Sober makes some good points about real costs and savings. I have been satelited for 13 years now and over the years more routes have been added to the satelite site. At one point we had 8 routes here, enough for our own little center. One has been eliminated lately due to the volume even though it could probably be put back in if they returned us all to our normal dispatch!
We used to have an on-car supe that threatened to move us back to the main center if we didn't get our cars loaded faster, run better, blah, blah, blah. He thought that would scare us since all 3 of us at the time lived close to the sat ctr. I finally told him "Look, if UPS wants to move us back there is nothing we can do about it. And we all used to make the drive every day before, we can do it again. Finally, on paper, as long as this sat ctr is saving UPS a dime, they won't move us. You know that and I know that. So threaten all you want, you can't move us yourself and you know it!" That was the last we heard of that.
My point is, if the operation shows that it is saving UPS any money at all, they will leave the satelite centers in. We all know how UPS likes to micro manage every little thing and they always seem to do their homework before making any moves. They wouldn't do it if it was costing them money. (Yeah I know there a lot of things that seem like a waste of money at UPS but I don't think this is one of them.)