Left-Hand-Turn Elimination – New York Times

It seems that sitting in the left lane, engine idling, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so you can make a left-hand turn, is minutely wasteful — of time and peace of mind, for sure, but also of gas and therefore money. Not a ton of gas and money if we’re talking about just you and your Windstar, say, but immensely wasteful if we’re talking about more than 95,000 big square brown trucks delivering packages every day. And this realization — that when you operate a gigantic fleet of vehicles, tiny improvements in the efficiency of each one will translate to huge savings overall — is what led U.P.S. to limit further the number of left-hand turns its drivers make.

via Left-Hand-Turn Elimination – New York Times.

If you surveyed delivery drivers, they wouldn’t complain about left turns… since that’s just the way it is. But managers observed the drivers and saw how much time (and fuel) was wasted while waiting for a left turn.

Have you observed your customer? Do it! You’ll see a dozen ways to improve their situation in ways that you’d never learn from a survey!