Can route optimization reduce emissions, or is it only a cost trick? It can for your fleet: fewer miles burn less fuel, and UPS reports around 100 million fewer miles a year.
This guide sits within our wider coverage of green logistics.
| Item | Reported value |
|---|---|
| Miles saved per year by UPS’s ORION system | Around 100 million miles |
| Fuel saved per year | 10 million gallons |
| Carbon dioxide avoided per year | 100,000 metric tons |
| Value of cutting one mile per driver per day | Up to $50 million a year |
| Earlier planning-tool savings (reported 2014) | 85 million miles a year |
| Routes optimized by ORION (reported 2020) | 66,000 routes |
The figures come from VentureBeat’s January 2020 report and a December 2014 Network World interview with a UPS executive. They are company-reported and can change, so check the sources before you rely on them.
How route optimization cuts fuel use
Fuel use follows the miles driven and the time a vehicle spends idling. Route optimization software attacks both by choosing the order of stops and the path between them. For a driver with a long list of stops, that choice is far from trivial.
UPS gives a sense of the scale. A UPS executive told Network World in December 2014 that a 120-stop route has a 199-digit number of possible delivery orders, so the company’s mathematicians had to build a method for picking one that a driver could actually follow (Network World).
That method has to weigh more than distance. According to the same interview, the order of delivery takes into account:
- UPS business rules
- maps
- the times the truck needs to be at certain places
- customer preferences
The lesson for any fleet is that the shortest path is not always the best plan. A good plan respects the promises you have made to customers while still trimming miles.
What UPS reports from its ORION system
UPS first debuted its ORION platform in 2012, though it was not fully deployed until around 2016, as of VentureBeat’s January 2020 report. At that point it was optimizing 66,000 routes across North America and Europe (VentureBeat).
The same report says UPS puts ORION’s savings at around 100 million miles per year since its inception. That translates into 10 million gallons of fuel and 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the VentureBeat article. These are figures reported by UPS, not independently verified here.
The savings sit on top of earlier work. UPS’s Package Flow Technology, deployed in 2003, helped cut 85 million miles driven a year, which the executive put at 8.5 million gallons of fuel and 85,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, as Network World reported.
Cost and emissions pull in the same direction here. VentureBeat notes that one mile less per day for each driver can save the company up to $50 million annually, so the financial case and the climate case reinforce each other (VentureBeat).
Why left turns cost fuel and time
The best-known quirk of UPS routing is its preference for right turns. A 2016 student analysis on Harvard’s digital initiative site says about 90% of the turns a UPS delivery truck makes are right turns (Harvard D3).
The reasoning is about idling. VentureBeat says it is generally accepted that avoiding left turns is a good thing because of the idling involved (VentureBeat). UPS Canada’s Gordon Reed put it this way: “We design our whole routes to turn right. The rationale behind it is you idle less, and you’re not sitting, waiting at lights” (Route4Me blog).
The Harvard post links the approach to fuel and idle time. It says UPS saved over 1.5 million gallons of fuel in 2012 and eliminated 206 million minutes of driver idle time using ORION (Harvard D3). It also says UPS used GPS tracking and vehicle sensors to confirm that reducing left turns cut costs and delivery times.
Safety may be a side benefit. The post cites a 2001 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finding that 14.7% of commercial vehicle intersection crashes occur when making a left turn into oncoming traffic, against 7.0% when making right turns (Harvard D3).
Limits and caveats
The UPS numbers are persuasive, but read them with care. Keep these points in mind:
- The figures are reported by UPS, one of the largest delivery networks, so they are an illustration rather than a forecast for your fleet.
- The Harvard post notes that UPS does not publish statistics on extra packages delivered or on accident reductions from fewer left turns (Harvard D3).
- The same post observed that a UPS driver might still average almost 120 miles per day, which suggests room for improvement.
- Plans can go stale. VentureBeat lists congestion, weather and new packages entering the system as events that can affect a driver’s journey time (VentureBeat).
Human judgement still matters too. The Harvard post quotes UPS’s CEO acknowledging that ORION is “not an endgame” but a dynamic platform, where it might sometimes make sense for a driver to abandon its instructions.
Applying the idea to your own routes
You do not need a system on UPS’s scale to borrow its approach. A practical sequence looks like this:
- Measure a baseline of miles, idle time and fuel before you change anything, ideally with GPS tracking and vehicle sensors, which UPS used to gather its data.
- Optimize the order of stops, not just the distance, and include delivery times and customer preferences as rules.
- Test turn rules, such as limiting left turns where traffic drives on the right, and compare idle time afterwards.
- Build in rerouting for congestion, weather and added pickups, the kind of dynamic routing UPS was bringing to ORION as of January 2020.
- Let drivers flag instructions that make no sense, and review those cases.
Routing is only one part of a low-carbon operation. Returned goods create their own trips, which our guide to reverse logistics covers. For the depot side of the same journey, see our piece on sustainable warehousing.
Frequently asked questions
Does route optimization really reduce emissions?
Show answer
UPS reports that ORION has saved around 100 million miles per year, equal to 10 million gallons of fuel and 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, per VentureBeat’s January 2020 report. Those are company-reported figures, and your own results will depend on your routes, so measure before and after.
Is avoiding left turns the main benefit?
Show answer
No, it is one lever among several. ORION also weighs business rules, maps, delivery times and customer preferences when it orders the stops, according to Network World.
What is dynamic routing?
Show answer
It is the ability to re-plan a route while the driver is out. VentureBeat compared it to turn-by-turn navigation apps that suggest alternatives when there is congestion, and said UPS was bringing it to ORION as of January 2020 (VentureBeat).
Will a smaller fleet see the same results?
Show answer
There is no way to promise that from the sources. The UPS figures come from a network of 66,000 optimized routes, per VentureBeat, so treat them as a guide to the direction of the effect, not its size for you.
