UPS Tightens Retail Security
ATLANTA (
) -- UPS said it will boost security measures for customers shipping packages from its retail outlets.
Starting Tuesday, retail customers will have to present a government-issued photo ID to ship packages at UPS Stores, Mail Boxes Etc. stores and other authorized shipping outlets worldwide.
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In October, authorities discovered explosives in a printer cartridge on a UPS cargo plane bound for Chicago from Yemen. The plane was stopped in London. The package was later traced to a retail location in Yemen.
The incident "directed us to come back and do a full review of all our security," said UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg. She said UPS is not responding to any specific current security threats, and noted that it is already common for workers at the retail sites to request an ID when a customer uses a credit card.
"Since retail centers experience a significant increase in business from occasional shippers during the busy holidays, this enhancement adds a prudent step in our multi-layered approach to security," said Dale Hayes, UPS vice president of small business, in a prepared statement.
UPS said the ID policy has been in place at its customer centers since 2005. Customer centers are generally located at UPS operating facilities in major metropolitan areas. Valid ID's include driver's licenses, passports, U.S. permanent residence cards, U.S. military identification and Native American tribal identification cards.
UPS has 26,000 staffed retail locations around the world, including 19,600 in the U.S. The customer centers are staffed by UPS employees, but other retail locations, including those at
Home Depot
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and
Staples
(SPLS)
, are not.
-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.
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Ted Reed