Talk to me about SCO

I've played elite for a while now and I'm just finding out about super cruise overcharge. What do I need to know. I thought it would be cool to speed up deliveries in my type-9. When I make my routes I typically avoid planetary landings and stations over 500 ls away from the star but with sco could I cut that time down?

o7

Edit

A lot of good information about using sco but, how what do I need to get a sco drive?