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How UPS Trucks Saved Millions of Dollars By Eliminating Left Turns (ndtv.com)
Some people probably already know this, but for those who don't: UPS truck drivers don't take left turns, and despite this usually resulting in longer route, they are saving millions of dollars in fuel costs. From a report: The company decided on eliminating left turns (or right turns in left-hand driving countries such as India) wherever possible after it found that drivers have to sit idly in the trucks while waiting to take the left turn to pass through traffic. So, it created an algorithm that eliminated left turns from drivers' routes even if meant a longer journey. This meant that drivers do not have to wait in traffic to take a left turn and can take the right turn at junctions. Of course, the algorithm does not entirely eliminate left turns, but the number of left turns taken by UPS trucks is less than 10 percent of all turns made. Turns out that UPS was right -- the idea really paid off. In 2005, a year after it announced that it will minimize left turns, the company said that the total distance covered by its 96,000 trucks was reduced by 747,000km, and 190,000 litres of fuel had been saved. In 2011, Bob Stoffel, a UPS Senior Vice President, told Fortune that the company had reduced distance traveled by trucks by 20.4 million miles, and reduced CO2 emissions by 20,000 metric tons, by not taking left turns. A recent report by The Independent says that the total reduction in distance traveled by UPS trucks now stands at 45.8 million miles, and there are 1,100 fewer trucks in its fleet because of the algorithm. Even by conservative estimates, that's tens of millions of dollar of savings in fuel costs. Senior VP Bob Stoffel explained how it works on CNN a few years ago.
> Turns out that UPS was right
I see what you did there.
Eliminating left turns to save time at the expense of longer distance is plausible.
Making the journey shorter by eliminating left turns is not. So what is the article not telling us?
The MythBusters did that one 7 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2010_season)#Left_Hand_Turn
"Of course, the algorithm does not entirely eliminate left turns, but the number of left turns taken by UPS trucks is less than 10 percent of all turns made."
I don't think you know what "eliminating" means. Worthless "journalist".
Let's say left turns were 40% of all turns and now they're 10%. You have indeed eliminated most left turns, just not all of them.
Bad on the headline for not qualifying "eliminating" but the rest of the article does.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
If this is true then it would make sense for Google maps and the others to offer routing options that also eliminate left turns.
I wonder what happens to traffic if everyone on the road eliminates left turns.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
You are an idiot. Even if they're went from N left turns to N-1 left turns, they'd still have eliminated a left turn.
Nowhere TFS says that *all* left turns were eliminated.
Worthless "journalist".
Worthless AC.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
For those readers outside the USA: In the USA, cars turning right can treat a red light like a stop sign, and turn right after stopping and checking the turn is safe.
All they do is turn left.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
From nine years ago.
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
> Turns out that UPS was right
I see what you did there.
Let's eliminate left turns from government policy as well.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
This "news" was posted about ten years ago on ./, by CmdrTaco on in December 2007.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
If you ignore the first article (Gadget 360) and click through the report hyperlink to
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
Then you find out that by cutting left turns they increase distance per package, but reduce time per package. By reducing time per package, they managed to put more packages on each truck. Miles per truck goes up, but the number of trucks goes down far more.
This reduction in total trucks also creates a slight reduction in distance traveled whenever two pickups are close to each other. So while miles per package goes up, total miles travelled drops tremendously.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Of course to get from point A to B, it takes more time when you eliminate left turns... But think that you actually have points A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.. And Multiple trucks.. Meaning that maybe point B is not served by truck 1, even when it's two blocks away from its original route, but it's taken by truck 2 because it's better served by the no-left-turn algorithm..
That's what I call economies of scale.. And not the idiot thing of being able to push your providers tu give you better prices because you're a big buyer..
Left turns have a higher rate of severe accidents as well.
UPS also trains it's drivers to put their seatbelts on with their left hand. Why? Because they can start the engine with the right. Saves time.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
there's a pretty good chance it doesn't connect in the middle and and attempt at going around the block is likely to send you on a 10 mile journey of zigzagging roads in a neighborhoods with no marked way out.
