation activities were complete in 2023 (Transformation 1.0), certain systems implementations and portfolio review activities (Transformation 2.0) are ongoing and expected to continue through 2025. We previously announced initiatives under Fit to Serve to right-size our business which resulted in a workforce reduction of approximately 14,000 positions, primarily within management, throughout 2024 and contributed to a more efficient operating model and enhanced responsiveness to changing market dynamics. Various circumstances precipitated these initiatives, including identification and prioritization of investments as a result of executive leadership changes, developments and changes in competitive landscapes, inflationary pressures, consumer behaviors, and other factors including post-COVID normalization and volume diversions attributed to our 2023 labor negotiations.

Our transformation strategy has included the following programs and initiatives:

Transformation 1.0: In the first quarter of 2018, we announced and began implementation of a multi-year, enterprise-wide program contemplating a reduction in non-operations management personnel, investments impacting global direct and indirect operating costs, and changes in processes and technology, which were undertaken and completed as multiple discrete initiatives (such projects, collectively, “Transformation 1.0”). In 2018, we announced that we expected to achieve approximately $1.0 billion in savings, which would benefit earnings, from Transformation 1.0. On a cumulative basis and net of amounts reinvested into the business, we had substantially achieved the expected benefits associated with Transformation 1.0 as of the second quarter of 2020. Transformation 1.0 was completed in 2023.

Transformation 2.0: Based on a number of factors including evaluating efficiencies gained as a part of Transformation 1.0, and in connection with changes in our executive leadership in 2020, we identified and reprioritized certain then-current and future investments, including additional investments in our workforce, portfolio of businesses and technology (such projects, collectively, “Transformation 2.0”). Specifically, we identified opportunities to reduce spans and layers of management, began a review of our business portfolio and identified opportunities to invest in certain technologies, including financial reporting and certain schedule, time and pay systems, to reduce global indirect operating costs, provide better visibility, and reduce reliance on legacy systems and coding languages. Our organizational structure review indicated an opportunity to realize initial savings of approximately $400 million with potential opportunities to save up to an additional $240 million through the reduction of spans and layers of management with an anticipation that these savings would be recurring. The business portfolio review was expanded in 2022. As a result, we determined to exit certain businesses that were not aligned with our corporate strategy and determined to make new investments into certain businesses, including healthcare-focused businesses, better aligned to our strategic targets. In connection therewith, we incurred costs primarily consisting of outside professional fees related to these reviews and other costs associated with these transactions. Lastly, our review of our systems and technologies identified certain areas of our business that were reliant on outdated technologies. Our reviews determined that continued use of these legacy technologies would likely increase maintenance costs and that investments into new technologies would enhance our ability to leverage our data and allow us to establish a more flexible system architecture. As of December 31, 2023, we substantially completed our initiatives to reduce spans and layers of management and achieved savings in line with our anticipated benefits. Our ongoing efforts under Transformation 2.0 include initiatives related to our financial systems and our business portfolio review. As of December 31, 2024, we have incurred $798 million of costs as part of Transformation 2.0. Transformation 2.0 initiatives are expected to conclude during 2025 with anticipated remaining costs of approximately $90 million primarily related to completion of our technology initiatives. Costs associated with Transformation 2.0 have primarily consisted of compensation and benefit costs related to reductions in our workforce and fees paid to third-party consultants. Additional detail relating to the projects, initiatives and timing of costs as a part of Transformation 2.0 are contained in the table above. Investments in technology are expected to provide enhanced quality of reporting for both internal and external purposes in part through simplification and standardization of data to better enable migration into cloud-based tools and automation of manual activities, including transitioning general ledger, consolidation, and planning tools along with U.S. payroll from older programs and software supporting our freight forwarding business. These efforts to enhance our technology are expected to reduce the need for future investments; we expect to begin to realize benefits therefrom in 2025. Investments in our business portfolio review are expected to lead to better alignment of our businesses in support of our corporate strategy. We are realigning businesses within Supply Chain Solutions to better execute our strategy; the operational performance of these businesses is included in our GAAP and non-GAAP adjusted results.

