UPS continues to right-size its U.S. network’s processing capacity, a push that began during a demand slump featuring a marketplace capacity glut worth 12 million in average daily package volume.

Executives said on last week’s call that the closures are paying off, even as the demand environment has changed. UPS posted a 6.5% year-over-year increase in average daily U.S. volume in Q3, its highest growth rate in three years, per an investor presentation.

To keep its operations efficient and cost-effective in the face of volume increases, UPS is leaning more on automated hubs throughout its network.

“We now processed 63% of the volume in our hubs in some sort of an automated way,” Tomé said. “That’s up 5 percentage points from a year ago.”

UPS’ longer-term plan is to close around 200 U.S. facilities while more than tripling the number of automated buildings in its network, Nando Cesarone, EVP and president U.S. at UPS, said during the company’s March investor and analyst conference.

“These building consolidations and automations yield real savings,” Cesarone said.

Other major parcel carriers are also adjusting their networks to trim operating costs. FedEx continues to advance its "Network 2.0" initiative to combine its historically separate ground and express networks. The U.S. Postal Service plans to consolidate dropoff and pickup activities at rural post offices far away from its top processing plants.