UPS marks countdown to Giant Panda delivery with a new web site! pandaexpress.ups.com
ATLANTA, August 2, 1999 -- UPS today launched a new panda-packed Web site to herald its delivery of two rare Chinese pandas to the United States. Located at pandaexpress.ups.com, the site is loaded with information and news on the pandas and their upcoming transport.
UPS will be airlifting Lun Lun and Yang Yang, the female and male pandas from Beijing, China, to their new home at Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. UPS is working with panda researchers from China and Zoo Atlanta to finalize plans for the transportation of the pandas in late September.
Visitors to pandaexpress.ups.com will find stories and photos about the pandas and their upcoming travels, as well as links to Zoo Atlanta and several UPS-related sites. The site also features background information on UPS's logistics expertise and previous memorable shipments.
Global friendship mission
"Pandas are China's gift to the world, and in that spirit of friendship and purpose, UPS is honored to provide its resources and expertise to help this global friendship mission," said Jim Kelly, UPS chairman and CEO. "China is an important U.S. trading partner and a vital part of UPS's business in Asia. We hope to promote and strengthen that relationship."
The company is building two custom-built transport containers to house the pandas for their flight in a UPS Boeing 767. The company also will provide logistical support and ground transportation to take the pandas to their new home once they arrive in the United States.
Upon arrival at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, the pandas will be moved to Zoo Atlanta with police escort aboard UPS package cars. The package cars are powered by environmentally friendly compressed natural gas. The precious cargo will be driven by selected UPS Circle of Honor members, who are honored UPS safe drivers for 25 years or more without an accident.
The UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of the company, is also donating $625,000 to Zoo Atlanta over the next five years to maintain its new state-of-the-art panda facility.
The giant pandas - currently at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China - will remain at Zoo Atlanta on a 10-year loan. Only two other zoos in the United States, the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and the San Diego Zoo, currently house giant pandas.
UPS has experience transporting rare and delicate cargo. In September 1998, the company provided funds and logistical support to airlift Keiko the whale from Newport, Ore. to Iceland. Two years earlier, UPS flew Keiko from a Mexico City amusement park to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
UPS in China
UPS has served customers in China since 1988 through its agent partnership with Sinotrans, and recently expanded that relationship to include UPS-branded services in 21 cities. UPS reaches 108 cities across China through its joint venture in Beijing, representative offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai, and the Sinotrans network throughout the rest of the country.
Asian Forest completed
The addition of the two pandas will complete Zoo Atlanta's Asian Forest, which currently includes red pandas, Sumatran orangutans and tigers, Asian small-clawed otters, muntjac deer and Komodo dragons. Construction already has begun on a new $7 million dollar panda habitat, which will round out the Asian Forest. More info on the panda's new home can be found at www.zooatlanta.org.
UPS is the world's largest express carrier and package delivery company, serving more than 200 countries and territories. The company has been chosen by Fortune magazine as "The World's Most Admired Company in the Mail, Package and Freight industry." UPS employs 326,800 people worldwide and had revenues of US$24.8 billion for 1998 on a volume of 3.14 billion packages and documents.
For more information, contact:
Dan McMackin/Peggy Gardner-
UPS - (404) 828-4188/(404) 828-6051
David Morrow-
Edelman PR worldwide - (212) 642-7736
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