Fit to Serve: In 2023, a number of factors, including macroeconomic headwinds and volume diversion resulting from our labor negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, contributed to volume declines in our U.S. Domestic Package business. In addition, our International Package and Supply Chain Solutions businesses were also negatively impacted by a number of challenging macroeconomic conditions during 2023. In response to these factors, we began to undertake our Fit to Serve initiative with the intent to right-size our business to create a more efficient operating model that was more responsive to market dynamics through a workforce reduction of approximately 14,000 positions, primarily within management, throughout 2024. We have incurred total costs of $416 million under Fit to Serve, which primarily consist of benefit costs related to reductions in our workforce. We expect to complete this initiative during 2025 with expected remaining costs of approximately $45 million. We achieved savings of approximately $1.0 billion in 2024 through reductions in our compensation and benefit expense.

Network Reconfiguration and Efficiency Reimagined: On January 30, 2025, in connection with our agreement in principle with our largest customer, we announced a network reconfiguration which is expected to lead to consolidations of our facilities and workforce as well as end-to-end process redesign from 2025 through 2027. Our network reconfiguration is expected to result in exit activities that could result in the closure of up to 10% of our buildings in 2025, a reduction in the size of our vehicle and aircraft fleets, and a decrease in the size of our workforce. The costs directly associated with these exit activities are in addition to operational costs that we may incur. We are not yet able to determine the specific assets or extent of our workforce that will be impacted by our network redesign, the timing of those future changes or the associated charges we will incur and therefore are not currently able to provide an estimate of the total cost or the cost by period. We expect that impacted assets will remain in use during some or all of the periods of our network reconfiguration.

We expect to partially offset costs to complete our network reconfiguration through end-to-end process redesign carried out during our network reconfiguration through our Efficiency Reimagined initiatives. These initiatives are being undertaken to align our organizational processes to the operational changes expected to occur in our network reconfiguration and drive organizational efficiency. These initiatives are expected to yield approximately $1.0 billion in annualized savings beginning in 2025. We incurred related costs of $35 million in the year ended December 31, 2024. We expect to incur related costs of approximately $300 to $400 million during 2025, and incremental costs in 2026 and 2027, to complete the program which will primarily consist of outside professional services and severance costs. Upon the completion of our network reconfiguration and Efficiency Reimagined initiatives, we expect to realize further benefits in subsequent periods from lower expense, including depreciation, compensation and benefits, as well as lower capital requirements.

We do not consider the related costs to be ordinary because each program involves separate and distinct activities that may span multiple periods and are not expected to drive incremental revenue, and because the scope of the programs exceeds that of routine, ongoing efforts to enhance profitability. These initiatives are in addition to ordinary, ongoing efforts to enhance our business performance.

For more information regarding transformation strategy activities, see note 18 to the audited, consolidated financial statements.

Gain on Divestiture of Coyote

In the third quarter of 2024, we completed the previously announced divestiture of Coyote. In connection therewith, we recorded a pre-tax gain of $156 million ($152 million after tax) during the year ended December 31, 2024. The gain was recognized within Other expenses in the statements of consolidated income. We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of this gain as it is not a component of our ongoing operations and is not expected to recur. For more information regarding the gain on divestiture of Coyote, see note 8 to the audited, consolidated financial statements.

One-Time Payment for International Regulatory Matter

In the second quarter of 2024, we made a payment of $94 million of previously restricted cash to settle a previously-disclosed challenge by Italian tax authorities to the deductibility of Value Added Tax payments by UPS to certain third-party service providers. We supplement the presentation of operating profit, operating margin, interest expense, total other income and (expense), income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with non-GAAP measures that exclude the impact of this payment. We do not believe this is a component of our ongoing operations and we do not expect this or similar payments to recur.

Goodwill and Asset Impairment Charges

We exclude the impact of goodwill and asset impairment charges which we do not consider when evaluating the operating performance of our business units, making decisions to allocate resources or in determining incentive compensation awards. For more information regarding goodwill and current year asset impairment charges, see note 7 to the audited, consolidated financial statements.

One-Time Compensation Payment

We exclude the impact of a one-time payment made to certain U.S.-based, non-union part-time supervisors following the ratification of our labor agreement with the Teamsters in 2023. We do not expect this or similar payments to recur.

Expense for Regulatory Matter

We exclude the impact of a charge to settle a regulatory matter that we consider to be unrelated to our ongoing operations and that we do not expect to recur. For more information regarding this regulatory matter, see note 10 to the audited, consolidated financial statements.

