In 1924, a conveyor belt system was debuted for the handling of packages for UPS operations. At first common carrier was only limited to a small area around Los Angeles but by 1927 expanded to areas up to 125 miles outside the city. UPS became one of the only companies in the United States to offer common carrier service. Common carrier service was acquired in 1922 from a company in Los Angeles, California. The name change to United Parcel Service was to remind the company that expansion operations were still United under the same organization and Parcel identified the type of business offered as part of its Service. In 1919, the company expanded for the first time outside of Seattle to Oakland, California, and changed its name to United Parcel Service. In 1916, Charlie Soderstrom joined Merchants Parcel Delivery bringing in more vehicles for the growing delivery business. Consolidated delivery was also introduced, combining packages addressed to a certain neighborhood onto one delivery vehicle. Casey and Ryan merged with a competitor, Evert McCabe, and formed Merchants Parcel Delivery. In 1913, the company acquired a Model T Ford as its first delivery vehicle.
The American Messenger Company focused primarily on package delivery to retail stores with special delivery mail delivered for its largest client the U.S. Most deliveries at this time were made on foot and bicycles were used for longer trips.
On August 28, 1907, James Casey founded the American Messenger Company with Claude Ryan in Seattle, Washington, capitalized with $100 in debt. Merchants Parcel Delivery delivery vehicles in 1916 UPS' main international hub, UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky, is the fifth busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic based on preliminary statistics from ACI, and the third busiest in the United States behind FedEx's Memphis Superhub and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. UPS is the largest courier company in the world by revenue, with annual revenues around US$85 billion in 2020, ahead of competitors DHL and FedEx. In addition, UPS offers air shipping on an overnight or two-day basis and delivers to post office boxes through UPS SurePost, a subsidiary that passes on packages to the United States Postal Service for last mile delivery. UPS today is primarily known for its ground shipping services as well as the UPS Store, a retail chain which assists UPS shipments and provides tools for small businesses. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs, UPS has grown to become a Fortune 500 company and one of the world's largest shipping couriers. United Parcel Service ( UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907.