No Left Turn

 

Did you know that UPS has a right-turn-only policy? 

According to Priceonomics, UPS engineers found that left-hand turns were a major drag on efficiency. Turning against traffic resulted in long waits in left-hand turn lanes that wasted time and fuel, and it also led to a disproportionate number of accidents. By mapping out routes that involved "a series of right-hand loops," UPS improved profits and safety while touting their  environmentally friendly policy. As of 2012, the right turn rule combined with other improvements -- for the wow factor, UPS doesn't separate them out -- saved around 10 million gallons of gas and reduced emissions by the equivalent of taking 5,300 cars of the road for a year.

Describing the policy in a speech, Scott Davis, the CEO of UPS told his audience, "I can see a few of you smiling out there, and I know what you may be thinking. But it really works."

Of course, it’s impossible to get around without ever making a left turn, but one UPS driver estimates that his left turns are less than one turn out of ten.

Speaking of UPS, I’m not sure whether our dogs love or hate the UPS truck, but they do go nuts every time it passes by, running up and down the fence line barking their heads off.  They can recognize the sound of the UPS truck from half a mile away, and they react the same way every time. 

They ignore the postal carrier and Federal Express, but go into a frenzy for the UPS truck.

FedEx even has a new truck serving our area that looks just like a white version of the brown UPS wagon.  The dogs don’t even look up when it goes by.