Multiemployer Pension Plan Withdrawal Expense

We exclude the impact of a charge related to the withdrawal from a multiemployer pension plan within the United States. We do not consider this expense to be related to our ongoing operations. For more information regarding our multiemployer pension plans, see note 6 to the audited, consolidated financial statements.

Defined Benefit Pension and Postretirement Medical Plan Gains and Losses

We incur certain employment-related expenses associated with pension and postretirement medical benefits. These pension and postretirement medical benefits costs for company-sponsored defined benefit plans are calculated using various actuarial assumptions and methodologies, including discount rates, expected returns on plan assets, healthcare cost trend rates, inflation, compensation increase rates, mortality rates and coordination of benefits with plans not sponsored by UPS. Actuarial assumptions are reviewed on an annual basis, unless circumstances require an interim remeasurement of any of our plans.

We recognize changes in the fair value of plan assets and net actuarial gains and losses in excess of a 10% corridor (defined as 10% of the greater of the fair value of plan assets or the plan's projected benefit obligation), as well as gains and losses resulting from plan curtailments and settlements, for our defined benefit pension and postretirement medical plans immediately as part of Investment income (expense) and other in the statements of consolidated income. We supplement the presentation of our income before income taxes, net income and earnings per share with adjusted measures that exclude the impact of these gains and losses and the related income tax effects. We believe excluding these defined benefit pension and postretirement medical plan gains and losses provides important supplemental information by removing the volatility associated with plan amendments and short-term changes in market interest rates, equity values and similar factors.

The remeasurement of our defined benefit pension and postretirement medical plans' assets and liabilities resulted in losses of $0.7 and $0.4 billion for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The table below shows the amounts associated with each component of the loss, as well as the weighted-average actuarial assumptions used to determine our net periodic benefit cost, for each year:

Year Ended December 31,
Components of defined benefit pension and postretirement medical plan loss (gain) (in millions):20242023
Discount rates$(127)$384
Return on assets672(37)
Demographic and other assumption changes1204
Total mark-to-market loss665351
Curtailment and settlement loss—8
Total defined benefit pension and postretirement medical plan loss$665$359
Year Ended December 31,
Weighted-average actuarial assumptions:20242023
Expected rate of return on plan assets used in determining net periodic benefit cost7.06%6.99%
Actual rate of return on plan assets(1.29)%6.64%
Discount rate used in determining net periodic benefit cost5.40%5.77%
Discount rate at measurement date5.85%5.40%

Pre-tax defined benefit plan gains and losses for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 consisted of the following:

2024 - $0.7 billion pre-tax defined benefit plan loss:

Discount Rates($127 million pre-tax gain): The weighted-average discount rate for our pension and postretirement medical plans increased from 5.40% as of December 31, 2023 to 5.85% as of December 31, 2024, primarily due to an increase in treasury yields on AA-rated corporate bonds.

Return on Assets ($672 million pre-tax loss): The actual rate of return on plan assets in our U.S. pension plans was lower than our expected rate of return, primarily due to weaker than expected bond market performance.

Demographic and Other Assumption Changes ($120 million pre-tax loss): This loss was due to differences between actual and estimated participant data and demographic factors, including healthcare cost trends, compensation rate increases and rates of termination, retirement and mortality.

2023 - $0.4 billion pre-tax defined benefit plan loss:

Discount Rates($384 million pre-tax loss): The weighted-average discount rate for our pension and postretirement medical plans decreased from 5.77% as of December 31, 2022 to 5.40% as of December 31, 2023, primarily due to a decrease in credit spreads on AA-rated corporate bonds in 2023.

Return on Assets ($37 million pre-tax gain): The actual rate of return on plan assets in certain of our pension plans was higher than our expected rate of return, primarily due to strong global equity market performance.

Demographic and Other Assumption Changes ($4 million pre-tax loss): This loss was due to differences between actual and estimated participant data and demographic factors, including healthcare cost trends, compensation rate increases and rates of termination, retirement and mortality.

