UPS Launches Digital Pickup Upgrades to Give Small Business Shippers More Control
- Aug 9
- 2 min read
UPS has rolled out a new pickup dashboard and related digital tools aimed at making shipping easier for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), as the carrier continues to compete with FedEx for this profitable customer segment.
The centerpiece of the update is a pickup dashboard that lets shippers schedule, manage, and track pickups in one place, complete with real-time notifications. According to Dave Hudson, UPS president of global digital channels, large shippers with daily pickups already have a fairly predictable experience, but smaller customers relying on more flexible options — such as on-call pickups or Smart Pickup, which triggers a pickup only when shipments are ready — have historically lacked visibility into pickup status without contacting UPS directly.
With the new system, shippers can schedule pickups online and receive a pickup window, a notification when the driver is en route, and confirmation once the pickup is complete. Notifications currently arrive via the dashboard and email, with text and push alerts for mobile planned later this year.
The rollout is phased: on-call pickup scheduling and notifications are already available, Smart Pickup scheduling and management is live now with notifications launching in September, and notifications for daily pickups are expected later in the year. Hudson noted the upgrades can also benefit larger shippers with smaller locations that need only occasional pickups.
The pickup enhancements were part of a broader release of SMB-focused updates, which also included a redesigned mobile app for managing shipping tasks on the go and shipping label templates designed to cut down on data entry time. Hudson framed the changes as a direct response to long-standing SMB feedback around ease of use, control, and certainty.
The push comes as UPS makes measurable gains with this customer segment: average daily U.S. volume from SMBs grew 4.3% year over year in the second quarter, according to EVP and CFO Brian Dykes on a recent earnings call, with SMBs now making up 34.5% of total U.S. volume — up 250 basis points from a year earlier.