What is Digg?78 Comments
- hodyoaten, on 10/12/2007, -2/+45Sadly, UPS corporate said that the program failed initial trials in the UK.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23Also, coming to a full stop and accelerating back to speed again is a huge waste of gas. Minimizing stopping is one of the best ways to increase gas mileage.
Every time you hit the brake, you're wasting momentum that you burnt gas to build up. - WrecksTXP, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I've done this myself. Saves time spent waiting at traffic lights.
- speedyrev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21It is also safer. Left turns require that you cross a lane of oncoming traffic and intrerupt two lanes of cross traffic. Right turns only require you two interupt one lane.
- NeilM, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19If only they would put their fuel conserving software to the test on weekends! :)
- Hexxagonal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18they aren't taking only right turns, it's a linear programming problem where they decide what's the optimum and right turns are weighted better than left turns
- apotropaic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19I'd like to use this!
- Agraek, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16I'm not an ambiturner! I can't turn left!
- super_spyder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11i heard this also lowered their insurance costs, because you are less likely to be at fault in an accident making a right turn, compared to making a left.
- emannigol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Heh. I like your subtle wit.
- oneofmanysteves, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14Good God, I'm an idiot. Let me rephrase and finish this. Did they take this idea from Zoolander, what's next the UPS center for kids who can't read good?
- asurroca, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10This makes a lot of sense. I would think that the benefit from the time saved by taking these precisely tuned routes would be greater than that of the saved fuel, though. Who would've thought that cost-cutting could be good for the environment, though? What a surprise ;)
- pizza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8UPS has LOTS of little tricks they use. The drivers are required to carry the key to their truck in their right hand, with the ring on their pinky, as to minimize fumbling time. i ***** you not
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Test #6 Avoid Excessive Idling
Result: More important than we assumed
Cold Hard Facts: Avoiding excessive idling can save up to 19 percent
Recommendation: Stopping longer than a minute? Shut 'er down.
from a previous digg
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/106842/article.html#test6 - tagawa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Just remembered you drive on the other side of the road in the US. Doh! The article makes sense now.
- lnxaddct, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8BrockLee,
For every hill you go down there will inevitably be a hill you go up, assuming you eventually need to get back to your starting spot - treasonx, on 10/12/2007, -5/+12I dont see that happening :) They are union
- weoh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8What a technologically advanced world we live in! In my day there was no downhill. In the future, hopefully, uphill will be abolished.
- scootinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"88,0000 vehicles"
Is it 88,000 or 880,000 vehicles? - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"you make a bad assumption. You assume the routing software they use already asigns points, but I'm willing to bet it doesn't, because all the software needs to do is measure distances and choose the shortest route."
The shortest route is very very rarely the best. Any routing software that chose the shortest route would be absolute crap. You have to take into consideration speed limits, typical traffic, etc. Even the most basic mapping software has had features like this for well over a decade. - BuddhaChu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Gotta be 88k as they only have 407k employees. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Parcel_Service - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4People make errors like that a lot. My personal favorite? When advertising cars, some people might put 112,000 miles down as "112,000 miles", while others write it as "122k miles".
There's a certain special minority who have a habit of writing it out as "122,000k miles". 122 million miles, you say? I didn't know a honda civic would last that long! - qwertydvorak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@merreborn well, it is a Honda........
- davekao, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You're right. I'm sure UPS hasn't done any testing on this. You should contact them.
- dpk87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4ah, the old three right turns to make a left approach
/kidding - shoop008, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Zombo, they rotate the tires making the price the same either way.
- ravitek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Most roads have a right turning lane in which you don't have to wait for a red light to turn green. Therefore less time is spent waiting idling.
- no2gates, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I remember what my grandfather told me:
"2 wrongs don't make a right, but 3 rights make a left" - parcelbrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm actually under NDA so I can't say much. I work for UPS and I work with this software, not as a programmer, but I do use it. The routes have always taken into account stop signs, speed limits and we do go for shortest routes. We work to minimize miles to lower fuel costs. This is why our fuel surcharge is only around 12% while other companies (USPS, FedEx and DHL) are coming up near 20%.
