UPS cuts 30,000 jobs, continues Amazon ‘glide-down plan’

Like a confusing celebrity breakup announcement, UPS is pulling away from its longtime partner, Amazon, but keeping things juuuust open enough to stay mutually beneficial.

In other words: They’re consciously uncoupling. Or, in UPS CEO Carol Tomé’s words:

“We’re in the final six months of our Amazon accelerated glide-down plan.”

The packaging giant is cutting 30,000 jobs, part of a wider scale-back of its partnership with Amazon, its largest customer, and a planned pivot to higher-margin shipments.

In January 2025, UPS said it would cut volumes for Amazon by over 50% by the second half of 2026. At the time, Tomé noted that, despite being UPS’s largest customer, Amazon was not its most profitable one.

“Its margin is very dilutive to the US domestic business,” she said on a January 2025 earnings call. “It’s time to step back for a moment and reassess our relationship, because if we take no action, it will likely result in diminishing returns.”

On the Q4 2025 earnings call this month, UPS CFO Brian Dykes said the company expects to “reduce total operational hours by approximately 25 million hours” due to the Amazon volume decline.

“In terms of semi-variable costs, we expect to reduce operational positions by up to 30,000,” he said. “This will be accomplished through attrition, and we expect to offer a second voluntary separation program for full-time drivers.”

UPS cut 48,000 jobs last year, the company said in October. Roughly 34,000 of those cuts were operational, while 14,000 were management.

“Looking ahead, upon completion of the Amazon glide-down, 2026 will be an inflection point in the execution of our strategy to deliver growth and sustained margin expansion,” Tomé said in this month’s earnings statement.

On the earnings call, Dykes said UPS anticipates “$3 billion in savings related to the Amazon glide-down.”

Hey, breakups (and corporate jargon) sometimes pay off.