Trash Hauler 1

About the only time I wouldn't tell the FO to start the apu is if I had Ledpipes for a j/s (assuming I let him ride at all). Any other time, fire that badboy up! Most of the time, mx already has it running to keep the avionics at the right temp. Being too hot or too cold just increases my fatigue level.

TH1

Rottweiler

For the same reason the company does not willfully give us raises when times are good.

Rott

⌐ AV8OR WANNABE

Foreign language DVD's? Try "Letters from Iwo Jima" dubbed in Mandarin with Russian subtitles - it's almost like a different movie!


As far as fuel savings I thought right turns 'only' was one way of doing it. As a former pizza delivery guy I must say sticking to right turns mainly definitely saves you time and the brakes don't wear out as quickly...


UPS Figures Out the 'Right Way' to Save Money, Time and Gas

Delivery Giant Maximizes Efficiency With Ingenious Planning
By BRIAN ROONEY
GARDENA, Calif., April 4, 2007


Efficiency is everything for United Parcel Service. Save time, space and money, and get there when promised.
Throughout the UPS system, computer-sorted packages marked with special codes race along conveyors to trucks precisely loaded by address and order of delivery. Not satisfied with grocery-store bar code, the company invented its own -- made up of clusters of dots in a circle its employees call "ups" code.

But UPS has one low-tech secret to getting deliveries there on time. Listen to driver Bert Johnson describe his route in Gardena, Calif.
"We're gonna make a right turn onto 135th to Western. We'll make another right on Western down to 139th," Johnson says. And he goes on, "Right turn on 139th and go down to the end of the block and we'll make another right turn."

You getting the idea? UPS plots its delivery routes to make as many right turns as possible. In a world where half the driving choices are left turns, they avoid turning left.

And how much of the time are UPS trucks turning right? Tasha Hovland, an industrial engineering manager, said, "A guesstimate, I would probably say 90 percent. I mean we really, really we hate left turns at UPS."
Efficiency is so much a part of the culture at UPS that to save space inside the dispatch centers the signature brown trucks are even parked just five inches apart with rearview mirrors overlapping.

Right Turns Forever

Making right turns has been the way of UPS since before anyone now working for the company can remember. UPS managers used to get out and drive the routes, plotting on maps how they could be efficiently driven turning mostly right. Now they have a combination of not just experience, but computers, codes and programming that allows them to plot out right-turn routes in minutes.

Johnson sees the difference. "I do drive a lot fewer miles," Johnson said. "I was driving 35 miles at first. Now I'm down to 30 miles a day."
UPS trucks drove 2.5 billion miles last year, but the company says its package flow technology combined with right-turn routes saved 28,541,472 million miles, and three million gallons of fuel.

The company puts almost 92,000 trucks on the road every day. But without its efficiency and right-turn routes, it would have to send out an additional 1,100 trucks.
It's not that trucks never turn left, but they're always looking for ways to avoid it. And UPS employees tend to take the philosophy home.
Jim Winestock, a UPS vice president in Atlanta, said, "I know it drives my wife crazy, but I've been known to pass up drug stores, three or four on the left-hand side of the road, just to get to the one on the right-hand side of the road."
Back with Johnson, the California UPS driver, he keeps describing his route. "Right turn here on Cimarron, to the next driveway and we'll make a right into that."

CactusCrew

When you are in the cockpit and sweating, imagine how hot it is for the avionics !

FliFast

Hiya Bob,

I see the sarcasm light blinking like the old blinking lights on the 727 F/E panel when trying to close the MGRs.

But, in all seriousness, because we really have a serious fuel problem, what the heck are we doing, and are we out on the line waiting for the managment types to come out with a fuel policy ? <hint...we might be waiting awhile>.

And, although my popularity rating as Mayor of Sticky Fingers may take a hit, but what is the IPA doing to help conserve fuel. We can say, it's not the union's job to do managment's job. But I say, "oh contrare", I as a junior pilot at UPS worried about my job, I would like someone to speak up to managment and say, "Yo, yo, if we can save a couple million in fuel consumption maybe that would add to my job security and the security of the guy/gal next to me.

For a civilian-only, like many of us junior pukes, there aren't any jobs out there if furloughed. Which makes the urgency of pimping management to come up with a fuel savings policy even more important.

