A recent article from The New York Times had an astonishing calculation: nearly 1.5 million packages are delivered in New York City every day. The convenience of online shopping created a logistic labyrinth to delivery services and a sea of data. What is UPS’s reply to this new reality? Predictive Analytics.

The delivery company has adopted a predictive analytics algorithm to optimize how the packages navigate throughout its delivery network. According to The Wall Street Journal, the predictive analytics toll analyzes more than one billion points of data a day. The idea is not only to collect and cross-reference information about the package, the delivery forecast, and the customer but also to use predictive analytics to discover new routes and improve logistics.

The company estimates that the number of miles driven by its delivery truck was cut down by about 100 million a year, speeding up deliveries and saving money. And this is only the beginning of what big data and predictive analytics can achieve together. They can provide more insights on customers and businesses, find new opportunities and improvement areas, and, most of all, become a critical competitive advantage.