This is part of urban planning in residential areas now because roads that aren't designed for high traffic might suddenly find themselves used as a bypass route otherwise.
The penny finally dropped.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Now we know why NASCAR cars burn gas so fast - it's all the left turns.
> Let's eliminate left turns from government policy as well.
Agreed.
less waiting in traffic = more deliveries per truck per hour = less trucks on the road in a day = less distance per day for total fleet
"Old man yells at systemd"
> You think eliminating 1000 trucks didn't cost some jobs?
> So then why do they need to hire more people or raise wages when they SAVED MONEY?
At first glance that seems rather counter-intuitive, doesn't it? There is a suprise waiting around the corner.
This has been studied over and over, so even the very fine details are well understood now, but pretty much all economists and most business majors. Here's a clear example that makes the big idea clear:
Suppose it cost UPS $20/pound to make deliveries, so they charge $30/pound. How many books would people have ever ordered from Amazon? Roughly zero, because who wants to pay $30 shipping for a book.
Suppose it costs UPS $1/pound, so they charge $1.50/pound. How many people order books from Amazon? A shitload. Giving Amazon the ability to expand into a million other products. How many people order stuff from Amazon now, with shipping costs low? A shitload. How many people are hired to deliver all the things people order from Amazon? A shitload.
The general idea is that when costs are reduced, more people buy it. When more people buy something, that creates more jobs in the industry.
In the early 1980s, mobile phones cost $3,995. Hundreds of people were employed in the mobile phone industry, selling hundreds of phones. Today you can get a mobile phone for $29, so millions of people get mobile phones, creating an industry with millions of jobs.
When I worked at UPS all the driver's routes were built specifically to avoid left turns at all possible for all the above reasons. This is not a new concept, this is old UPS delivery tactics now brought to the forefront because of the use of tracking and analytics. It's a fluff piece for UPS that's all.
I bet if you talked to folks who worked there longer you'd find that they've all been doing this for the whole time they've been driving .
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
It has been about 10 years since I drove for UPS. Back then we didn't have GPS. If you were just starting out and needed to use a map, you did it before hand, mark it in your head and go. There are some mental tricks that they teach you and your first week or so, you are accompanied by an experienced driver who can also act as a navigator if you need it, but is otherwise pretty hands off.
I somehow doubt that they have changed all that much. And I think the reason is that the driver compartment of the UPS truck is not secure. Every time you leave your truck, you bring everything with you. There are not even any radios in them. If they started using GPS, they would have to make sure it is really bolted down... but even still, what about vandalism? Better to have your drivers be reliant on their own brains.
I did have what they call a "DIAD" (can't remember what the acronym stands for now) which had a cellular radio in it. This was for scanning the packages, capturing digital signatures and receiving updates from dispatch. It was not a GPS device though.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
That's why, if I ever competed in a NASCAR race I'd drive in the opposite direction.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Indeed, I can not recall anyone beaten up, or anything set on fire or otherwise destroyed during an anti-Obama protest...
Arrest them. Throw them in jail.
Then realize that what is left is a hell of a lot of people who are protesting peacefully because this administration does not represent the wishes and needs of the vast majority of the people in the country. I'm not a Democrat; I've never voted for a Democrat for federal office (twice for Bush and also for McCain), and I am damn tired of being cast as liberal/leftist because I do not toe the party line.
Wake up.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
Thirty years ago the US Postal Service trained their carriers to prefer right turns. Not to save gasoline, but to avoid accidents. Three right turns turned out to be safer than one left turn according to the statistics they gathered. They also stressed the danger of getting into a situation that would necessitate backing up.
You'd think someone would have suggested that to UPS (and other fleet operators) long ago.
Today's trivia: Traffic jam- several vehicles need to cross a busy intersection; an ambulance, a police car, an army tank, a painted hippy Volkswagen, a Presidential vehicle, a Postal vehicle, a UPS truck, and a famous movie starlet in a pink convertible ... Who has the right-of-way? The Postal vehicle.
...omphaloskepsis often...