DC Velocity - October 2016

Get the right product out the door faster.

Lucas helps DCs meet customer demands for faster,

40 DC VELOCITY OCTOBER 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
MAKE THE 10: 30 DEADLINE

Competing parcel carriers may designate different trucks for express service versus two-day delivery, but each UPS truck must accommodate parcels with an array of overlapping delivery deadlines. A single UPS truck might leave its DC at

8: 30 a.m., deliver all of its Next Day Air packages by 10: 30 a.m., make a second loop of its neighborhood to deliver UPS Ground parcels to businesses by 3 p.m., then make a third loop to deliver residential packages and make pickups.

To help sort out those overlapping
deadlines, the driver’s constant compan-
ion is the handheld computer he uses
to display a list of addresses, scan every
parcel to record the time it’s delivered,
exchange text messages with a manager,
or make arrangements to meet another
UPS driver to exchange a mislabeled box.

UPS calls the handheld computer DIAD, for “Delivery Information Acquisition Device.” The mobile unit, which is now in its fifth version, was launched in 1990 to help drivers cope with the accelerated pace and complexity of modern-day parcel delivery. The sixth iteration DIAD will add familiar smartphone features like a color navigation screen and dynamic optimization, UPS CIO Juan Perez said at a recent company media event.

REMEMBER THE HUMAN FACTOR Equipped with the latest ORION and DIAD technology and trained in UPS techniques for everything from exiting the truck to deploying the two-wheeled dolly, a driver might seem like just a small cog in a big brown machine. But many UPS drivers stick with the same delivery route for decades, memorizing every street on their route and getting to know their clients by name.

In the space of a few hours along Norwood’s bustling Route 1, we visited multiple car dealerships, a sporting goods store, a gym, a plumbing supply store, an electronics supplier, a law office, a computer programming school, a pharmaceutical firm, an automotive body shop, and a garage occupied by an elderly man running a mail-order business. A 15-year veteran of the route, the driver greeted most of his customers by their first names and a corny joke, or with some good-natured ribbing about their golf handicap.

Our day trip affirmed what many, especially those at UPS, already know: Its drivers are the face of the company. They do more than pick up and deliver packages. They interact, answer questions, and field complaints. They project the brand’s image to the outside world. That is why for all of the company’s whiz-bang technology and all the talk about autonomous vehicles, UPS will continue to rely on human drivers to manage its routes, and its customers, for years to come.