Crossing the sea
Eskew joined UPS in 1972 as a wide-eyed Purdue University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. After a few months of "laying out parking lots," as Eskew says, he donned the famous brown uniform and drove the brown delivery truck, which the company calls "package cars."
"They let me go out and deliver packages," Eskew wistfully recalls. "You never forget those great experiences of seeing what customers expect from us."
Eskew rose through the ranks during the ’70s and ’80s, watching as demand for air parcel delivery increased and federal deregulation of the airline industry created new opportunities for UPS. But deregulation also led established airlines to reduce the number of flights and abandon some routes altogether.
To avoid a delivery disruption, UPS began to assemble its own jet cargo fleet. As a result, its worldwide growth started to blossom.
By 1985, UPS Next Day Air service was available in 48 states and Puerto Rico. That same year, UPS began offering international air package and document service, linking the United States and six European nations. In 1988, under Eskew’s direction, UPS received authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate its own aircraft, thereby officially becoming an airline. Formed in less than a year, UPS Airlines became the fastest-growing carrier in FAA history.
In 1989, its international air service reached more than 180 countries. Just four years later, UPS reached 4 billion of the world’s 6 billion people — more than twice the number of people that can be reached by any telephone network.
"We’ve made our moves because the customers have asked us to take them there," says Eskew, explaining the strategy behind UPS’s global expansion.
That strategy is relatively simple, he says, but it’s not so easy to execute. Successful implementation lies in the consistency of UPS’s operations, from Boston to Beijing, right down to how the trucks are loaded.
"If you would open the back of one of our package cars in Europe, you’d realize they look a lot like they do in the U.S.," Eskew says. "If I’m in Berlin, there’s a package on the shelf that came on the ground from France, one that came in the air from France … But it’s an integrated network, all integrated and synchronized in the back of that package car."
