United Parcel Service Inc.(UPS) the world’s biggest package shipping company is using Big Data from customers, drivers and vehicles in a new route guidance system that will save time and money and reduce fuel burn.
The On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation (Orion) system is being introduced this year to 10,000 of the Atlanta-based company’s 55,000 U.S. drivers. According to UPS Orion has been in development nearly 10 years and is the company’s biggest technological advancement in this time frame.
UPS has a history of monitoring and standardizing even the smallest issues, from drivers keeping keys hooked on a finger instead of in their pockets and making only right turns, to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The company declined to provide total savings from technology it has designed and other programs.
The latest effort gathers electronic information from UPS customers, from its fleet of 101,000 delivery vehicles and from handheld devices carried by drivers to craft optimal routes that reduce distance, time and fuel. Complicating the task are parcels with specific pickup or delivery times, and the company’s My Choice option that lets customers use a smart phone app to move or delay deliveries.
By the end of this year it will have saved UPS more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 14,000 metric tons, the company said.
Using a proprietary system of telematics to gather 200 data points from equipment on each vehicle, UPS in 2012 was able to eliminate 206 million minutes of idling time and save more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel.
As part of an effort begun in 2004, delivery routes were designed to minimize left turns, which require vehicles to wait at intersections for oncoming traffic to clear before proceeding.
Orion don’t have updates of real-time data that would help drivers avoid accidents and road construction this ability already is being worked on for the next generation of the system.
The On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation (Orion) system is being introduced this year to 10,000 of the Atlanta-based company’s 55,000 U.S. drivers. According to UPS Orion has been in development nearly 10 years and is the company’s biggest technological advancement in this time frame.
UPS has a history of monitoring and standardizing even the smallest issues, from drivers keeping keys hooked on a finger instead of in their pockets and making only right turns, to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The company declined to provide total savings from technology it has designed and other programs.
The latest effort gathers electronic information from UPS customers, from its fleet of 101,000 delivery vehicles and from handheld devices carried by drivers to craft optimal routes that reduce distance, time and fuel. Complicating the task are parcels with specific pickup or delivery times, and the company’s My Choice option that lets customers use a smart phone app to move or delay deliveries.
By the end of this year it will have saved UPS more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 14,000 metric tons, the company said.
Using a proprietary system of telematics to gather 200 data points from equipment on each vehicle, UPS in 2012 was able to eliminate 206 million minutes of idling time and save more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel.
As part of an effort begun in 2004, delivery routes were designed to minimize left turns, which require vehicles to wait at intersections for oncoming traffic to clear before proceeding.
Orion don’t have updates of real-time data that would help drivers avoid accidents and road construction this ability already is being worked on for the next generation of the system.