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The renowned delivery company finds success (and money) in improving the efficiency of delivery routes and cutting down on driving time with the help of their new and highly sophisticated GPS system ORION.

You know what they always say about mailmen, “Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail” can keep a letter from sliding into your mailbox. Mail and packages have become a ubiquitous part of modern culture, with god-like entities such as Amazon and Seamless exponentially adding to the list of items one can have magically appear at the door with merely a few clicks and a functioning bank account. Delivery has become an unalienable right. But what is the price of billions and billions of items being shipped to billions and billions of places? As it turns out, quite costly.

UPS, a household name representative of packages, short-shorts, and brown door-less trucks, has risen to the challenge of mitigating their environmental impact, specifically within their truck fleet. They have adopted a hyper-intelligent GPS system named ORION for the purpose of maximizing delivery efficiency by carefully considering all scheduled pick-up stops, traffic issues, and delivery destinations for each individual delivery truck, and compiling the best route. This means less greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and more money in the bank for UPS thanks to saved fuel and truck use. 2016 has been set as the deadline for a company-wide implementation of this technology, with deployment already well underway. This kind of route optimization software has existed for a while now, which begs the question, why only UPS? There is plenty of this kind of software out there, it seems that any company with a mobile workforce could take advantage of it…

“UPS ORION brings efficiency and service to new level UPS’s On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation (ORION) is proprietary routing software that uses package-level detail and customized online map data to provide drivers with optimized routing information. ORION can enhance customer service and reduce the numbers of miles driven by determining the most efficient delivery route” (Source)

UPS expects upwards of 10 million dollars in fuel savings and a reduction of 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (among other noxious car fumes) from gas pipe emissions. Perhaps in their footsteps, other delivery services will seek to cut back on fuel usage and reduce their carbon footprint to get in on the money and gas saving bonanza. On top of this, as the alternative energy sector continues to grow and innovate, companies like UPS in the coming years will become increasingly incentivized to even further reduce their carbon footprint by implementing cleaner technologies and scrutinized methods of operation, ultimately saving them money while also investing in a cleaner and more efficient future.

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Earthgargage – Greener Car. Fatter Wallet.