The app is known as ORION, for On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation. It will be applied to 10,000 delivery routes by the end of the year, UPS said. Most of the routes that have already been optimized with ORION have shown a mileage reduction. UPS said it expects to save more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel, and cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 14,000 metric tons, as a result of the tool. A reduction of one mile per day per driver saves the company up to $50m annually. ORION consists of more than 250 million address data points. The software combines customers' shipping requirements with customized map data, resulting in routing instructions that meet service-level requirements, yet reduce miles driven. UPS research scientists began piloting telematics technologies, drawing on global positioning system (GPS) tracking equipment and vehicle sensors, in 2008. The company prototyped ORION at 11 sites between 2008 and 2011. It plans to deploy the app on nearly all of its 55,000 U.S. routes by 2017.

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