Planning Saves Time, Money And The Environment
You’ve all seen the brown UPS trucks everywhere you go. Driving in front of you, not going as fast as you’d like. Parked by the curb, delivering packages. Slowing down to turn right. They’re everywhere, and you often come up on them.
One place that you’ll very rarely see them is turning left at a traffic light…or in fact…turning left anywhere! Is that a coincidence? No; it’s business planning in action. After a great deal of technical analysis, business analysts at UPS determined that turning left wastes gas, increases polluting emissions, and wastes time.
There are other benefits in planning to reduce the number of left turns that a driver makes. If a driver turns left to deliver a package, they have to cross lanes of oncoming traffic. That’s a safety issue. After the business of delivery, the driver has to make another left turn across the traffic to get back in their route.
UPS estimates that their business operations save over 10 million litres of fuel each year by planning their routes to minimize left turns. They save most of this fuel by not having to wait to turn left with their engines idling. By planning their routes, they pick up and deliver on the right; drive to the furthest point; then pick up and deliver on the other side of the road on their return trip.
Planning their routes to reduce the number of left turns is in their Operations Manual. It’s written down, so it’s a plan!
Is your Business Plan written down?