UAL Corp., Chicago, the parent company of United Airlines, has entered into a strategic agreement with NextJet Inc., Dallas, to offer same-day, door-to-door, small-package delivery services to businesses and individuals.
The service, called United SameDay, will be available later this month and will enable United customers to ship packages using NextJet's proprietary technology that digitally links about 30,000 daily commercial airline flights and hundreds of ground couriers.
United customers will be able to initiate a United SameDay shipment by using a credit card online at www.unitedsameday.com. The service will provide itineraries, pricing information and real-time updates by phone or e-mail, giving customers the status of their packages at several points throughout the delivery chain.
Currently, United offers a time-definite freight service to the international shipping community, but “we are committed to providing a reliable, time-definite delivery service for all of our customers,” said Jim Hartigan, vice president at United Cargo. “United SameDay will now enable us to offer a similar small-package service to United customers within the U.S.”
Hartigan said United SameDay will especially benefit companies with time-sensitive shipments, such as electronic components, computer equipment and automotive parts. In addition, the product will meet the time-sensitive needs of the medical community for items such as pharmaceuticals and the legal field for items such as original documents that need to be signed and delivered the same day.
“For businesses that operate around the clock, tomorrow may be too late to receive critical shipments,” said Joseph P. Lane, co-founder and co-CEO of NextJet. “Our system meets these types of time-sensitive needs in an easy-to-use ordering format that ensures delivery within hours.”
