UPS Inc. will place its first holiday-season surcharges on U.S. packages, as the world’s largest package-delivery company seeks to defray a surge in year-end costs.

UPS Inc. is setting up a joint venture in China to haul more U.S.-bound goods and capitalize on booming e-commerce in the world’s most populous nation.

UPS Inc. sees a day when your latest purchase may be dropped off not by a brown-clad delivery driver, but by an octocopter drone.

UPS Inc. is developing apps that help customers with simple requests and may someday enable them to track packages using voice commands.

UPS Inc. may join its rivals in offering Saturday delivery for standard ground packages as the company adapts to surging online shopping and an increasing reliance on home-based customers.

In time for the holiday season, UPS is rolling out to 100 cities a program that requires people in some neighborhoods to fetch packages at nearby locations — such as a druggist or dry cleaner — if they weren’t home to meet a driver.

Outside a brick-and-mortar sorting facility in suburban Atlanta, UPS has built its own Christmas village.

As UPS Inc. hires a holiday workforce bigger than Macy’s Inc., recruits get a quick course in lifting heavy loads, doubling up on socks, and, in a jam, using handheld computers to fend off snarling dogs.