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UPS Using Software To Eliminate Left Turns

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you-can't-get-there-from-here dept.

cybermage writes "The NY Times has a story about UPS using software to dramatically reduce the number of left turns their drivers take. With a fleet of vehicles their size, the time and money saved by pre-planning routes that try to eliminate left turns means big savings." Some CS major probably figured this out instead of traveling salesman.

4 of 511 comments (clear)

  1. No turns on red in the UK by mccalli · · Score: 5, Informative

    In case people don't know why the parent made that post - you can't make any sort of turn on red in the UK. Red means stop, and stop is what it means. No wiggle room.

    I remember driving in San Francisco, my first time driving in the US. I only got caught the once being beeped because I'd just stopped at red and didn't turn right although it was clear, but my other local transgression was a lot worse. We came up to some flashing red lights - I had no idea what they were for. There was one car in front of us before the lights, it stopped for a while and then went. I thought "ah ha - flashing red means stop and go if clear".

    It doesn't. It means "tram coming". I found this out at the end of the week we stayed there, suddenly realising I'd spent the entire week running red lights against trams...

    Cheers,
    Ian

    1. Re:No turns on red in the UK by jimicus · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes, and we drive on the left in the UK. Which means that the turn which requires you to wait for a gap in traffic in two directions rather than just one is the right turn, not the left turn.

  2. Both UPS and Fedex's software can do this by celnick · · Score: 5, Informative
    The routing software used by UPS, Fedex and USPS all can be used to minimize different turning directions. I used to work at Fedex home delivery and this would be a prime parameter for drivers with larger trucks. The software also can plot you to specific points during the day, like avoiding downtown during rush hour. Although it can minimize left turns, it sometimes makes you drive in circles to do so, makes you go far out of the way, down little streets (since like GPS it doesn't really know any better).

    The article is actually about how UPS is going to lessen global warming or some such silly thing like that. They aren't, the increased distance the route can plot makes you drive as long (it doesn't truly matter if your diesel truck is idling at a light or driving in a circle). It is, however, easier for a driver to make less left turns and probably has some sort of psychological effect on other drivers to not see them in the left lane.



    "Last year, according to Heather Robinson, a U.P.S. spokeswoman, the software helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons."

    The software is excellent, it makes great routes, can cut down on any number of hassles, but seriously the main point is NOT to eliminate left turns. The software is meant to get more packages out, more quickly, to more people, with less drivers, and more profit.

    Silly NY Times writers.

    --
    "Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble."
  3. Re:I have a solution. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can take a look at the Wikipedia information on the origin of the quotation:
    "Calwell's remark in Parliament in 1947 that 'Two Wongs don't make a White' is widely quoted. The remark was intended as a joke, being a reference to a Chinese resident called Wong who was wrongly threatened with deportation, and a Liberal MP, Sir Thomas White. Today the remark is seen as evidence that Calwell was a racist."
    [see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Calwell ]