UPS has announced the launch of Storage on Demand, a service allowing customers to request delivery of empty storage bins to their home or business using a mobile-friendly website. Customers fill the bins with their belongings and seal them, then schedule a pickup for their items to be driven to a nearby UPS facility for storage. Customers can also use the website to retrieve their warehoused items and have them delivered back to their front door with same day service.
Storage on Demand currently serves the greater metro Atlanta area, including Roswell, Marietta, Alpharetta and Sandy Springs with plans to expand to other U.S. cities soon. Prices start at $5 per month per bin, but UPS is offering the first three months free.
The new service offering leverages UPS’s existing logistics infrastructure, including personnel, vehicle assets, technology and storage capacity.
Self-storage is a $38bn industry that has experienced 7.7% annual growth since 2012, with one in 11 Americans paying an average of $91.14 per month on self-storage according to SpareFoot, a company that tracks the self-storage industry. In the traditional self-storage model, customers pack, load their items and transport them to a storage unit, and if they want to retrieve their stored items, they must return to the unit. Storage on Demand, instead, adds digital, on-demand functionality and eliminates the need to leave your home.
“Millennials are moving into small homes in crowded urban areas. Baby boomers are downsizing for retirement. And small businesses need space for excess inventory,” said Darren Kamensek, strategy and innovation manager for UPS and one of the co-founders of Storage on Demand. “There aren’t many services that provide end-to-end storage and quick, easy retrieval of goods – Storage on Demand solves all of that.”
According to UPS, Storage On Demand makes it easier for consumers and small businesses to better utilise their space and manage their belongings. The solution can also be used to store seasonal and holiday decorations and college students can store their belongings over the summer.
A team of four UPS employees conceived the idea and pitched it at an internal innovation competition, and as a result Storage on Demand was implemented in nine months. UPS said that it has focused increasingly on innovation since it launched its Transformation in 2017 and that it is planning to launch other innovations soon. Other logistics providers are also carrying out a strategic digitalisation transformation.
Source: UPS
