UPS, other delivery companies increase efficiency to save fuel

By CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
The Associated Press

2/19/2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's 6 a.m. and UPS engineer Julian Robinson navigates steel catwalks through a maze of conveyor belts carrying packages to hundreds of trucks. It's not a free-for-all: Each package has a label and color code to determine its loading area. The barcodes tell sorters which space on which specific shelf a package should sit inside a particular truck — to maximize delivery and fuel efficiency.

It's carefully choreographed to save time and energy, especially with fuel costs up 18 percent over last year for the Charlotte-area operation.

"There's no idling inside the building. When they start up, they have to be exiting," Robinson said.

With gas and diesel prices pushing past $3 a gallon and crude oil hitting $100 a barrel in January, the science of fuel-efficient package delivery has taken on an even higher level of importance for UPS and other truck-dependent businesses.

It includes high-tech solutions, old-fashioned fuel surcharges, equipment upgrades and simple epiphanies of common sense, such as UPS' recent decision to eliminate left turns from its routes because they waste fuel.

UPS engineering manager Troy Pate said the company is succeeding in conserving: "It's the price part that's hurting us." And it doesn't look like there will be much price relief in the future.

The federal Energy Information Administration predicts the average price for diesel fuel will increase in 2008 to $3.29 a gallon, compared to $2.88 last year.

At the UPS operations in northeast Charlotte, about 50,000 packages move through the distribution center from 3:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., the heart of the sort.

The computer system — in operation since 2002 — tracks them all and carefully maps delivery routes planned about two weeks ahead of time. Drivers never idle and new GPS capabilities help them avoid traffic tie-ups.

A computer playback of each driver's day, which features a brown digital UPS truck that moves along a map as if in a video game, looks for slow spots on usual delivery routes that creep in over time because of new construction or changes in traffic patterns. It maps future alterations around bottlenecks to save gas. The automotive department monitors every vehicle for unusual drops in fuel efficiency.

Older trucks with poorer performance are moved to shorter routes. Daily logs track fuel efficiency and mechanics are responsible for certain trucks over their tenure so they can understand each vehicle's mechanical personality.

UPS also hires driver helpers and rents golf carts, which it keeps secured near some gated communities, such as at the Skybrook golf community near Huntersville, Pate said.

During peak Christmas season, a truck might pull a U-haul-like trailer behind and leave those packages with the helper to deliver using the golf cart, Pate said.

FedEx, which is building its main Southeast hub in Greensboro, said it uses route planning software to maximize efficiency. But it also allows its drivers to deviate: "Often times, because of changing traffic patterns and new construction, the driver knows better than the computer," said Sally Davenport, a FedEx spokeswoman.

She said the company's fuel costs were up 23 percent for the last quarter, compared to the previous year. FedEx has been using more vehicles that run on alternative fuel, such as hydrogen, she said. "They do save money."

Some smaller companies are feeling the petrol pinch and also changing their ways.

Doug Prestwood, vice president of Kerns Trucking Inc., said diesel price increases are stressing the Kings Mountain-based business. The 75-year-old company owns 38 trucks and vans and dispatches routes for hundreds of others who drive their own trucks.

The company says its fuel costs are up 20 percent over last year, Prestwood said.

Kerns doesn't have UPS-level technology, but it encourages drivers to buy special flaps and plastic shields to cut down on wind resistance and increase fuel efficiency — up to 15 percent in some cases. Special covers for oil pans, axles and otherwise exposed items underneath a truck also can improve fuel efficiency by 3 percent or more for each item, the company tells its drivers. Its Web site features a tip of the month.

Prestwood said long-haul trucks only get 5-7 miles per gallon.

"Five miles is not far to go, and you burned a gallon of gas — that's $3.50," he said. "We beg, plead, insist that our customers pay a fuel surcharge."

The company has instituted other measures recently to cut down on fuel costs. It equipped its long haul trucks with new GPS units so drivers don't get lost. The company recently bought special batteries that charge all day and power the truck at night for up to 12 hours so drivers don't have to idle to stay warm. Idling burns about a gallon an hour, he said.

"It's getting rid of old habits, like leaving the truck idling and going to get breakfast so it's warm when you come back," he said.