UPS Debuts Route-Optimization Software Orion
UPS Inc. has launched route optimization software known as Orion, or On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation, and said it will improve 10,000 delivery routes by the end of the year.
The company said it expects to save 1.5 million gallons of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 14,000 metric tons.
UPS expects to use the software for all 55,000 U.S. routes by 2017 and plans for the eventual global deployment of Orion.
“This initiative, Orion, is arguably the world’s largest operations-research project. It relies heavily on online map data and optimization algorithms, and will eventually reconfigure a driver’s pickups and drop-offs in real time,” Tom Davenport, International Analytics Institute co-founder and Babson College professor said in a statement.
The software, 10 years in the making, uses 250 million address data points and customized map data compiled by UPS to provide drivers with optimized route instructions.
UPS, based in Atlanta, introduced the technology at 11 sites from 2008 to 2011 and challenged senior drivers to beat the computer to bolster the algorithm.
“I get options that I would have actually never thought of before. It’s a new way of thinking to make me more efficient,” UPS driver Tim Ahn said in a statement.
UPS Inc. ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
