If you thought United Parcel Service was just trucks and planes and boxes, you'd be way off base (although the company does manage the world's ninth-largest airline). At an event convened by the company in New York yesterday, UPS highlighted just how deeply IT is incorporated into its daily operations, and how UPS uses that information to move itself and its customers toward greener pastures.

Unsurprisingly, UPS works on a massive scale, and Dave Barnes, UPS's Senior Vice President and CIO, told attendees at its event yesterday that it spends $1 billion a year on technology. Green tech figures into UPS's practices in a number of ways, primarily in waste reduction and improved efficiency.

Paper has long been the albatross of shipping, and Barnes explained that, by switching to a paperless invoice system for international shipments, the company has saved 150 million sheets of paper since 2008.

That savings has been achieved through the use of the ubiquitous handheld scanner UPS drivers carry, the Delivery Information Acquisition Device (also known as the DIAD, and pictured at right). It's a key plank in UPS's efficiency and waste-reduction system.

The DIAD does far more than scan packages and save paper; the device, which is now now in its fifth generation, also includes an imaging scanner, a color, autofocus flash camera, and 600 megabytes per second of WiFi access (UPS says that it can be used to download training videos).

The other gadget that UPS is using to cut paper waste and boost efficiency is a combo scanner and paperless printer that we first reported on in November 2008. The HP handheld sp400 lets UPS warehouse workers scan and print quickly and paperlessly, as you can see in this video from HP. The schematic is below, by way of UPS's presentation yesterday. The missing info from the second arrow at the bottom is, presumably, the inkjet printer.



Green Data by the Truckload

Given the global scale that UPS operates, on, it generates tons of data on every aspect of package delivery. And if there's one thing that the green IT 2.0 revolution is bringing to the world of IT, it's the ability to squeeze powerful insights from every piece of data.

As with the DIAD, which is a multifunction data-gathering and data-providing device, UPS is also using complex route-planning and optimization software to make delivery as low-impact as possible.

Although UPS hasn't yet completely achieved a "No Left Turns" policy, its routing systems emphasize right turns as much as possible. As Barnes explained, "With more than 96,000 vehicles on the road today, we know that left turns mean a lot of waiting, and a lot of waiting means a lot wasted fuel."

{related_content}Brad Mitchell, UPS's President of Distribution & Logistics, explained that gathering data over the years from UPS delivery trucks has enabled the company to achieve a deep understanding of current and historic traffic data for the world's roads. Additionally, by providing up-to-date, turn-by-turn directions along with contingency plans and the ability for drivers to report back on actual trip information and conditions, UPS can optimize delivery schedules for even the most complex regions.

Mitchell said that UPS's logistics technologies have shaved 1.1 billion miles off of delivery routes, which prevented 1.9 million metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The graphic below outlines how UPS optimizes its delivery process.


With all that data being gathered every day, around the world, UPS has of course built a sizable data center to manage and store its information. Nick Costides, the company's vice president of Information Services, laid out the green stats on UPS's Windward data center.

The 172,000 square foot facility monitors data on the 15 million packages UPS delivers daily. In order to keep it running and keep it running as cool as possible, UPS installed a plate heat exchanger that let the facility managers turn off its chillers for five months out of the year and use the outside air for free cooling.

As a result, UPS said it's saving $400,000 a year annually by cutting its energy use by more than 1.4 million kilowatts. The carbon savings equal more than 1,000 tons per year, Costides said. And the project earned the Windward data center the 2008 Green Enterprise IT award from the Uptime Institute.

All of UPS's behind-the-scenes green shows how far IT is being put to work on efficiency, and with yesterday's launch of its "Smart Pickup" project, UPS is also aiming to help its customers share in some of the fruits of that efficiency. (You can read all about Smart Pickup on GreenBiz.com: "New Smart Pickup Service from UPS to Trim Emissions from SMEs' Shipping.")