Right, right, right, but is it always right?
“We’re gonna make a right turn onto 135th to Western. We’ll make another right on Western down to 139th. Right turn on 139th and go down to the end of the block and we’ll make another right turn. Keeping straight for 2km and then right turn to arrive at destination.”
Sounds strange. Why should we navigate around and take only right turns? It seems that we are driving in a circle. Not if you ask UPS. To turn left on a road with a lot of upcoming traffic, waiting times can be tremendously high. But not anymore. In 2006, UPS invested approximately 600 million USD in a new IT planning system. A very complex software allows more efficient planning of the drivers routes. It not only does it tell the driver were to go, but also when to pick and drop which package, making UPS logistics more efficient than ever. “Everything specially customized for our needs, that’s why the price of developing and implementing the new software was so high,” IT boss Barnes says.
The effort started already to pay off after implementing in 2006. According to UPS, the 91,000 brown delivery vans with the infamous three yellow letters on the site drove alone in the first seven months after implementing 22 million (yes, you read correctly million) kilometers, less. This allows for the decrease in maintenance costs and fuel consumption. Once the program runs in its entirety, UPS will require 50 million liters less of fuel each year. The saved travel time also allows individual drivers to be able to visit 109 customers per day (100 customers before implementing, +9% per day).
Even though it may sound simple to you; the technology behind calculating shorter and more convenient distances and routes, is much more complex. One third of the test sites failed to achieve the expected savings. “But we quickly realized our mistakes and in addition improved the training of our employees,” says Barnes. The UPS-software is recalculating 70,000 US delivery routes every day to ensure the fastest way to deliver their packages.
Are you still not convinced that UPS’s ‘go right’ strategy, is the go-to strategy? American TV show Mythbusters tested the “UPS Right Only” strategy, and surprisingly it´s really worth investing 600 million USD in an idea that seems simple and easy. VIDEO
However, with every solution, comes another challenge — this revolutionary technology is unable to solve a UPS’ drivers never-ending search for a parking space.
“We have to live with that,” says Barnes.
So how could a Smart City help, delivery companies like UPS to easily find a parking place?
Maybe a new app recently developed in Denver can provide an easy-fix to UPS’ delivery operations. ParkiFi, a parking space ‘finder’ application, promises an easier end to your drive. An app launched just four days ago (Tuesday, November 15), with a button that says, “Just Park,” is already more than just your everyday app. The company knows exactly which spots are available for parking. It took two years for the Denver Company to roll out its mix of way finding, data analytics and Internet of Things technologies. After fine-tuning hardware embedded in parking spots that alerts drivers to open spaces, ParkiFi is ready.
“We had to build the sensor first and go out and test the hardware. And hardware being what it is, you have to be able to put this out in the world and have the world beat up on it for awhile to figure out what its weaknesses are,” said ParkiFi CEO Ryan Sullivan, who co-founded the company with Rishi Malik. “That gave us enough to raise a series A, which gave us enough to come full circle to our main vision: To relieve congestion and that pain and hassle of finding a parking spot.”
Maybe this will help UPS. For now, at least in Denver.
Smart questions. Smarter solutions. ürbes.
