Let's say you're a trucking company. A real one, not a fake company, like some that some that shall go nameless. A really, really big trucking company -- one with 92,000 (real) vehicles. A trucking company so big, with so many vehicles, that your name just happens to be UPS. Now, if you were running a company like UPS, and you decided to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, how would you do it? Hybrid trucks? Way too expensive. Ethanol-powered trucks? Ditto. Hydrogen-powered trucks? Dream on.
Or, you could try something simpler: Make fewer left turns. A Financial Times article by Sarah Murray describes a route-optimization software tool that UPS uses to do just that:
Take something as simple as reducing left-hand turns. For US drivers, this means less time idling in the middle of the road waiting for oncoming traffic to pass. "Left-hand turns - that's a huge issue," says Cyndi Brandt, product managerfor the Roadnet transportation suite.
A division of UPS, Roadnet sells software that logistics managers at companies such as Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch use to re-engineer their fleet routing.
Roadnet uses an underlying map database that can penalise or disable left-hand turns in the route planning process. The system is well suited to the delivery business because drivers can run circular routes, ending up where they started.
Using this technique, Roadnet customers generate surprising savings on fuel and emissions. Collectively, Roadnet clients save an estimated 54.4m gallons of fuel a year and can cut about 85,000 trucks and cars out of their logistics systems.
Do the back-of-the-envelope math: 54.4 million gallons saved, at an average diesel fuel price of $2.68 a gallon, amounts to cash savings of $145.8 million. And a happier planet. Keep that in mind next time you turn left.
(Photo above, UPS truck in the Mission District, San Francisco. By SeenyaRita)