It is hard to imagine that the international delivery carrier commonly known only as “Brown” began with a fleet of six bicycles, twelve strong legs and rainy days. UPS, before it was called UPS, was founded by Jim Casey. Mr. Casey originally only wanted to deliver messages in the Seattle, Washington area, but a merger in 1913 with a motorcycle delivery company changed the trajectory of the company forever. Shortly after the merger, in 1915, Casey’s fleet was painted brown (the bicycles were abandoned for more motor vehicles), and every delivery vehicle afterward wore the same color. Four years later, Casey had experienced so much success, that he wanted to expand his services; he bought a company in Oakland, California utilizing its delivery service to serve the entire west coast. After buying the Oakland company, Casey renamed his company and UPS delivery services began.

Following the renaming, Casey did what every ambitious businessperson does; he moved to New York, uprooted headquarters and planted them in the Big Apple. The move was fortuitous. By moving, Casey was able to again expand services, enabling coast-to-coast delivery. UPS was the first private parcel service to make coast to coast delivery possible; a feat they accomplished by 1930, only twelve years after the United States Postal Service had been funded to experiment with “air-mail.”

In 1953, UPS launched its own air service and offered customers two-day delivery, a service no other mailer could compete with (the cost was steep, but clients used it frequently). Nine years later, Casey stepped down as CEO, but by that time, the company was so massive that his absence did not corrupt the service. Instead, UPS slowly began to increase its service sphere, expanding first to Ontario, Canada, then Transatlantic to Germany.

By the 1980s, no other company was able to deliver as quickly, efficiently, and reliably as UPS. Next Day Air, offered for the first time in 1982, outpaced competition and enabled customers the fastest service they had every known. Global connectivity offered through UPS made the globe feel smaller than it ever had before. Today, UPS delivery services extend worldwide, to almost every addressed location. They continue to be the delivery force leading ingenuity and pace for the industry.