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UPS technology saves fuel

System maps efficient routes, truck details

By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 24, 2008 at 9:10 p.m.

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After a stop in Broomfield, UPS driver Tim Hernandez returns to his truck. He calculates that the package-flow technology has allowed him to squeeze 10 to 20 more stops into his 91/2 hour delivery day. "Everything is timing," he says.

Photo by Silvia Razgova / Special To The Rocky

After a stop in Broomfield, UPS driver Tim Hernandez returns to his truck. He calculates that the package-flow technology has allowed him to squeeze 10 to 20 more stops into his 91/2 hour delivery day. "Everything is timing," he says.

UPS driver Tim Hernandez gets a box from his truck Tuesday while working his route in Broomfield. A Diad strapped to his belt tells him the location of each parcel on the truck and how many boxes to deliver at each stop. The device also tells him the most efficient way to drive to his next destination.

Photo by Silvia Razgova / Special To The Rocky

UPS driver Tim Hernandez gets a box from his truck Tuesday while working his route in Broomfield. A Diad strapped to his belt tells him the location of each parcel on the truck and how many boxes to deliver at each stop. The device also tells him the most efficient way to drive to his next destination.

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Tim Hernandez makes a right turn and swings his brown UPS delivery truck into traffic on West 120th Avenue.

He steps on the accelerator.

"Now we're going to do ressies," Hernandez says of the deliveries he's about to make to residential homes.

He's just finished his last business stop, delivering more than two dozen packages - including three boxes stuffed with night crawlers - to a K-Mart here. And he's consulted his hand-held computer, dubbed a Diad, to learn his next stop.

The 41-year-old father of three knows he's about to deliver packages to several nearby homes in specific succession. He knows where each package is located among the dozens sitting in the back of his truck.

It's all thanks to a $600 million trip-planning system. It maps out virtually every detail of Hernandez's delivery route. He accesses the system via his Diad, which he keeps strapped to his belt.

The technology's goal: help Hernandez and 51,000 other UPS drivers nationwide cut fuel costs at a time when diesel fuel is nearing $5 a gallon and gasoline has topped $4.

How?

Home and office stops are detailed in precise order. Left turns are avoided. Engine idling time is minimized. The location of each package sitting in the back of the truck is pinpointed. And the number of parcels destined for every stop is specified. The Diad also will alert Hernandez if he's at the wrong stop, thanks to the unit's built-in GPS technology.

Last year, Atlanta-based UPS reckoned the overall technology system saved Big Brown about 3 million gallons of fuel. It's known as package-flow technology. UPS says it can't offer a dollar figure in savings.

Finding the most efficient routes

Here in Broomfield, it's 10:25 a.m.. Hernandez parks his truck in front of a house and turns off the engine.

Armed with a package, he walks briskly up the steps, makes the delivery and strides back to the truck.

He checks his Diad, starts the engine and drives about 80 feet down the street to another house.

It's 10:28 a.m. He trots up the steps to the front door and leaves the package behind a pillar. Nobody home.

The stop-and-go continues, with a stroller delivered to another house a few minutes later. Hernandez can do as many as 30 stops an hour, thanks to the computerized route system he has on board.

"Everything is timing," explains Hernandez, who typically spends about 91/2 hours a day making deliveries. He calculates that package-flow technology allows him to squeeze 10 to 20 more stops into his day. He usually makes about 140 a day.

UPS expects to invest $600 million in package-flow technology. It's expected to be fully deployed by year's end.

The heart of the technology is a $30 million customized software system that crunches all sorts of data - such as home locations and information about each package - to create the most efficient route system.

Left turns are minimized to cut a truck's idling time at traffic lights. Routes are created to eliminate backtracking that might burn extra fuel.

Since it was deployed here about four years ago, the technology has allowed UPS drivers to cut 1.9 million miles off delivery routes in Colorado and Wyoming.

"They get more deliveries done in a day more efficiently - driving fewer miles and making more accurate deliveries," says UPS spokesman Dan McMackin.

Nationwide, the Atlanta-based company shaved 29 million miles off its driving in 2007. UPS says that translates into about 3 million gallons in fuel savings.

The system underscores UPS' reputation as a company that bets heavily on money-saving technology.

"They're constantly trying to squeeze out costs and find better ways to serve their customers," says John Schmitter, an adjunct professor at the University of Denver's Daniels College of business and an independent transportation consultant.

Reduce miles, increase stops

In metro Denver, the nerve center for package-flow technology is housed in a computer at UPS' big package center in Commerce City.

"This is how we're saving on gas," says UPS Rocky Mountain District Business Manager Gary Lafrinere, pointing at a desktop computer.

The machine is inside a small cinder block room, sitting on a desk that's held up by file cabinets.

The man at the controls is package-dispatch supervisor Jason Gooras. He crunches the numbers to cram the most delivery stops into the most fuel-efficient route for some 60 delivery truck drivers each day.

"The ultimate goal of this thing is to reduce his miles and increase his stops," Gooras says of a driver. Pointing to the computer screen, he adds: "These are the different routes."

Several multicolored, snaking lines pop up on a map. Each shows the different routes for four drivers in Cherry Creek.

Package flow '10 times easier'

Each evening, UPS employees download route and delivery information into drivers' Diads. The data include where each parcel is loaded in the truck and how many parcels will be left at each stop.

The next morning, the drivers grab their Diads, climb aboard their trucks, and make their deliveries. The device helps take the guesswork out of their jobs.

Back on the road, Hernandez said his job was more labor-intensive and error-prone before package-flow technology arrived.

He wasn't sure, for example, exactly where each package was in the truck. He also didn't have a foolproof method to ensure that he was delivering the correct number of packages to a home or office.

"Sometimes you'd miss a box. A few stops later you're going, 'Oh man!' " Hernandez recalls. He'd double back later to make the delivery. More fuel burned.

Parked outside the receiving department at the Kmart here, Hernandez unstacks packages from his truck.

Hernandez tells the Kmart employee there are 28 boxes, to be exact. It's all in the Diad. "It made it 10 times easier," he says of the package-flow system.

fillionr@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2467

The technology

UPS has introduced a package-flow system that has seen results.

* What it is: Computer- driven technology that UPS uses to reduce fuelcosts during deliveries.

* What it does: Gives drivers precise routes to minimize idling time, left turns and excess driving; it also tells drivers where each package is located on truck.

* Cost to UPS: $600 million, once fully deployed by year's end

* Nationwide savings: The technology has helped cut 29 million miles off driving in 2007, the equivalent of about 3 million gallons of fuel. Dollar savings unavailable.

* Local angle: Since deployed here about four years ago, technology has allowed UPS drivers to cut 1.9 million miles off delivery routes in Colorado and Wyoming.

Comments

  • June 25, 2008

    7:28 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Logical writes:

    Now, will politicians and traffic engineers learn from this? Traffic engineers should alter signals to flash red more often, and not have cars lined up waiting for a light to change when there is no cross-traffic.

    Politicians need to change the traffic laws to allow more efficient handling of intersections.

    But no, status quo so we will continue to use more fuel than necessary.