Companies with field staff or drivers face many challenges due to the nature of their activities. One of the complex and demanding challenges is the optimal layout of routes. Unfortunately, route optimization is a very complicated task – it has even been developed in the form of mathematical models. The “travelling salesman problem” is one of the most popular due to very simple description of the issue and an extremely computationally difficult optimization process.
Depending on the size of the company, there is a need for daily, weekly or monthly planning of work for field workers. Choosing the most optimal route taking into account the location, completion date and skills required to complete the task becomes even more complicated than the mentioned “travelling salesman problem”.
The planner faces the challenge of “manual” work scheduling that takes into account the above assumptions, which in effect does not give satisfactory results or is even impossible to meet. To meet these challenges, Globema’s team has developed the Google Maps-based GeoTask application.
Do we really need IT tools to optimize delivery routes?
We already know that everywhere we deal with a dispersed and large number of points to visit, even the most qualified specialist may not be enough. Therefore, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at the benefits of using IT tools for automatic route optimization. This is best illustrated by an example of a real analysis carried out by our team using GeoTask. The analysis was carried out for 36 persons/vehicles, a 5-day work period and 300-400 tasks performed daily by a group of field workers.
The use of the GeoTask application allowed for a significant reduction in the length of the route. The chart below shows how much the total number of kilometres driven by all vehicles after using Globema application has decreased.
Based on the analyzed case, we see that GeoTask makes it possible to shorten the route by an average of 19% – that’s how much we can save on the very length of the route.
The application plans delivery routes in a way so that you can use your cargo space to the maximum and get additional benefits through optimal loading. In this case, automatic optimization tool allows us to use 1-2 vehicles less a day.