GPS SETS NEW STRATEGIC DIRECTION, INCLUDING THE FORMATION OF ATLANTA-BASED HOLDING COMPANY; NAMES THREE DIRECTORS TO THE BOARD.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 1997--Philip A. Belyew, President and Chief Executive Officer of General Parcel Service, Inc., today announced that the Company has adopted a new business plan intended to restore profitability to its current operations and expand the Company's growth horizons. To support the Company's new strategic direction, Belyew also announced a change in the Company's Board of Directors with the naming of three new directors to replace all existing Board members other than Board Chairman T. Wayne Davis.

"As we embark on a new course for GPS, especially considering that our future strategy will involve the consolidation of profitable trucking companies, I believe it is important to add individuals to our Board who have a proven track record in growing a company through acquisitions," Belyew commented. "Wayne Davis has played a pivotal role in building this company, and we are very pleased to strengthen the leadership he has provided by naming John B. "Sonny" Ellis and Derek E. Dewan to our Board. With their insight, counsel and vision, these gentlemen will bring a new perspective to our Board and will lend much needed experience to our efforts to expand our base of business, both internally and externally, and improve our profitability."

Sonny Ellis (age 72), a private investor in Atlanta, retired in 1986 as the Senior Vice President-Finance and Treasurer of Genuine Parts Company, a national distributor of automotive replacement parts. Ellis continues to serve as a director emeritus of Genuine Parts Company and serves on the Boards of Hughes Supply, Inc., Integrity, Incorporated, Intermet Corporation, Interstate/Johnson-Lane, Inc., Oxford Industries, Inc., and UAP, Inc.

Derek Dewan (age 42) is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of AccuStaff Incorporated, a national provider of strategic staffing, consulting, and outsourcing services to businesses, professional and service organizations, and governmental agencies. AccuStaff, with headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, now has over 750 offices in 44 states and the District of Columbia, and its stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange. AccuStaff has been very active in the acquisitions area, growing under Dewan's leadership from a revenue base of $150 million annually at the time of the Company's initial public offering in 1994 to annual revenues in excess of $2 billion. Prior to joining AccuStaff in 1994, Dewan was the managing partner with the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand LLP in Jacksonville.

Belyew (age 48), with 29 years experience in the courier and trucking industries, also has been appointed to the GPS Board. He was named President and Chief Executive Officer of GPS in January 1997. Until November 1996, he was Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta-based United TransNet, Inc., which was formed in December 1995 with the merger of Courier Dispatch Group and five other ground and air courier companies, and which was acquired by Corporate Express in November 1996. Belyew served Courier Dispatch Group for 17 years and, as President and CEO, fostered dramatic growth, both internally and through acquisitions. During his tenure with Courier Dispatch Group, annual sales rose from $2.5 million to more than $140 million at the time when, in 1995, Belyew led the simultaneous merger and public offering of Courier Dispatch Group and five other courier companies to form United TransNet - a leading provider of scheduled ground courier services in all of the nation's major metropolitan markets.

Following the appointment of Belyew, Ellis and Dewan as directors to join Chairman Davis, the Company's Board now comprises four members. E. Hoke Smith, Jr. (age 49), who resigned as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company in December 1996 for medical reasons, has resigned his position on the Board, as have Gayle Smith (age 51), J. Ray Gatlin, Drue B. Linton, Steven C. Koegler, and Terry L. Coleman. The two remaining vacancies on the Board will not be filled immediately, Belyew said.

In addition, Belyew said GPS will form a holding company to be based in Atlanta, Georgia, subject to shareholder approval, which will become the parent company for GPS. This new corporate structure is intended to increase the Company's flexibility to pursue the acquisition and operation of profitable less-than-load (LTL) and truckload motor carriers. "While we remain confident that we can improve the performance of our existing business, we also recognize that there are attractive opportunities to leverage our parcel business by expanding into the trucking industry. Consequently, we intend to identify and acquire mid-size trucking companies, primarily with annual revenues between $10 million and $100 million, that possess strong market positions, sound management and a commitment to a high level of service and quality - market-driven companies that are capable of expanding synergistically with our parcel business. We believe there are many entrepreneurs, running privately held, family owned trucking companies who could benefit from an affiliation with our Company as a means to realize the full value of their long and successful careers. Since our holding company structure will be completely decentralized, the trucking companies we acquire will continue to enjoy a high degree of autonomy within the context of a larger, more diversified business."

Belyew continued, "Gayle Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of GPS and a ten-year veteran with the company, will be critical to our efforts to eliminate losses. She has an outstanding track record with the Company and both understands and has the abilities to undertake the steps necessary to return GPS to profitability. Once the holding company is in place, our intent is to name Gayle as President of its GPS subsidiary with responsibility for all day-to-day operations."

Regarding the Company's new business plan, Belyew said, "I'm very impressed with the quality and depth of the GPS management and am particularly pleased by the positive, can-do attitude exhibited by the team in tackling the Company's turnaround. Our first priority will be to eliminate the losses at GPS by redirecting the Company's sales force, purging unprofitable accounts, and creating additional efficiencies in purchasing and operations."

Belyew noted that the Company's acquisition strategy will center primarily on transactions involving an exchange for stock or stock and cash, and it will initially focus on companies serving markets in the Southeast in order to build on GPS' current operations.

Comments in this news release regarding the Company's business which are not historical facts are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among these risks are that the Company is in a highly competitive business, has history of operating losses, and is pursuing a growth strategy that relies in part on the completion of acquisitions of companies in the trucking industry. There can be no assurance that in its highly competitive business environment, the Company will successfully improve its operating profitability or consummate such acquisitions.

General Parcel Service provides small package shipping and delivery services, on a next-day and second-day basis, between Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The Company offers customers a flexible, just-in-time shipping alternatively to other carriers.

CONTACT: General Parcel Service Inc., Jacksonville

Philip A. Belyew, 770/984-5365 or

Wayne N. Nellums, 904/363-0089