Why UPS trucks don’t turn
left?
The world
is continuously moving. It’s impossible to stop it, even when it goes so fast
that we cannot catch it. Every second passing, new information is created, so
the amount of data available becomes greater and greater.
This has
always been a big issue for the companies, but nowadays it’s crucial, due to
the experienced growth in technology and information systems. Only to have an
idea, the amount of information collected by a cash register every day exceeds
the farthest imaginations of past civilizations.
Yes. Big
data is a reality. And companies need to know how to manage it, as big data can
become a huge competitive advantage if well managed, but also can make
efficiency levels decrease if the company lefts this unattended and
unstructured, as it won’t be able to produce the cheapest and most effective
products or services.
We can say
that big data is omnipresence, as it affects all the areas of a company, and
logistics is not an exception. Actually, logistics is one of the areas in which
big data has a higher impact, a fact that can be shown through a simple example
related to UPS (United Parcel Service).
With an
average of 18,3 million packages delivered every day, UPS has taken profit of
information systems and big data to came up with a methodology that enables the
company to save a lot of money.
So, what’s
this methodology about? It’s much simpler than you probably think, and is based
on the following sentence: “Don’t turn left unless you really have to”.
It can seem
a little bit stupid, but by doing this UPS saves 10 million of gallons of fuel
each year, avoids emissions equivalent to over 21.000 passenger cars and reduces
from 6 to 8 the miles driven per route, being able to deliver 350.000 more
packages a year.
The
practice started decades ago, when the company realized it was wrong assuming
the most direct route as the best route. When considering accident risks,
travel time and fuel use, among other aspects, the company found that left-hand
turns across traffics represented a huge problem. In countries like US, with
right-hand driving roads, left-turning usually represents a higher risk of
accident and wastes time and fuel as vehicles need to wait until there’s no
traffic to pass.
There are
still some left-hand turns done by UPS trucks, but only the essential ones,
representing approximately only the 10% of the total turns.
Developing
such a practice has not been easy, and nowadays the carrier company has its own
software, which differentiates more important left-hand turns from unimportant
ones, giving a penalty of 20 seconds to each undesirable left-hand turn.
Moreover, this system includes information about parking lots, private
driveways, variable speed limits and roads that are inaccessible for a truck.
Imagine how
much information must deal with this software in order to find the best route
for every truck and every delivery. There’s no doubt that it’s a clear example
of a good management of the big data. As the company has said, many drivers
thought that their trips were becoming longer with the implementation of the
new routing software, but they we’re later proved wrong. These drivers had a
huge carrying experience, but they were not able to understand the system as a
whole, nor making it as efficient as the software did.
We need to admit it. Big data is beating us.
If you want
to look at how this system works, you can see it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfo4IooBsRc
References:
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