Hypermiling Tips!

As a service announcement to all drivers, in your personal and company vehicles, Metro Delivery would like to offer the following tips on Hypermiling, i.e. driving to conserve gas. Studies have shown that extreme hypermilers can use up to 30-50% less gas than some lead-footed, Big-Gulp guzzling gashog.

So what can we do to use less gas?

1. A Red Light Need Not Be a Surprise: Look ahead to anticipate red lights, traffic backups and stop signs and coast to a stop instead of braking. Braking uses gas! If your vehicle has a stick shift, put it in neutral as you coast and when at a stop.

2. A Green Light is Not the Flag to Start the Race: Easy, gradual starts use much less gas than jackrabbit starts. Acceleration uses more gas than anything else you do in the vehicle. Plus, you’ll conserve the rubber on your tires instead of leaving it all over the asphalt.

3. Cruise Control is your Conservation Copilot: If your vehicle has the option, cruise control is terrific on long, relatively level roads. Maintaining a steady speed in general is great for conservation. However, in hilly regions Cruise Control is a clumsy, wasteful robot to leave in charge, so if you’re driving over the Porcupine Mountains you’d be better off without it.

4. Idling Vehicles are the Devil’s Tools: Oh, for goodness sake don’t leave the vehicle running if you can turn it off for a couple minutes. No dashing in while your truck chugs away at the curb, no sitting at the Chick Inn Drive In Restaurant waiting for your Paul Bunyan Burger in a running vehicle.

5. Look for Prime Parking: Ideally, park facing down a hill to use less energy while starting, and park in the sun so you use less energy getting the car warmed up.

6. Nobody Likes a Squishy Tire: Keep your tires at the maximum possible air pressure, which reduces the drag on the road.  Also, watch for bad tire alignment and have it repaired, for the same reason.

7. Consider Walking Instead of Driving: Do you have two stops to make downtown that are several blocks apart? Walking instead of reparking could save you time as well as gas, especially considering how difficult it can be to find a parking space these days.

8. Open Windows in Town, a Little A/C on the Freeway: at high speeds, open windows kill your gas milage.  If you don’t need A/C but you want some air circulation,  leave windows open just an inch or so on the freeway, at most. Of course, for in-town driving, open windows are certainly better than running the air-conditioning, plus you get to share that great song you’re listening to on WDET with everybody on the sidewalk.

9. Plan Your Route: Strategize to make your stops in the most efficient way possible, with the least milage. Avoid rough roads with lots of potholes, take a level road instead of a hilly road if there’s an option, avoid areas with stop-and-go traffic. A couple of minutes of planning could save you a couple of quarts of gasoline.

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…Now, nobody expects Couriers in our “Hotshot”  Business Model, where crucial things must abruptly be delivered in most any direction, sometimes hundreds of miles away, to have gas conservation as their top priority. The top priority is still HOLY JUMPIN’ SPIDERS GET THAT STUFF WHERE IT’S NEEDED, PRONTO!!!

Nevertheless, opportunities to reduce consumption of gas will present themselves, and if we keep these principles in mind and apply them when appropriate, as a company we’ll save thousands of gallons of gas, and we’ll all have less exhaust and more air to breathe.

Additionally, an informal office poll indicates that all of us here would like to see less of our company’s hard-earned revenue handed directly to BP, Exxon and Shell Oil, as admirable as those corporations are…(cough).

…And yes, we ARE looking into alternate-fuel vehicles, and we’ll revisit that subject here another time.

Thanks for your attention! We now return you to your normally scheduled deliveries.

GREEN FAIR THIS EVENING! Prepare to be Environmentally Edified.

Metro Delivery will have a little booth goin’ at the ANN ARBOR GREEN FAIR tonight, 6-9 PM. C’mon down and see us!

Metro’s committed to doing the best we can to be green;  we recycle ferociously, we keep our vehicles maintained for improved emissions, we reuse everything when possible, and we reduce our energy usage with initiatives like our no-idle policy, no disposable dishware, motion sensitive lighting in our offices, etc, etc.

Plus, the Business Development Manager hassles people relentlessly to consider biking to work like he does, with occasional success. It’s a lot of little things, but it adds up!

We’re a member of Washtenaw County’s Waste Knot organization, and we’re learning more all the time about exciting new ways we can continue to conserve our natural resources. It’s a real focus for us as we expand and improve our business.

Look for more Metro Green Projects in the future!

