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Tucson UPS drivers prep for their busiest day of the year

Posted: Dec 19, 2012 6:06 AM by Samantha Ptashkin
Updated: Dec 19, 2012 6:21 AM


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TUCSON- At the UPS hub in Tucson a brown fleet of trucks sets out on the streets of Tucson, ready for battle.

Among the drivers is Martin Hughes. He has been delivering for UPS for the past 15 years and during the holiday season, he's a force to be reckoned with. "If you mentally prepare before you get here, you're ready for any challenge that comes up," Hughes says.

Tomorrow, Hughes and about 200 other Tucson drivers are expected to deliver 63,500 packages.

It will be their busiest day of the year.

"I like to call it controlled chaos, but we have a pretty good plan," says UPS Division Manager Ken Shipley.

Shipley says the Tucson hub started planning for the busiest day back in August. "We plan all the hiring, we put helpers on all of our pre-load operations, we put helpers on with our drivers and we put in place a plan for dispatch, so they can deal with this kind of volume," Shipley says.

Drivers like Hughes also have their own methods to make sure packages get delivered on time. "You want to make sure you're well rested and you're eating right," Hughes says.

And what about that "no left turn" theory? "Well sometimes it's unavoidable," Hughes says with a chuckle.

Regardless of their route, he says the UPS drivers will deliver this holiday season. "We will also be working Christmas Eve to make sure everyone gets what they ordered," Hughes says.

Nation-wide UPS expects to deliver 28-million packages on Thursday.

To make sure your presents arrive under the tree in time for Christmas, make sure to send them out no later than Friday, December 21st.

For delivery by Friday, December 21st
o Ship using UPS 2nd Day Air® on Wednesday, December 19th
o Ship using UPS Next Day Air® on Thursday, December 20th


For delivery by Saturday, December 22nd (Saturday delivery costs extra)
o Ship using UPS 2nd Day Air on Thursday, December 20th
o Ship using UPS Next Day Air on Friday, December 21th


For delivery by Monday, December 24th
o Ship using UPS 2nd Day Air on Thursday, December 20th
o Ship using UPS Next Day Air on Friday, December 21th


o You can verify this information with the time-in-transit calculator on UPS.com http://wwwapps.ups.com/calTimeCost?loc=en_US

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