Oh well, the Grey Goose is talking again, but the troubled clouds on the horizon could settle over Big Brown too.

Fli-ing Fast, drinking slow...

Sideshow Bob

As Bill Clinton used to say (except I mean it), I feel your pain. When I was about to get axed at USAir in '90 I was plumbing on the Tri-Pig in CLT mainly with Piedmont crews. These guys were fighting Civil War II still ****ed that USAir bought them, and not the other way around (which may in retrospect have worked better). At any rate, on FLL-LGA these guys would fly at M.86 and then request decent 250 miles out (controllers were often perplexed) and then dirty up the jet WAY early yucking it up about how the "...would show them damn yankees..." I tried a few times to suggest that all they were going to "show" was me to the door to dirty looks and the tapping of stripes. Ironically many of the younger hillbillies back then would give their left nut to be here and likely wouldn't repeat the performance.

As for me, although it's painful I will fly their 0 CI index and try to follow the FP, all the while looking at winds and cost/benefit while not compromising stall/overspeed margins. Some of the Fed Ex guys I chat with say that they start at CI 250, and claim that there is no benefit to using CI 0. My next trip I may delve into the books a bit deeper...on your behalf of course.

In the meantime, I'm renewing my CFI yet again...never say never!

⌐ AV8OR WANNABE

Well, several times I asked my captain if he/she wanted to do single taxi? Most of the time the response was “yeah, that’s a great idea…” I think many captains won't ask for it because they don’t want to "overload us" - you know make us pull out the single taxi checklist, etc...

I doubt it’ll save major bucks but it doesn’t hurt to try…

CactusCrew

We have a checklist for that ? I thought it was a Memory Item !



LOL

FliFast

Gents,

Good posts. I just mixed up a tall one. Allow me to throw a few thoughts out, also:

Av8or, back when Orville, Wilbur, and I flew the 757 it was quite common for me to taxi out on one engine. The Pratts were especially good candidates for this because they roll just fine at idle thrust. Ironically, the Rolls motors did not roll as well and your single eng. taxi savings could possibly be negated because of the higher thrust settings needed to keep the Rolls airplane, rolling.

On the Hippie Jet, the MD11 we are allowed to taxi on two engines if below 500K. This is a rareity out of Asia, but common out of ANC (not sure about SDF). Well, here's the kicker...if you're pushed out of the front lot (spots 1-6) you either are pushed onto Txy Tango at the base of the incline or you come out of the ramp and in the turn you're are at the base of the incline.

On two engines, you'll need 50+ % N1 to get up the hill to Txy Romeo and/or to hold short of Rwy 32/14.

Remember all those fuel savings ? Well with using semi takeoff thrust as breakaway thrust, your fuel savings are somewhere back on Postmark Rd.

Now, if you start out in the back lot (spots 7-12), Txy Tango is flat and will allow you to get a running start to climb the incline just prior Txy Romeo using reasonable amounts of thrust.

This has some merit because recently for whatever reason, ANC has been departing Rwy 25L which is about a 15 min taxi from the UPS ramp give or take 5 minutes.

So you say to yourself, as you're enjoying the last olive in your martini, hmmm, if we parked the lighter MD11s in the back lot-the ones that are planned to be under 500K on taxiout, they (Subject to Capt. Discretion [SCD]) could get a running start up the incline of Txy Tango, and save fuel taxiing out on two-engines especially during Rwy 25L departures. ANC ops knows which flights historically are under 500K, it's not Chinese Arithmetic.

In addition, when 25L departures are in effect, why not ask for Rwy 14. I know, I know, we're all building time to get the airline job with a legacy carrier, but you cut down the taxi time by 8-15 minutes. You can request it, the grd. controller will ask you if you need it for operational reasons and remind you it's a noise sensitive runway and bingo zingo, you're on your way.

All of my babble, is just that...babble. But hopefully, management, or the union, or the night janitor are also babbling to think how we can tune-up our operation so that only $1 bills fall out of our pockets instead of $3 bills.


See ya at Humpy's,

FF

viktorbravo

dude.......really........ You mean change the way UPS operates? Like the Kentucky boys say, "you aint from around here, are ya boy?"