Metro Delivery Joins the Detroit Regional Chamber

Here’s another affiliation we’re excited about: we’re now Detroit Regional Chamber  Members. It’s about time, after 28 years of driving all over the Metro Detroit Area.

We’re looking forward to the networking, educational and social events- and the commanding view from their offices on the 19th floor of One Woodward, within easy walking distance of Lafayette Coney Island.

Metro Reuse Project: the Jr. Workbench,for Hammering, etc.

Reclaimed pallet wood,  reclaimed screws, 2 giant reused bolts (found in the street).

Metro Represents at the Messenger and Courier Association of America’s 2012 Conference

The MCAA’s mission is to promote and advance the common interests of those engaged in the delivery and logistics industry worldwide through education and advocacy. That’s what it says on their website, but it’s really more entertaining than that.

This year, Metro Delivery Operations and Business Development Managers went for Education and Networking with the MCAA at the fabulous Westin Diplomat in Sunny Hollywood, Florida.

This location gave us a wide range of acceptable attire, from Tropical to Business Casual, as modeled here:

Now, it is true that the place features palm trees and Jacuzzis, but we’re really focused on business, honest. That’s what we keep reminding our coworkers who imagine us lounging on the beach drinking from coconuts.

We had informational sessions on Home Delivery, Using Metrics to Achieve Results, the Supply Chain in 2012 and Beyond, a panel on How the Industry has Evolved in the Last 25 Years, and lively roundtable Focus Groups on Marketing and Technology. We networked ferociously with hundreds of other regional and national couriers, and with vendor representatives from companies focused on our industry.

We attended a speech by Congressman Erik Paulsen, an advocate in Washington for Independent Contractor Legislative Reform.

(If you’re wondering, no, Metro doesn’t use Independent Contractors; we have 100% Employees, so that’s not our business model, but a lot of our friends in the industry do use IC’s, or a combination of IC’s and employees, so the subject concerns us.)

We learned a ton! We made IMPORTANT BUSINESS CONNECTIONS! Me met interesting people from around all around the World, and talked to them for hours about things that would bore the socks off our social dinner guests.

And then we went to lounge on the beach and drink from a coconut.

Metro Represents at the 2012 Express Carriers Association Marketplace Event

Metro Delivery has been a member of the ECA since 2006-it’s a national organization that “fosters business relationships through innovative networking between local/regional carriers and national shippers or vendors in the transportation industry, while also providing its members continuing education on transportation industry issues.”

(It’s more entertaining than they make it sound on the mission page of their website.)

This year we once again sent our Business Development and Customer Service Managers to the 2012 ECA Marketplace Event in Chicago, for 3 whirlwind days of:

* Networking with other Carriers & Vendors from across the USA

* Dynamic speed interviews with Shippers; potential clients looking for regional Carriers like Metro Delivery

* Transportation education & information sessions & conversations

* And incidentally, an amazing array of carnivorous choices provided by the stockyards of  Chicago & the excellent kitchen at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, along with other fortifying refreshments, Roulette and Blackjack tables for a charitable cause, and a jazz band. See? Now it sounds fun, doesn’t it?

It was nice to have the conference close to home,  in Chicago; it’s a great town, and just a 3.5 hour drive from our home base, which means we don’t have to fly but can stick to the surface transportation we’re most familiar with.

Thanks for having us, ECA! See you next year!

Chef Barbara’s Easter Friday Menu

…In addition to bringing in her patented Penguin Hors D’oeuvres (see previous post), Barbara brought in five(!) desserts for the company today.

-Ask her why and she shrugs  & says she “likes to cook,” which seems like a bit of an understatement, doesn’t it?

Clockwise from upper left:

(not including penguins)

Peanut Butter Pie

Apple Pie

Chocolate Cream Pie

Cheesecake

Oreo Pie

Now that’s a balanced diet! Thanks, Barbara!

Barbara’s Presto Penguin Hors D’oeuvres

Featured today in the Metro Delivery Staff Cafeteria & Lounge: 

Barbara’s Presto Penguin Hors D’oeuvres

Ingredients:

• Jumbo Black Olives

• Cream Cheese (add chives/garlic if desired)

• Pickled Waffle-Cut Carrots

• Toothpick (do not eat)

Assemble as shown and impress your party guests with tiny, edible penguins.

Views from the Road: Georgia

We’ve got room for about 30 crates of peaches on the way back up to Michigan, if anyone feels like making some pies,  just so you know-

Fat Thursday

…We ate 93  paczki. 65,100 calories.

There’s still 2 left, but nobody can bear to look at them.