{"id":35820,"date":"2023-12-12T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=35820"},"modified":"2023-12-17T13:48:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T13:48:52","slug":"could-ups-and-fedex-get-holiday-packages-to-their-destinations-faster-this-research-suggests-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/could-ups-and-fedex-get-holiday-packages-to-their-destinations-faster-this-research-suggests-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Could UPS and FedEx get holiday packages to their destinations faster? This research suggests\u00a0yes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Toyin Clottey<\/a>, Wayne State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, parcel delivery companies \u2013 think UPS and FedEx \u2013 hire tens of thousands<\/a> of seasonal driver helpers<\/a> to handle the deluge of presents that arrive with the holidays. At peak times, shipping firms depend on their helpers just as much as Santa depends on his elves. And those companies could save millions of dollars<\/a> each year \u2013 and shave time off their deliveries \u2013 simply by tweaking the roles they gave those workers to be more efficient, my colleagues and I recently found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a a professor of supply chain management<\/a>, I\u2019m interested in how shipping companies can reach complex logistical goals. And there are few goals more challenging than getting 90 million parcels<\/a> to their destinations every day, which was the industrywide average during the 2022 U.S. holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when a major shipping company asked for some fellow researchers and me to find ways to improve the system, we jumped at the chance. Using mathematical models and a field experiment in a small Midwestern city, we found that reassigning these workers could unlock major efficiency gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have yourself some merry little logistics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you want your presents to land at Grandma\u2019s house on time and you don\u2019t live nearby, you\u2019ll probably need a shipping company to help. But such firms have been under strain for years, thanks to the rapid growth of online shopping, lingering supply chain problems, labor issues<\/a> and more. Unsurprisingly, shipping delays are becoming more common<\/a>. So improving efficiency would be a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way things work now is that seasonal helpers are divided into two groups. Some are assigned to a driver and ride with them along their entire route. Others work alone at locations with many customers, such as shopping malls or big apartment complexes. Drivers stop by those sites and drop off many packages; these independent helpers then use equipment such as hand trucks to deliver the items to their final destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current system was a big innovation when it was introduced. Helpers can halve the time<\/a> that drivers spend delivering packages at some stops, allowing a single vehicle to deliver more packages each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it doesn\u2019t work perfectly. Helpers are often underused<\/a>, and sometimes they don\u2019t have enough hours per day for the work to be economically viable for them. Independent helpers may be assigned deliveries on days that don\u2019t take up their entire paid work time. Meanwhile, drivers aren\u2019t always thrilled when helpers accompany them \u2013 especially if they aren\u2019t really needed on the entire delivery route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A smarter approach for the holidays<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To improve both types of helpers\u2019 efficiency while boosting their morale, my co-authors and I proposed the concept of a \u201chybrid helper<\/a>.\u201d A hybrid helper would deliver parcels together with a driver on part of the route, but could also be dropped off at select locations to work alone to deliver packages, with the driver returning later to pick up the helper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using a hybrid approach could save UPS up to US$4 million annually and cut last-mile delivery times by nearly 8%, our analysis found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies like ours are a first step toward showing how adjusting delivery models could benefit companies while boosting worker satisfaction. But key questions remain. Another research team recently proposed a promising approach<\/a> that cut last-mile delivery times by up to 43% by using an algorithm to find near-optimal routes for hybrid helpers. However, it\u2019s not yet clear what that might cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be sure, change isn\u2019t easy. Adopting the hybrid helper approach would require the major package delivery companies to update the routing models they use. Such routing models are often proprietary and have been developed over decades, with a lot of time and money committed to their development. But revamping the system could save a lot of money and time \u2013 and that would give everyone a little more holiday cheer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toyin Clottey<\/a>, Professor of Supply Chain Management, Wayne State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toyin Clottey, Wayne State University Every year, parcel delivery companies \u2013 think UPS and FedEx \u2013 hire tens of thousands of seasonal driver helpers to handle the deluge of presents that arrive with the holidays. At peak times, shipping firms depend on their helpers just as much as Santa depends on his elves. And those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,277],"tags":[4804,224,10998,14950,4337,10017,1580],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35822,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35820\/revisions\/35822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}