I remember writing about this a while ago, but can’t find it and now the issue has come up again.  United Parcel Service UPS saves millions of dollars a year on fuel costs by avoiding left hand turns and idling.  Here are the details.  

In 2007, UPS route planning technology, which minimizes left hand turns:

- shaved nearly 30 million miles off already streamlined delivery routes;
- saved 3 million gallons of gas; and
- reduced emissions by 32,000 metric tons of CO2 – the equivalent of removing 5,300 passenger cars off the road for an entire year.

Perhaps newspapers can follow suit?  It won’t save the industry, but if physical distribution is part of their business model, they must implement these policies.