Role
Route planner
What do you not know about your routes until a driver comes back and says somewhere cannot be entered? Those restrictions usually exist only in the drivers' memories.
Intro call
Four questions we would start with
What do you not know about a delivery point until a driver gets there?
Receiving hours, a weight limit, no room to unload. If that is the drivers' knowledge, the route is planned blind.
When is tomorrow's route layout decided?
If it is after orders close, late in the afternoon, there is no time left to correct anything.
How do you know a vehicle was full?
If it is from the driver's impression, you do not know - and that is usually the largest item in the cost of a delivery.
How many times a week do you change a route after building it?
And whether those changes come from new orders or from restrictions you should have known about earlier.
We take over building the variants, you keep the decision on the route
Collecting orders, accounting for restrictions, building route variants and reacting to changes can be taken off the desk. Choosing the route a driver takes stays with the planner.
- A delivery point's restrictions are recorded. - Receiving hours, weight, equipment requirements - in one place, not in the memory of the driver who covers that area.
- The variant is calculated, the choice belongs to a person. - A shorter route is sometimes undeliverable. The planner sees both and decides.
- A change during the day does not overturn the plan. - A new order goes to the route that can take it, and the planner approves that.
Scope
What can be taken off route planning
Twenty example tasks. Each one has a human approval point. Below is a selection, and the scope we fit to your delivery network.
Collecting the orders for a route
- The orders with their dates and delivery windows
- Grouping orders by area
- A signal when an order fits no window
- Orders needing a vehicle with particular features
Building routes
- Proposed route variants (choice: the planner)
- Accounting for unloading time at the point
- The vehicle's fill calculated by weight and volume
- The driver's working time against the regulations
- Comparing variants by distance and time
Restrictions and exceptions
- A register of delivery point restrictions
- A driver reporting a new restriction
- A signal when a route breaches a known restriction
- Points requiring a booking before delivery
Changes during the day
- Pointing out the route that can take a new order (decision: the planner)
- Calculating the effect of a change on the remaining points
- Telling the driver about a change of route
- A register of changes made after the start
Reviewing delivery
- The planned route against the one driven
- Points where the unloading time departs from the assumptions
- Vehicle fill over the period
A day's work
Today
- You build the routes by hand, starting from the areas
- You remember the points' restrictions or you call the driver
- You estimate the vehicle's fill rather than calculating it
- A new order means going through every route
- The driver hears about a change by phone, sometimes already on the road
- You do not know at which point unloading systematically runs long
With AI assistance
- The route variants are calculated, you choose
- The points' restrictions are in a register and enter the route layout
- The fill by weight and volume is calculated
- A new order goes to the route that can take it
- Information about a change reaches the driver by one route
- Points with extended unloading are pointed out
- Vehicle fill
fewer runs with space to spare
the fill is calculated rather than estimated
- Distance per delivery
shorter routes for the same number of points
variants are compared rather than built by hand
- Routes that can be driven
fewer returns with undelivered goods
the points' restrictions enter the plan
- Time to build the plan
tomorrow's plan is ready earlier
building the variants does not take the afternoon
We start with the register of restrictions, because without it every route variant is theory.
- Step 1
A register of delivery point restrictions
Hours, weight, equipment, booking. Collected from the drivers and added to as you go.
- Step 2
Route variants with the fill calculated
Proposals to choose from, with distance, time and fill.
- Step 3
Changes during the day
Pointing out the route that will take a new order, and telling the driver.
- Step 4
Reviewing delivery
The plan against the drive and the unloading times at the points. Last, because it needs delivery data.
Common questions
Questions that come up at the first meeting
How is this different from navigation on a driver's phone?
Navigation leads between two points. Here the problem is assigning twenty points to four vehicles against delivery windows, weight, the driver's working time and the fill. That is a decision before departure, not on the road.
Will a route planner still be needed?
They will, because the optimal route and the deliverable route are two different things, and a person knows the difference. We take over calculating the variants, not the choice - and that distinction decides everything in this role. A planner who is not building routes by hand has time for the points' restrictions and for the conversations with drivers those restrictions come from.
Does this fall under the AI Act?
Route planning is not a high-risk use. Data on drivers' working time follows from the transport regulations and serves to keep the route compliant with them; it should not be the basis for assessing individual drivers.
Still have a question that is not here? Book a call
Next step
How full were your vehicles yesterday?
We will show you what route planning looks like when the points' restrictions are recorded and the variants are calculated before the choice.