Not Going the Extra Mile

Theoretically, because the handheld device that all drivers carry -- the delivery information acquisition device, or DIAD -- contains the day's itinerary, drivers can get in their trucks without reviewing the back compartment. Mallchok isn't there yet. Before leaving the center one morning in late October, he double-checks on his air-service packages, which have a 10:30 deadline. The system is helpful, he says, but there's still room for human error, even with the PAL. "If my pre-loader leaves something out or puts it in the wrong place, there goes 20 seconds or two minutes," he says. "There goes my day."

The DIAD displays the most efficient route for the day's deliveries. It also tells him where the packages are located, so he no longer wastes time looking for them. Mallchok relies on the package-flow routing about 80 percent of the time now compared to just 20 percent early on.

He still thinks that no software can know the ins and outs of a route the way a driver can. The block where street numbers suddenly jump from three digits to four. Which left turns take longer than others. The least accessible houses. But the new system definitely knows a thing or two.

At 9 a.m., in the midst of "ripping" his air deliveries, the DIAD helps him out. The new software alerts him to two ground-service boxes that are going to the same address as the air envelope. "Look at that," he says. "There are three bad boys on here. I just saved myself a stop this afternoon."

And saved UPS a few more miles.