UPS bulks up on tech

Package-delivery company is en route with a $600 million plan to build a suite of software and hardware.

The story "UPS bulks up on tech" published October 26, 2005 at 6:04 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

[ripvan80]

Ask the drivers if it's working!

"In the past, UPS has relied on employees to load the trucks, a
job that required memorizing thousands of streets and
locations, and often left it to delivery drivers to sort out
problems while on their routes."

I am not a UPS employee, but I often talk to my route driver. He
is a smart, hard-working man, and he is now exhausted and
ready to quit his 30-year job.

According to him, the new tech system is a nightmare. Most of
the mapping data is bad. It ignores years of driving experience
and creates arbitrary routes. Drivers are now working longer
hours and having more accidents, because the software insists
that they travel on crowded highways.

The old system, of letting drivers memorize routes and "sort out
problems" worked because the human brain is still a more
efficient, flexible instrument for reacting to real-time problems.

UPS ought to ask its drivers if the system is working. Blind faith
in technology, and VPs who never get into the field, are a direct
route to corporate collapse.

30 Years

Maybe he is tired because he has been working there for 30 years....Lets say he started when we was 20? That would not make him 50, I know when I get to 50 I don't want to have a job that demands a lot from my body. Just an idea.

[ripvan80]

Ask the drivers if it's working!

"In the past, UPS has relied on employees to load the trucks, a
job that required memorizing thousands of streets and
locations, and often left it to delivery drivers to sort out
problems while on their routes."

I am not a UPS employee, but I often talk to my route driver. He
is a smart, hard-working man, and he is now exhausted and
ready to quit his 30-year job.

According to him, the new tech system is a nightmare. Most of
the mapping data is bad. It ignores years of driving experience
and creates arbitrary routes. Drivers are now working longer
hours and having more accidents, because the software insists
that they travel on crowded highways.

The old system, of letting drivers memorize routes and "sort out
problems" worked because the human brain is still a more
efficient, flexible instrument for reacting to real-time problems.

UPS ought to ask its drivers if the system is working. Blind faith
in technology, and VPs who never get into the field, are a direct
route to corporate collapse.

30 Years

Maybe he is tired because he has been working there for 30 years....Lets say he started when we was 20? That would not make him 50, I know when I get to 50 I don't want to have a job that demands a lot from my body. Just an idea.

[sctparker]

But they still...

treat their employees like ****.

[sctparker]

But they still...

treat their employees like ****.