Smaller and lighter than its predecessor, the device works in colour, is easier to use and has an expanded memory that will support some new, more customised services in the near future. Furthermore, it's a critical part of a broader technology shift that is allowing UPS to dramatically reduce its fuel consumption while improving route planning, vehicle loading and package delivery.

Dave Barnes, UPS's chief information officer, said: “This is a key component of a bigger system that we call Package Flow Technology. Our drivers are going to have all the information in their handheld computers to make even more reliable deliveries while driving fewer miles.”

The new computer – known as the fourth-generation Delivery Information Acquisition Device or DIAD IV – will be deployed rapidly now that it has undergone more than a year of extensive field-testing. Co-developed with Symbol Technologies, UPS expects to deploy 32,000 in the United States and 8,000 internationally by the end of this year. The company plans to have more than 70,000 in use worldwide by the end of 2007.

In 1991, UPS was the first in its industry to equip drivers with handheld computers. Through each successive generation of the DIAD, UPS has accelerated the availability of customer tracking data as well as its ability to communicate with drivers. The latest version continues improvement in those and other areas such as:

• Links to the GPS system, which will improve customer service. GPS will enable a dispatch centre to locate the most convenient driver to respond to an On-Call Pickup, for example. Eventually, the GPS link also will help drivers searching for an unfamiliar address and sound an alert if they're in the wrong driveway for a particular delivery.
• The ability to connect in real-time with four different wireless networks, including personal (Bluetooth), local (Wi-Fi), and wide area (GPRS or CDMA). The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities allow the DIAD to access printers and other devices within a UPS facility or with a customer's PC. CDMA is a wide-area wireless network standard used by UPS in the US, whilst GPRS is another wide-area network standard used by UPS in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
• A colour screen that accommodates color-coding of messages to drivers.
• 128MB of memory – 20 times that of DIAD III. UPS will use this expanded memory in the near future to provide new, more customised services to its customers.

He added that, over the past decade, the DIAD has been the critical customer-facing, front-end device of an integrated global network that now tracks some 14.1 million deliveries every day. “DIAD IV significantly expands the visibility surrounding those packages, and that's going to enable us to offer some nifty new services in the future.”