Screenshots of UPS’s “International Paperless Adventure” online game.

Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. will be the first shipping company to offer fully automated, paperless invoice and customs options when the company launches its new international shipping options to 98 different countries in January 2008, according to Kurt Kuehn, vice president of international sales and marketing, during a telephone press conference.

Introduction of the paperless option will be accompanied by an international return shipping service.  The overall effect of the service is that UPS’ international return labels make the return process similar to domestic shipping.

 “With these global solutions, UPS makes shipping from Atlanta to Beijing as simple as shipping from Atlanta to Boston.  What’s more, UPS makes getting a shipment returned from Beijing as simple as getting it returned to Boston,” Mr. Kuehn said.

The new global shipping system comes as part of a series of initiatives by UPS to encourage small- and medium-sized businesses to enter international markets using their company to make shipments.

“Many small- or medium-sized businesses don’t have the time or manpower to get this documentation, and certainly can’t plow through the tariff codes of a dozen different countries,” Mr. Kuehn said.

Mr. Kuehn identified four main challenges facing small- to medium-sized businesses trying to ship internationally: a paper-intensive customs process, lack of a simple process for return shipping, lack of information regarding the package’s movement and lack of control over when the shipment is delivered.

The paperless shipping option addresses the problem of dealing with the customs process.

“It saves our customers time and resources by reducing office supplies and staff time associated with customs paperwork.  It also gives our customers an easy, painless way to make a positive environmental impact by eliminating paper,” Mr. Kuehn said.

He added that shipping UPS’ current volume involves approximately 86 million pieces of paper each year, including invoices and customs documents.

Using the new option, UPS customers will be able to fill out an online form with information needed by customs officials.  The company will then automatically put that information into the format required by the customs agency of the country the package is being shipped to.

Mr. Kuehn said that this will alleviate one of the biggest reasons that packages are held up at customs: incomplete paperwork, as the online form requires complete information.

He added that though not every customs agency in the world is equally advanced technologically, UPS has worked out systems for each of the 98 countries included in the initiative to shift the burden of dealing with customs officials from the customer to the shipping company.

To publicize the new initiative, UPS has developed an online game, the “International Paperless Adventure,” during which the player navigates a package through the sky while obstacles such as birds, planes and diving whales in its path and tries to vaporize stacks of paper as they soar across the screen.

UPS’ new initiatives are also addressing the problem of return shipping to the retailer if a customer is not satisfied with something purchased from an international company.

UPS will make international return labels available to the recipients of the package, which they can print from the company’s Web site, receive in an e-mail or pick up at a local post office.

The return service will not, like the paperless shipping option, be free of charge.  Fees for a returned package include transportation, the return label and import duties or taxes.

The shipping giant is already working to solve the problems of visibility and control over packages in transit with its Quantum View program available through the UPS Web site.

This Web service allows business operators to monitor, track and manage both incoming and outgoing shipments and has an option of notifying the recipient as to when the package should arrive.

Mr. Kuehn said that a sampling showed that eight out of 10 UPS customers found the new initiatives appealing and that they are likely use them.  “Possibly 80 percent of the paper will disappear and packages will ship more smoothly,” he added, if the new program is as successful as anticipated.