By Mike Fitts
SCBIZ Daily Staff

COLUMBIA -- Declining demand for its premium services has prompted UPS to reduce the work force at its Columbia regional hub.

The company will stop doing an overnight sort of next-day packages in Columbia because of declining demand. The service will continue as before, but the sorting will be done at the main UPS hub in Louisville, Ky., UPS spokesman Norman Black said.

“This is totally transparent to our customers,” Black said.

When the Columbia sort ends in February, about 250 part-time positions will be lost, Black said. UPS is working to locate new positions for these employees in other Columbia operations.

UPS also will end three of 10 daily UPS flights from Columbia, because they served these overnight packages, he said.

The change comes as customers are “downshifting” away from the most expensive of package services, next-day delivery, as the recession takes hold, Black said.

Use of UPS next-day delivery is down 10%, according to the company’s third-quarter results; overall U.S. package volume is down 3.4%, Black said.