LONDON, Ont. -- Big Brown is hoping it'll generate some more green bills with the addition of an esteemed industry veteran.

UPS Freight says transportation specialist Allan Robison had joined the company as a vice president of sales and will lead the company's Canadian sales efforts. Until his retirement last year, Robison worked as president of one of Canada’s largest LTL fleets, Reimer Express (now known as YRC Reimer).

He also penned a guest column or two for Today's Trucking magazine during his downtime.

"Few people have a better understanding of the trucking industry as it relates to Canada and the needs of the Canadian shipper. His addition to our team is a tremendous asset to both UPS and our customers,” said UPS Freight President Jack Holmes.

Meanwhile, UPS Freight also announced a significant expansion of pickup and delivery hours through the company’s London, Ont., facility.

The expanded service window entails putting trucks on the street one and a half hours earlier each morning for deliveries in the Ontario area and staying out three hours later for pickups.

Coupled with improvements to the UPS Freight operating network and cross-border route structure, customers will be able to tender freight as much as three hours later in the day and still reach two-day delivery destinations as far south as Mississippi, the company said in a statement.

The service announcement complements a year-long effort to reduce transit times to and from Canada. In all, nearly 1,000 transit times between Canadian points and the United States have been reduced in 2009, UPS says.