美国国家公共电台 NPR The Monumental Push Behind Getting That Package Delivered By Christmas

The Monumental Push Behind Getting That Package Delivered By Christmas

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It is crunch¹ time for getting packages delivered in time for Christmas. And companies like FedEx and UPS and the Postal² Service and even Amazon are really feeling the stress. Some have struggled in recent years to keep up with rising online holiday demands. This year, they have invested billions on new facilities, on vehicles and technologies to try to get better at delivering holiday packages on time. NPR's David Schaper has an inside look.

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE³: Long before you click buy and type in that shipping⁴ address, many e-retailers anticipated your order. And in some cases, that item you just bought is already sitting in a nearby warehouse⁵ or fulfillment center and could be delivered in a couple of hours. But most gifts are coming from a lot further away. And getting it delivered in time to be under the tree Christmas morning is complicated. Once the order goes through, the item goes by truck - and maybe by plane, too - to a shipping hub like this...

(SOUNDBITE OF BACK-UP BEEPER SOUNDING)

SCHAPER: ...The massive new UPS Super Hub in Atlanta.

KIM KREBS: We are about the size of 19 football fields, 1.2 million square feet.

SCHAPER: That's right - 19 football fields. But UPS spokeswoman Kim Krebs says it's not just size that makes this hub super.

KREBS: It's the latest in operations technology powered by a lot of big data.

SCHAPER: Krebs says the heavily automated⁶ facility can process 100,000 packages an hour. That's about 1,700 packages a minute zipping through the facility's 18 miles of conveyor belts.

KREBS: If you look at how they're coming down and you look at the actual belts themselves, you'll see that there's different sizes and also different speeds.

SCHAPER: Smart labels on the packages are scanned so they can be moved to the right place to be reloaded onto a truck. UPS estimates it will deliver 800 million packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And company officials say this new super hub and billions in other facility upgrades and technological⁷ improvements should help prevent a repeat of problems UPS had last year, when some 3 million packages a day were delivered late. Even with increased automation, package delivery is still very labor⁸ intensive. UPS hired 100,000 extra workers to handle the holiday crush, and FedEx hired 55,000 seasonal⁹ workers as it doubles its usual 14-million-package-a-day volume.

It's still a couple of hours before dawn, and workers here at this FedEx distribution center near downtown Chicago are rolling giant metal containers off of semitrailers to be unloaded by workers who scan the packages and then place them onto one of two conveyor belts.

MICHAEL MURPHY: It's a ton of it. It's constantly moving.

SCHAPER: That's Michael Murphy, senior operations manager here. He says the e-commerce boom is quite noticeable, not only because customers are ordering so much more stuff online but it's also the kind of stuff they're having delivered.

MURPHY: It's a rug that you might need for that front room. It's the new 70-inch TV. I just saw a bed frame go down here a couple minutes ago. So it's something that we didn't see 10 years ago.

SCHAPER: Whether the boxes are big or small, there's a science to how they move down this conveyor belt. Couriers grab packages labeled for their routes and load them based on size and destination to make the most efficient use of truck space and the courier's time. When the 150 trucks are full, they launch almost all at once. But it's not chaos¹⁰. It's more like a ballet than roller derby.

MURPHY: It's engineered. You know, it's not a big circus. It's extremely orchestrated and very, very - almost calm, the way that they launch.

SCHAPER: Engineers also design the delivery routes to keep trucks moving and not wasting time stuck in traffic. But there's no denying that all those delivery vans and trucks are choking traffic themselves and straining roadway infrastructure¹¹ not really designed for this kind of commerce. The supply chain itself is not without kinks, as many packages still get lost, arrive late or left at the wrong address.

And increasingly, theft is a problem. It's estimated that millions of packages are stolen off of doorsteps and front porches. And consumers are not just ordering more items every year but demanding that they get them quicker. So every package that's delivered, whether it's on time or not, becomes a data point for e-retailers and their delivery partners as they try to improve for next year's holiday delivery rush.

David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.

GREENE: And tomorrow, David is going to look at the real cost of e-retailers providing free delivery.

1 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

2 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

5 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

6 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

7 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

10 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。