°®¶¹´«Ã½

UPS Inc. plans to hire as many as 40,000 seasonal employees nationwide when it holds a one-day hiring blitz, the package delivery giant announced Oct. 15. UPS will hold 170 job fairs Oct. 19 and hire employees on the spot.

Negotiations were scheduled to resume between UPS Inc. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters after they reached a tentative five-year labor agreement last month covering 250,000 drivers, loaders, package sorters, dockworkers and operations team members.

More than five weeks before its contract with UPS expires Aug. 1, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Atlanta-based shipping giant announced late June 21 tentative agreement on a five-year contract that industry officials say could pave the way for UPS to begin Sunday delivery service.

UPS Inc. announced an additional $130 million investment in compressed natural gas vehicles, including 400 semi-tractors and 330 terminal trucks and five more fueling stations — underscoring the company’s role as a major catalyst for wide-scale adoption of natural gas vehicles.

UPS Inc. will increase its over-the-maximum limits and the oversize pallet-handling surcharge to $650 from $500 beginning June 4.

UPS Inc. reported double-digit gains in the first quarter as a result of the strength of its global business as well as economic conditions.

UPS Inc. has tapped George Willis as president of U.S. operations, succeeding Myron Gray, who will retire May 1 after a 40-year career at the Atlanta-based parcel carrier.

Eighty-one unionized UPS Inc. flight dispatchers based at the company’s Louisville, Ky., Worldport hub voted unanimously to authorize their leadership to call a strike as contract talks continue, according to the union and a statement released from UPS on April 9.

UPS Inc. will institute a holiday-shipping surcharge for residential delivery in much of November and December this year to help deal with the torrent of e-commerce shipping at that time of year.