Wanna keep track of packages? Follow the data packets. That's the MO at UPS, which handles more than 13 million parcels a day. The company is spending $120 million to turn drivers into high-speed nodes at the edge of its vast wireless network. Information bounces from the customer to the driver to the warehouse to the Web quicker than you can say "next-day air." Here's how.
The Smart Label
The anchor of the UPS system is the so-called smart label on every package. Each sticker bears three easy-to-scan codes: the standard postal barcode; the 1Z barcode, with UPS customer reference numbers; and the MaxiCode, which looks like a cross between an inkblot and a bull's-eye. The 1-inch-square MaxiCode, invented by UPS in 1992, contains exhaustive details about the parcel, from its class of service to its destination. The symbol can be scanned from any angle - a bonus for hubs moving thousands of parcels per minute.
The Wearable Scanner
At 2,000 processing centers around the world, UPS loaders scan the labels on incoming packages with a device worn like brass knuckles. A Bluetooth transmitter zaps the tracking info to a hiptop terminal, which in turn shoots the data over a Wi-Fi network to the company's database. All so you can sit at Starbucks with your laptop and watch your package circle the globe.
The Super PDA
The Delivery Information Acquisition Device - that brown tablet you sign when receiving a package - is one hell of a PDA. The fourth version, now in beta, can handle personal (Bluetooth), local (802.11b), and wide (GPRS or CDMA) area wireless networking. It also has a dialup modem, an infrared scanner, GPS capability, 128 Mbytes of RAM, and a color screen. All UPS drivers carry the device for capturing and transmitting parcel pickup and delivery data.
The Classic Uniform
UPS employees started donning brown duds in 1919, in part because they didn't show dirt. Today, the nation's fourth-largest employer still mandates a neat look - no hair below the collar! - and outfits drivers with hats, pants, shorts, belts, shirts, and coats in UPS Brown (Pantone 0607298). More than two-thirds of its 360,000 workers are members of the Teamsters union.
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