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How UPS Trucks Saved Millions of Dollars By Eliminating Left Turns (ndtv.com)

Posted by msmash on from the bright-ideas dept.

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.

9 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. Tee hee! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    > Turns out that UPS was right

    I see what you did there.

  2. Something is missing by thsths · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Something is missing by SirSlud · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, as somebody pointed out, more deliveries per hour = less trucks required per day = less distance traveled by fleet in total. So yes, it does make sense.

      --
      "Old man yells at systemd"
    2. Re:Something is missing by skids · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I suspect they are right: a truck that spends less total time on travel + waiting for left turns makes more deliveries, so there do not need to be as many trucks.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    3. Re: Something is missing by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's probably worth clarifying why that matters. Trucks don't start out at the first delivery location; they have to be driven there. If you can reduce the number of trucks, then there are fewer people wasting fuel driving out to the first delivery location. The larger the geographical area covered by a single depot, the greater the savings.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  3. MythBusters were there 7 years ago by Melkhior · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The MythBusters did that one 7 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2010_season)#Left_Hand_Turn

  4. Missing information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. How they 'cut distance' travelled by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  6. Agreed. This is why NASCAR cars are so inefficient by raymorris · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.