Image via WikipediaEfficiency is the bread and butter of UPS. Deliver the package on time while saving time, space and money. At UPS, computer sorted packages are marked with a proprietary bar-code. Computers design optimal routes and state of the art package facilities guide your deliveries with computer precision. But with all the billions spent on these systems, the biggest secret to their success is don't make left turns.
UPS plots it's delivery route to make as many right turns as possible. Where half the turns are left ones, they avoid turning left. And how much of the time are UPS trucks turning right? Tasha Hovland, an industrial engineering manager, said, "A guesstimate, I would probably say 90 percent. I mean we really, really we hate left turns at UPS."
Efficiency is so much a part of UPS that it should be called "United Efficient Parcel Service". So much, even the trucks are parked 5 inches apart in the dispatch center.
Making right turns is nothing new, it was the norm way back before anyone can remember. Managers would go out on the trucks and drive the routes, plotting on map how the right turns could be more efficient.
UPS trucks drive 2.5 billion miles every year. With its package flow technology and right turns they saved 28,541,472 million miles and 3 million gallons of fuel last year. The company puts almost 92,000 trucks on the road every day. But without its efficiency and right-turn routes, it would have to send out an additional 1,100 trucks.
This is why you never here of a recession with companies like UPS. Constant innovation and increased efficiency keeps companies vibrant.
I think I will try this right turn only stuff when I go to work tomorrow.
