UPS Truck Drive scheme makes delivery more fuel-efficient

In 2004, the US Logistics service UPS announced a new policy for corporate drivers: the right way to any delivery site should avoid turning left, even if it meant turning right and round.

After 2001 years of tracking system improvements, express delivery providers have been more careful to track the performance of delivery trucks. As a logistics company with 96,000 trucks and hundreds of aircraft, UPS has many operations that need to be optimized to reduce fuel consumption, save time and make the most of the space. Even in the parking lot of the UPS Logistics Base, the distance between the two trucks is only a few inches, the mirrors overlap each other to save space.

UPS engineers found that left turn affects efficiency. Cross-crossing with the opposite side of the vehicle will lead to a long wait on the left lane, which consumes both time and fuel, and the accident rate is also high. By drawing a "continuous right circular drive" delivery roadmap, UPS has both improved profit and security, and is in line with the company's promotional environmental friendly policy. As of 2012, the right turn rules, along with other improvements, have saved ups about 10 million gallons of fuel and reduced the equivalent of 5,300 vehicles a year on the road.

"I see some of you are laughing and I know what you're thinking, but it really worked," the UPS chief executive said in explanation of the policy. "If you don't believe it, then the American gossip terminator shows a test." The program group sent a delivery truck along the normal road, while the other followed the UPS delivery truck, which did not turn left. They found that the UPS truck's drive plan was more fuel-efficient, but took a little longer.

The "Gossip Terminator" group, which follows the principle of not turning left, is tougher than ups, which may be why it doesn't save time. Although there are simple and straightforward mathematical principles behind the left-turn rule, you will see UPS delivery trucks occasionally turn left, especially in neighborhoods where there is not much traffic. Asked how often the UPS driver turned right one time, a driver told the media: "I'm going to turn right at 90%." I mean, you really don't like to turn left at UPS. ”

Because UPS makes its way through software, sometimes turning left is very convenient and fast, it will also ask the driver to turn right. As a friendly senior vice president of the company said in an interview: "That's why I like engineers, who are always studying how to do better." ”