If I remember correctly UPS already pre-determines the shelf location of the package inside the delivery van before they even show up in the destination city so to some extent the drivers' routes have already been predetermined but their system is capable of last-minute changes pretty much every step of the way.
That's about right. There are routes and packages fall within those routes numbered in order of the route they take. Routes between drivers are connected more or less. On the day of, the connection between routes can be shifted if volume dictates, so one driver gets packages originally destined for another driver's route.
I had a buddy whose Dad was an Industrial Engineer who specialized in efficiency systems. He worked a lot in the mid 90's on completely revamping UPS's warehouse sorting and ability to get packages into the trucks and on the road faster.
I'm pretty sure what your referring to was probably the next phase on a larger scale of what he was originally working on. He always joked that, "When your an efficiency expert, people don't like it when you show up at their business."
I worked on a project for a firm with a large base of field technicians. Their scheduling system didn't allow options. You were told where to go, in which order, and in what route. The drivers were told to turn off their minds.
I find this article interesting because the drivers are being recommended a solution, rather than mandated a solution. I draw the analogy to a person and a chess computer playing a match together, rather than one or the other.