Non-GAAP Adjusted Cost per Piece

We evaluate the efficiency of our operations using various metrics, including non-GAAP adjusted cost per piece. Non-GAAP adjusted cost per piece is calculated as non-GAAP adjusted operating expenses in a period divided by total volume for that period. Because non-GAAP adjusted operating expenses exclude costs or charges that we do not consider a part of underlying business performance when monitoring and evaluating the operating performance of our business units, making decisions to allocate resources or in determining incentive compensation awards, we believe this is the appropriate metric on which to base reviews and evaluations of the efficiency of our operational performance.

Expense Allocations

Certain operating expenses are allocated between our operating segments using activity-based costing methods. These activity-based costing methods require us to make estimates that impact the amount of each expense category that is attributed to each segment. Changes in these estimates directly impact the amount of expense allocated to each segment and therefore the operating profit of each reporting segment. Our allocation methodologies are refined periodically, as necessary, to reflect changes in our businesses. There were no significant changes to our allocation methodologies for 2024 relative to 2023.

Year Ended December 31, · Change
2024 · 2023 · $ · %
Average Daily Package Volume (in thousands):
Next Day Air1,6511,757(6.0)%
Deferred1,0581,224(13.6)%
Ground16,45216,0492.5%
Total Average Daily Package Volume19,16119,0300.7%
Average Revenue Per Piece:
Next Day Air$23.23$22.17$1.064.8%
Deferred17.7716.381.398.5%
Ground10.8911.03(0.14)(1.3)%
Total Average Revenue Per Piece$12.34$12.40$(0.06)(0.5)%
Operating Days in Period253254
Revenue (in millions):
Next Day Air$9,703$9,894$(191)(1.9)%
Deferred4,7575,093(336)(6.6)%
Ground45,34744,9713760.8%
Cargo and Other569247322130.4%
Total Revenue$60,376$60,205$1710.3%
Operating Expenses (in millions):
Operating Expenses$56,031$55,049$9821.8%
Non-GAAP adjustments to operating expenses
Transformation Strategy Costs(147)(266)119(44.7)%
Goodwill and Asset Impairment Charges(5)—(5)N/A
One-Time Compensation Payment—(61)61(100.0)%
Multiemployer Pension Plan Withdrawal Expense(19)—(19)N/A
Non-GAAP Adjusted Operating Expenses$55,860$54,722$1,1382.1%
Operating Profit (in millions) and Operating Margin:
Operating Profit$4,345$5,156$(811)(15.7)%
Non-GAAP Adjusted Operating Profit$4,516$5,483$(967)(17.6)%
Operating Margin7.2%8.6%
Non-GAAP Adjusted Operating Margin7.5%9.1%

Revenue

The change in revenue was due to the following factors:

Revenue Change Drivers:VolumeRates /Product MixFuelSurchargeTotal RevenueChange
2024 vs. 20230.3%0.5%(0.5)%0.3%

Comparative results were impacted by having one less operating day in 2024 compared to 2023. The growth in rates / product mix shown above includes the growth we experienced in our air cargo product during 2024 as we onboarded more air cargo under our contract with the USPS. Air cargo is measured by weight, not on a per piece basis, and therefore does not impact the volume and revenue per piece discussions below. We expect continued growth in this product during 2025.

Volume

We returned to annual average daily volume growth in 2024 for the first time in three years, driven primarily by increases in our SurePost product. The increase occurred across multiple industries including retail, professional services and healthcare, and was led by our addition of e-commerce customers and more SMBs leveraging our Digital Access Program. This growth more than offset the volume decline from our largest customer as we continued to reduce their volume with us as planned. As previously disclosed, we expect average daily volume to decline by approximately 8.5% in 2025 as we execute on our plans to accelerate the volume reductions from our largest customer. We expect these volume decreases will be more pronounced during the second half of 2025 as planned volume reductions increase.

Business-to-consumer volume increased 3.0% during the year, due primarily to volume from the additional e-commerce customers noted above, and continued growth in online consumer spending.

Business-to-business volume decreased 2.6%, primarily due to challenging macroeconomic factors and a slowdown in manufacturing activity which were partially offset by returns volume increases as a result of growth in e-commerce activity.

Within our Air products, average daily volume decreased 9.1% during the year, driven by continued reductions in air volume from our largest customer as planned, as well as by other customers that made cost trade-offs and utilized the enhanced speed in our ground network. While air volume is expected to decline in 2025 due to our largest customer, these declines are expected to be partially offset by growth from SMB and Enterprise accounts.

