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How UPS Delivers Faster Using $8 Headphones and Code That Decides When Dirty Trucks Get Cleaned (technologyreview.com)
With Amazon's imminent plans to launch a low-cost package delivery service, UPS is about to face intense competition from a company with top customer-tracking capabilities and even artificial-intelligence expertise. To tackle it, the company is turning to advances analytics. From a report: In 2016, it began collecting data across its facilities. Today there are about 25 projects based on that data, grouped under the acronym EDGE (which stands for "enhanced dynamic global execution"). The program has sparked changes in everything from how workers place packages inside delivery trucks in the morning to how the vast army of temporary hires that UPS recruits during the busy holiday season are trained. Eventually, data will even dictate when UPS vehicles get washed. The company expects to save $200 million to $300 million a year once the program is fully deployed.
[...] Another project tells seasonal workers where to direct the outbound packages that UPS vehicles pick up throughout the day and bring to the company's sorting facilities. UPS hires nearly 100,000 of these workers from November through January. Typically, these people would need to memorize hundreds of zip codes to know where to place parcels, but last winter UPS outfitted about 2,500 of them with scanning devices and $8 Bluetooth headphones that issue one-word directions, such as "Green," "Red," or "Blue." The colors correspond to specific conveyor belts, which then transport the packages to other parts of the building for further processing.
[...] Another project tells seasonal workers where to direct the outbound packages that UPS vehicles pick up throughout the day and bring to the company's sorting facilities. UPS hires nearly 100,000 of these workers from November through January. Typically, these people would need to memorize hundreds of zip codes to know where to place parcels, but last winter UPS outfitted about 2,500 of them with scanning devices and $8 Bluetooth headphones that issue one-word directions, such as "Green," "Red," or "Blue." The colors correspond to specific conveyor belts, which then transport the packages to other parts of the building for further processing.
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I haven’t had this problem with either UPS or FedEx.
Amazon delivery, on the other hand... a couple weeks ago, I had to return a package that had been thrown into the grass inside a fenced yard (not for the first time). It was out there a couple days because the Amazon delivery driver had recorded “handed directly to a neighbor” - some of my neighbors have odd hours, so it takes a while to make contact with all of them. I finally happened to notice a small yellow corner of an envelope poking up amid a bunch of tall grass..
I’ve had Amazon drivers stuff boxes into trees (“left in a secure location”, the delivery note said - thank God the imbecile actually took a delivery photo that time!); in the grass; sitting in the rain, right underneath a laminated 8”x11” sign stating “please deliver packages to the back door”; all sorts of ridiculous locations. I’ve complained every time, and been told each time that I can’t exclude Amazon delivery from my options.
I’ve had Prime for years... but, after the latest debacle, I cancelled all my subscribe and save deliveries and am spending the next ten months (till renewal time) exploring alternatives to Amazon. There are certainly a number of companies trying to get into that space...
#DeleteChrome