The coronavirus pandemic in our country is an unprecedented phenomenon. The state of emergency, restrictions on movement and restrictions on meetings between people mean that the economy and business pose completely new challenges for us.

Let me start by saying that not all entrepreneurs have experienced a stagnation in their business due to the situation – there are businesses that are facing completely opposite phenomena during this period, e.g. online business.

A week ago, we were contacted by a customer from the delivery industry who was struggling with scheduling deliveries, which they now have more than usual. After visiting our website and the description of one of our products, they asked us to contact them.

The conversation took place online – the coronavirus pandemic, of course. During the meeting, the company owner presented the problems he was struggling with:

  • His business is delivering food to customers. Until now, he has been delivering goods to B2B customers from the HoReCa sector, and he has noticed a decrease in orders there, but the number of orders from individual customers has increased significantly – people who cannot or do not want to leave their homes, but need fresh products.
  • Deliveries to B2C customers are different in nature – there are more of them, they take less time and are smaller in volume. This is a different logistics process.
  • Sometimes customers want their goods delivered at specific times, and that also needs to be taken into account…
  • In addition, there was a problem with people to work - due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2 employees dropped out of the schedule and there is no one to transport the goods. They are working at 200% of their current capacity, engaging the remaining forces in the company.

And here we come to the point where sensible work planning becomes a great challenge. Routes must be planned in an optimal way – so that drivers drive efficiently and routes do not cross – it is best, of course, for the routes to include the largest possible number of points to visit.

We then asked how he was doing so far?

In response, the client displayed an Excel sheet on our screen.

– Here I have the addresses of the points, I look for them on the map, mark them and combine the route. Unfortunately, it takes a long time and I am not always sure that this route is the best… Then I print it out and give it to the drivers..

– Ok, so please try our system for planning and optimizing routes. 2 weeks of free demo for 2 vehicles. Of course, we will support you when you first start the application, and then you will be able to handle it yourself without any problems because the system is very easy to use.

The client has started testing.

4 days later we talked again and asked about the effects of using the optimizer.

It turned out that the situation had changed quite significantly:

  • A person planning food delivery routes now does so in several minutes instead of several hours.
  • Cars that use the system drive much more efficiently than other vehicles – they are able to serve about 30% more customers.
  • For the first time, they manage to complete all orders within normal time.
  • Thanks to the mobile application, the company can constantly monitor the progress of the work performed and react to the situation dynamically.
  • They want to equip all 12 cars with the system immediately – this will eliminate their biggest problem related to effective work planning.

The client implemented our system. For a few days now we can see them driving, delivering and we hope that everyone is happy.

It turned out once again that almost every problem can be solved with the right tool.

In this difficult time of the pandemic, we wish everyone health and perseverance!

Want to know how Routimo can help your organization? Contact us

Google Maps is undoubtedly a powerful tool for planning routes. Maps allow you to use navigation. The tool suggests a route for one vehicle 
and one manually selected destination, presents the distance to the destination, the time needed to cover the route, etc. If you are interested in finding the best route from the selected point A to B for one vehicle, Google Maps will be a perfect solution.  

But what do you do when you want to route multiple vehicles and/or plan multiple points?   

The optimal selection of a sequence of points and routes requires the use of a route optimizer, and Routimo is one such tool.  

Google Maps is often confused with a route optimization tool, while it is a route planning tool. The route optimizer uses algorithms that automatically create the entire work plan along with routes, additionally taking into account many business constraints, such as: driver's working time, point opening hours, vehicle capacity, delivery schedules and many, many others. The route optimizer therefore plans routes taking into account the best combination. 

Example: 

For simplicity, let's assume that we are planning a job for 1 driver who has to visit 20 points. The number of possible routes for this problem is 6×10 to the power of 16, or 60. Manually finding the best solution is impossible, and it is also impossible to use Google Maps for such a task.

In Routimo, thanks to the use of advanced mathematical algorithms, such a task is performed in less than 1 minute.

At work, we often deal with much more complex tasks, where the number of points is many times greater than twenty, and the crew consists of many employees. Routimo - thanks to advanced algorithms, it allows automatic creation of an optimal plan and routes many times faster. Our experience with clients shows that using the Routimo route optimizer in the daily work of a planner means reducing travel costs by up to 28% and handling more tasks in a shorter time.

Try Routimo for free and see how much savings it will bring to your company.

https://routimo.com/#testuj