- sgtstadanko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Right turn Clyde....
- RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3BassJunkie - I think you missed the joke. Just think long and hard why right hand turns would not be efficient in Britain.
- gilrogers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's not that the turn is smaller, rather that when turning left, the chance of waiting for oncoming traffic results in more idle time, and ultimately fuel consumption. Unfortunately, as many folks have noted, studies havn't been done on tire use, and ultimately if it is shorter to turn left, how much further will a truck have to travel if their "preference" is right?
Interesting read. - orenthal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2nascar only turns left.
- LoDown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hmmm...neither UPS Brown or UPS SCS or UPS Freight use RDID to track their packages/shipments/freight. It is all done by barcode and scanner. It is nice except when the scanner misses a package, and then you have to guess whether the package is actually on the outbound aircraft or floating around the hub somewhere...
- sophiaperennis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Time Efficiency Nazis, I'd say. All the major Post and Parcel couriers use this by the way.
- Scooley01, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Plus, I guess they don't realize that when the driver "leaves the truck for a second", shutting it off and starting it back up uses more fuel than it would have if it was just sitting there idling. Besides the fact that our UPS driver lets his truck idle...but he does always come to our house from the right, and continue down the street and make another right
- akroche, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2UPS and others have been doing this for years. A team of guys from Georgia Tech initially wrote the software. It looks at time of day restrictions of roads (like no trucks during rush hour on some roads, right/left hand turn restrictions and optimizations, same side of the road routing (so the driver does all the evens for a stretch of road and then the odds). And yes, even though it was a joke about right hand turns, the software didn't used to work very well in the UK where addresses for buildings are frequently names (sometimes there is no number). And both FedEx and UPS are testing RFID so that the driver doesn't need a key - the truck automatically starts/is enabled for driving when the driver is in the truck, which minimizes turning off the truck at some stops and/or locking the driver cabin door.
I'd tell you more but I have to go to my TTA meeting (transportation technologists anonymous).
- leobaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2when ups comes to my house to drop off a small package or envelope, they leave it running. When they delivered the TV they stopped the engine.
- McPostal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I work for USPS and they've always created routes based on right turns. It's more for safety than fuel consumption. We are also always supposed to shut down the engine and pull the emergency brake when exiting the vehicle (again for safety not fuel consumption). Of course USPS don't need software since the routes don't change daily.
- IIIKrazyKiDDIII, on 12/12/2007, -0/+1I think the tire use would be more with left turns, not because of the distance, but because of the amount of wear on the tires with the acceleration to fit in between the cars.
- Ellsass, on 11/05/2008, -0/+1oh, shut up.
- fr4ncium, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2dammit dammit dammit someone beat me to a NASCAR joke!
Really smart idea though - something sorta similar I do is whenever I'm driving on a non-crowded road and see a red light further ahead, I start to coast so that by the time I reach the light it is green again. - BassJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just think that it was probably due to just being in London! I'm a field engineer and have to "travel" (I don't like to use this word as i spend more time startionary then actually moving) around central London regularly, and you do spend most of the time snarled up in traffic regardless of wheather you try to avoid a certain turn type (beit left or right!)
I think it is a good idea and after all a small saving accross such as large orgainisation has to add up to some good savings so fair play to them! - sruffelman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's a really interesting concept. UPS is famous for its efficiency, highlighted several times in Thomas Friedman's book "The World Is Flat." He discusses how they use RF ID tags to know exactly where packages are along the route and how they have invented to creative measures to reduce cost.
- skilletsavior35, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i never thought about this and would have never but with all the shipments they make now it makes sence.
- CrazyNic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's a good one, right turns in London, that could be such a nightmare!!
- leobaby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1read the article?
- tower31, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Car salesman use the similar logic. Right turns you live, left you die. They should be allowed to take as many left turns as they want...
- davekao, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, trucking companies have been doing this for years. It's just the software that is new.
- superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Have you seen UPS trucks take a corner? Remember they have a lot of valuable boxes with insurence on them... they take those corners pretty slow. My guess is extra tire wear is negligable.
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