Currently, both companies use the same devices, made by Symbol Technologies and Intermec Technologies. But UPS is replacing its model with a new model from Symbol and Motorola that moves the terminal to the waist and uses Bluetooth to communicate with a finger-mounted scanner. That’s because UPS loaders scan packages as they place them in trucks, which leads to cords getting caught on box corners and breaking, slowing operations and requiring a stock of replacement devices to be maintained. By switching to the Bluetooth system, UPS expects to reduce scanner maintenance costs by 30 percent, downtime by 35 percent and the need for spare parts by 35 percent. The system also uses 802.11b to transmit package data in real-time, so UPS’s inventory systems can flag issues and report to customers faster. (The old systems stored the data, which required loaders to transfer status periodically.)

Deployed at about a dozen facilities so far, 55,000 of the new scanners will be rolled out during the next five years to about 1,700 facilities. Richmond employees prefer the waist-mounted device. "I like them better than the old ones, which feel like they weigh 8 pounds by the end of the day. And in the summer they smell because of the sweat," says Jermaine Timms, a loader at the UPS sorting facility in Richmond, Calif.

The old scanners also had to be triggered for each scan, like a camera. The new ones are perpetually scanning unless they are turned off, saving time and effort for the loaders. "It’s easier to log in and out of our trucks, and it’s easier to scan," says loader Natasha Woodson. "Despite the changeover, we kept processing times even. Now, we see gains already in the first month," says Tim DeLaVega, the technical support group manager.

But FedEx is sticking with the older, forearm-mounted model. A big reason is that FedEx doesn’t use ring scanners as widely as UPS, whose employees simultaneously scan packages and transfer them to the destination truck or container. Because FedEx tends to deliver smaller packages, it doesn’t need as many people to pick up individual boxes, and so doesn’t see the occasional cable break as a significant issue.

FedEx also faced a problem with Bluetooth: signal interference from its 3-year-old 802.11b network, which used the same frequency, as well as from the radio noise emitted from sorting belts’ engines and from the lights. Rectifying that interference would cost too much, says Pasley. Because UPS is upgrading its entire scanning system, it could design the devices and access points to accommodate both Bluetooth and 802.11b. In a technique called time-division multiplexing, the scanners alternate between Bluetooth and 802.11b, so their signals don’t conflict.