Ground commercial average daily volume decreased 2.4%, primarily driven by declines across certain large customers and SMBs, partially offset by continued growth within our Digital Access Program. Ground residential average daily volume increased 6.1%, primarily due to an increase in SurePost volume from e-commerce customers. We expect our ground volumes will decrease in 2025 due to the planned volume reductions from our largest customer. We expect that continued growth in SMBs will partially offset these anticipated declines. We expect that our recent pricing actions on our SurePost product may result in SurePost volume declines. The insourcing of our SurePost product does not affect our measurement of average daily volume.

Revenue Per Piece

Revenue per piece declined 0.5% for the year due primarily to the decrease in fuel surcharges discussed below. The negative impact of changes in product mix, including an increase in lighter weight, shorter zone shipments, were partially offset by the positive impact of pricing actions to address revenue quality, including demand related surcharges, which led to sequential improvement in the revenue per piece growth rate during the second half of the year. In December 2023, we implemented an average 5.9% net increase in base and accessorial rates for both our Air and Ground products. Revenue per piece from our Air products increased due to changes in customer mix while revenue per piece from our Ground products declined due to changes in both customer and product mix.

We expect revenue per piece to increase during 2025 as we focus on growing higher yielding volume from customers that value our end-to-end integrated network and the impact of an average 5.9% net increase in base and accessorial rates implemented in December 2024.

Fuel Surcharges

We apply a fuel surcharge on our domestic air and ground services that adjusts weekly. Our air fuel surcharge is based on the U.S. Department of Energy's ("DOE") Gulf Coast spot price for a gallon of kerosene-type fuel, and our ground fuel surcharge is based on the DOE's On-Highway Diesel Fuel price.

In 2024, fuel surcharge revenue decreased $270 million, driven by reductions in the price per gallon, partially offset by increases in volume and the impact of our pricing initiatives. Based on the anticipated declines in volume, we expect fuel surcharge revenue to decrease in 2025.

Operating expenses and non-GAAP adjusted operating expenses increased year over year. Pickup and delivery costs increased $1.1 billion and package sortation costs increased $291 million, slightly offset by a $173 million decrease in the costs of operating our integrated air and ground network, a decrease in other operating costs of $53 million and the impact from one less operating day in 2024 compared to 2023.

The cost increases were primarily due to an increase of $1.4 billion in compensation and benefits expense which was driven by the impact of wage and benefit rate increases for our union workforce under our contract with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ("IBT"), which became effective August 1, 2023. Third-party delivery costs for our SurePost product increased $213 million due to higher SurePost volume.

The cost decreases were primarily due to a reduction in fuel expense, driven by decreases in the cost of jet and ground fuel, a decrease in worker's compensation expense and the impact of reductions in our workforce under our Fit to Serve initiative.

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, U.S. air cargo operating expense is presented within our U.S. Domestic Package segment and prior periods have been recast.

Our non-GAAP adjusted operating expenses in this segment exclude the impact of total transformation strategy costs of $147 million, a pre-tax charge to withdraw from a multiemployer pension plan of $19 million and asset impairment charges of $5 million. Total transformation strategy costs within the segment during 2024 were related to our Fit to Serve, Transformation 2.0 and Efficiency Reimagined programs. Within these programs, we incurred compensation and benefits costs related to workforce reductions as we right-size our business. Additionally, within Transformation 2.0 and Efficiency Reimagined, we incurred costs related to outside professional service providers. For additional information on these enterprise programs, our expected benefits and the related costs, see “Supplemental Information - Items Affecting Comparability”.

Cost per piece increased 0.6% for the year and non-GAAP adjusted cost per piece increased 0.8%, as expense increases, driven by an increase in compensation and benefits expense, outpaced growth in average daily volume. Cost per piece is expected to increase during 2025 as we expect to incur costs to further our strategic initiatives and we expect average daily volume to decrease as discussed above.

As a result of the factors described above, operating profit decreased $811 million, with operating margin decreasing 140 basis points to 7.2%. Non-GAAP adjusted operating profit decreased $967 million, with non-GAAP adjusted operating margin decreasing 160 basis points to 7.5%.

ContentsView on SEC.gov

The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.