This is how UPS drivers
learn how to walk on ice.
I might look hilarious to you
sliding across this contraption.
It's like I haven't quite learned to walk.
This is called the slip-and-fall machine.
You're strapped into a sturdy harness
and given shoe covers that mimic slippery conditions.
I'm going to need you to have your feet close together.
OK.
And your steps cannot be too long, too wide, or too fast.
OK.
If any of those conditions aren't met,
you're going to slip.
Walking correctly on this fake ice
goes against intuition.
UPS spends $200 million a year on safety training like this,
so I spent the day
at one of the UPS Integrad driving schools
learning how more than 125,000 UPS drivers stay safe
and cut time
from every delivery.
Altogether,
UPS drivers travel almost 3.5 billion miles a year.
That's like driving from New York City to LA
1.5 million times.
But even if you didn't see one of them,
the drivers are trained to make sure they saw you.
So here I'm steering, the steering wheel's
on the right-hand side, I've got a pedestrian on the left.
What really stood out
is how UPS approaches the horn.
I heard it all day,
all the time. I'm going to tap my horn
to attract attention.
We see something that's in our purview
or our driving scene, we tap that horn.
And a lot of people think that it's negative and we're -
but "toot toot," a little "Hey," you know like,
"Look at me, I'm over here."
That horns saves a lot of lives.
But one of the most important techniques,
nearly all the instructors said,
was keeping a safe distance from the cars around you.
If I'm traveling
30 miles an hour or less,
I need to have at least four to six seconds
of following distance.
Right.
If I'm over 30 miles an hour,
I need six to eight seconds.
Edstrom took me out on the road
like the students do, showing me the style these drivers use
and an intense driver drill they all go through.
The driver must call out 45 eye movements
in just a two-minute span.
I got a 45-mile-an-hour speed line,
speed limit.
I have an intersection coming up here on the right,
which is clear.
The driveways on the left door clear.
My left mirror is hazard car.
Over five days, delivery drivers
learn defensive driving techniques in classrooms,
on practice trucks,
in virtual reality setups,
on a mini road course, and out in real driving situations.
The course is designed not just to provide
the safest way to drive the brown-box trucks,
but to make delivering every package
as efficient as possible.
UPS delivers over 21 million packages a day.
Instructors teach drivers to do everything
in a fluid motion.
Just entering the truck and turning it on
is a choreographed dance.
DIAD out,
hit my button,
three points of contact.
It goes in the cradle,
hit the button,
grab a seat belt,
buckle up,
start the car and let go of the brake same time.
We're in drive, left blinker, left mirror, left shoulder.
That's my start-car routine.
While much of the training is about safety,
instructors also try to shave seconds off every motion.
Drivers average between 100 and 150 stops a day.
Whenever this area is empty,
all they have to do is just walk back in here
and then just slide the packages up
so that this area is always filled up with package.
Every little bit counts
when it comes to delivering billions of packages a year.
So if you have 150 stops, and you're taking
two extra steps at every stop,
you're just adding miles
to your day just on your body, you know,
taking all that abuse all day.
The methods taught here
protect both the drivers and the company.
Behind the facility is Tiny Town USA,
a mockup used to teach drivers what to do
when facing challenges, including four-legged ones.
Since there could be a dog over here,
I'm going to put my body against the door
in case it's a big dog,
and then I'm going to put the package by
the door here so when I open,
if it's a little Chihuahua,
something doesn't come running down the street.
I'm going to leave the package inside
or close the door
and stop-complete my stop.
UPS is expanding these safe driving schools,
recently opening its 12th location in Ohio.
And it may be paying off.
Their drivers received less than 2,000 tickets
for unsafe driving over the past two years,
and none were considered acute or critical.
That's a respectable number for the 129,000 drivers
using the same roads we use every day.
The drivers implement those every day,
and
that's what helps them get to the most important stop,
which is coming home at night, OK.