Vehicle route optimization & planning software powered by machine learning
By FarEye | October 13, 2022
Let us show you how you can get 25% more deliveries daily leveraging vehicle route optimization software.
How does a warehouse manager plan the most optimal routes for delivering 5,000 shipments in a day with 500 bike riders to various parts of the city? The task of assigning specific packets and most optimal route suggestions to each rider is a very complex task, especially as the volume of shipments or geographic region expands. Hence surfaced the need to embrace vehicle route planning software.
Imagine the same daily life challenge in the pure mathematical or statistical notations. There will be ‘n’ number of workforce moving through ‘m’ nodal points through ‘x’ routes to meet ‘y’ customers. Feeling lost? Yes, this happens in the logistics industry too. This problem is known as Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), a nightmare for organizations with a huge workforce. Mathematicians and computer scientists have been working on algorithms to solve the TSP or vehicle routing problem for over half a century now.
FarEye’s team of research analysts and the data scientists have cracked the code and built industry’s most efficient auto-routing product. A mix of Artificial Intelligence and Machine-learning algorithms, FarEye’s vehicle route planner helps in optimizing the routes, at any point of the day - off-peak and peak traffic conditions, keeping anything and everything in consideration.
Benefits of a Vehicle Routing Software
The moment a shipment at the warehouse is ready for delivery, it needs to be assigned to a rider who covers the specific pin code area. The rider is expected to deliver parcels pertaining to his marked area following an optimum route.
However, with perpetual demand for shorter turnaround time and higher shipment volumes, it is imperative that logistics companies utilize their capacity in a more effective and efficient manner. FarEye’s vehicle routing software can help them achieve this by providing dynamic fleet management.
This means that the information such as vehicle type and capacity utilization, number of shipments that have to be delivered in a specific area, the available number of riders etc. is taken into considerations while planning the optimal route plans, simultaneously. A vehicle route tracker or vehicle route planning software takes into consideration the preferred time-slots and allows personalization of deliveries while routing the rider to the customer location.
The interactive route map embedded in the vehicle routing software enables the manager as well as the customer to track their shipment deliveries on a real-time basis with almost a zero-error estimated time of arrival. In case of any delivery failures, the manager gets SMS and real-time notifications/alerts along with the reason for the failed attempts
By having the right vehicle route optimization software in place, the manager can also create different geofences that act as a guide for auto-routing their fleet. For example, geofencing with regards to vehicle route planning refers to the areas that should not be combined when creating routes. However, these are not static fences. The manager has the right to combine multiple geofences dynamically to optimize volume and load during a particular time period.
The Role of AI in Route Planning and Route Optimization
AI is one of those key disruptive technologies that's introducing high levels of efficiencies across supply chain and logistics operations. So, why is AI route planning becoming increasingly important in executing deliveries? One of AI's core sub-set is machine learning (ML), and this is what's changing the game for delivery stakeholders. By using ML, an advanced vehicle route planner analyzes enormous volumes of historical data and generates the most efficient route to travel from point A to B to C. It can even warn delivery executives of a route that might be prone to risks like thefts, pilferage, accidents, sudden route closures and more. So, AI route optimization or machine learning based routing empowers delivery stakeholders with critical intelligence that helps them become highly proactive.
How FarEye's Vehicle Route Planning & Optimization Software Can Help
FarEye’s route planning software is backed by AI and ML algorithms that have the ability to self-learn the ‘correct’ address just from delivery addresses, success, and failures in the past. In lighter terms, it converts lexical addresses into geographic coordinates (geocoding) as simple as latitude and longitude, which are used to mark positions on a map. Once a delivery is completed successfully on any address, next time, the system can fetch the address internally, so that the last-mile connectivity will be faster and more accurate. With end-to-end data encryption and Mobile Device Management (MDM), the vehicle routing software is in compliance with the data security regulations.
FarEye’s routing feature allows delivery personalization by giving the flexibility to the customers to select the preferred time-slot and the expected time of arrival (ETA) precisely. The intuitive mobile dashboard gives a comprehensive view to the rider to keep a tab on his pending jobs and the route that he needs to follow. The native app also works in offline mode and is a reliable source for the riders working in remote location. All these features of FarEye’s vehicle routing software solve the huge underlying challenge of the logistics industry- greater visibility. The software can help in better resource utilization and cost optimization for the manager, better performance for the rider, and above all, enhanced experience for the end customers. A win-win situation for everyone.