Speeding Up Deliveries With More Tech
Pittsburgh — Around 8 a.m. at a cavernous warehouse outside Pittsburgh recently, about four dozen delivery drivers for United Parcel Service got their first look at the scheduled drop-offs for the day. Prepping for roughly 9-hour shifts with anywhere from 50 to 150 stops, it could have been — and, until recently, was — a daunting start, as drivers had to calculate how best to juggle the day’s load while negotiating Pittsburgh-area...
Investors Grapple With Question: When to Spend Savings?
Pittsburgh — After working hard at a job or business for decades — scrimping and saving for the better part of a lifetime — many people wrestle with the question of when to spend the money they’ve accumulated. “I often mention to our clients that I have yet to see a Brinks truck full of money following a hearse at a funeral procession,” said Curt Knotick, a financial adviser and owner of Accurate Solutions Group in Butler, about 35...
On the Move With Bellhops
Pittsburgh — When Derek Bayer was getting ready to move, the moving company he hired gave him a quote that included two trucks, which was going to end up costing a lot more than he wanted to pay. So when he saw a Groupon deal for Bellhops, a service that pairs college students looking to make extra money with people who need a little extra muscle to help them move, he decided to give it a try. “The guys were very energetic and I’d...
Woes of Password Protection
Pittsburgh — High on the White House’s hit list: The series of letters, numbers and symbols you type in when you access everything from your bank account to your Netflix list. “Kill the password dead as a primary security measure,” urged Michael Daniel, the president’s cybersecurity coordinator, at the International Conference on Cyber Engagement, held recently at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. As more and more devices...
Books Outside the Big Box
Pittsburgh — At the time Dan Iddings opened the doors of Classic Lines Bookstore in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood last year, his greatest fear was that the technologies that ate up some of his largest competitors would swallow his business whole. “I had this fear that I would be the Amazon showroom — that people would look at our selection of products, then go buy them on Amazon,” he said. Six months in, Iddings said he has...
