UPS reports $1.8B quarterly profit as home deliveries soar,

Revenue rises 13% as home deliveries surge amid the pandemic.

UPS reported a better-than-expected profit of $1.8 billion in the second quarter as the number of deliveries to homes soared during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Sandy Springs-based shipping giant said Thursday its volume of business-to-consumer shipments jumped 65% in the quarter.

Total revenue in the three months ended June 30 grew 13% to $20.5 billion compared with a year earlier.

“Our results were better than we expected, driven in part by the changes in demand that emerged from the pandemic, including a surge in residential volume, COVID-19 related health care shipments and strong outbound demand from Asia,” said CEO Carol Tomé in a written statement.

The company’s net profit was up slightly from $1.7 billion in the year-ago quarter, as it managed through the challenges of handling a major shift toward more deliveries to doorsteps, which can be costly and labor-intensive.

UPS has halted certain money-back delivery guarantees and added surcharges amid the COVID19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders that have driven a sea change in the shipping industry.

It declined to give projections for its future revenue or earnings, citing “uncertainty around the timing and pace of the economic recovery.”

“The company is unable to predict the extent of the business impact or the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, or reasonably estimate its operating performance in future quarters,” UPS said in its earnings press release.

AP 2018 Sandy Springs-based UPS said Thursday its volume of business-toconsumer shipments jumped 65% in the second quarter with a major shift toward more deliveries to doorsteps.