Turn left with care.

Sometimes ideas sound so far fetched, so silly, you need to call MythBusters to validate and when it is validated, you still scratch your head in amazement. One such idea came from UPS and their ubiquitous brown trucks who figured out only turning one way, right, could save them time and money. To get a better grasp on the idea, I looked at a map of New York and did some trips around parts of the city I was acquainted with and came up with some revelations, three rights make a left and turning with the traffic is always the safest choice. So as ridiculous as it sounds, the UPS right turn strategy built out of their route optimisation algorithm, has made their software the envy of the logistics universe and provided them with benefits far beyond the initial scope.

On any given day, UPS delivers nearly 16 million parcels from their 93,637 vehicles, all looking to turn right, unless they are driving in Australia, where I wonder if they have the left turn strategy worked out? Aside from the staggering savings over the last decade, 50 million litres of petrol, carbon reduction, equivalent to taking 5,300 cars off the road for an entire year, UPS discovered the side effects of the right turn algorithm were even more important. They discovered drivers no longer crept out on crossings to monitor traffic, thus putting themselves at greater risk of sideswipe accidents because the reality is, many accidents start with a left hand turn. In fact, some states have special jury instructions for road accident cases, indicating the inherent problems of left hand turns against the traffic. So in a typical year of driving, saving over 28 million miles not driven, being back safely back in the depot and not turning against the traffic has resulted in a duty of care bonus for drivers and their employer. In fact the UPS accident rate has dropped by 30% in the past five years, to where the world’s largest package delivery company averages less than one accident for every million miles driven, leading to some drivers like Ralph Lendi driving seven million miles without incident.

Thinking out of the “block” has helped UPS revolutionise their business. Asking the hard questions about better processes and procedures will sometimes give you the old “we’ve always done it this way” reply but if you believe in your solution and there is merit from a revenue and more importantly employee benefit, don’t let the naysayers get you down. UPS took what they had, brown trucks delivering parcels all over the world and made it better, for the consumer, for the bottom line of UPS and for the drivers and delivery people. Their drive for efficiency, where no idea was discounted, turned into a bench mark solution and gives hope for anyone working on the hard questions.

To think outside the “box” is too often the throw away line given in meetings or think tanks where the boss is not about change but more the perception of doing something that might result in a change. So next time someone asks for the craziest solution in a meeting, tell them to turn right, it might get your idea up on that white board.