When it comes to planning and execution of shipment deliveries, the expectations of stakeholders have increased and requirements have become more complex. The rise of e-commerce drives the need to consider further parameters in the planning process, such as time windows for deliveries, congestion in urban areas and alternative deposit places. At the same time, logistics companies experience frequent changes in delivery staff, which leads to a loss of experience and knowledge regarding local specifics and delivery requirements. To address these challenges, a systematic, automated and digitized approach is required. New solutions need to model system-relevant variables as measurable parameters, such as handling time or vehicle capacities, to make planning more applicable. The consideration of relevant historical data, such as location specifics or exceptions, will make those solutions even more reliable and robust. This presentation will introduce available superior solutions, such as Greenplan, and how they help solve the challenges in delivery planning and execution.

Some activities require the implementation of a territory sectorization before tour optimization can take place. Working with a sectorization enables tasks to be balanced between teams and improves productivity, in particular through the specialization of drivers in a given area. In a last-mile parcel delivery warehouse, sectoring is necessary in order to organize picking within the warehouse. For each organization, it is a question of finding the right balance between performance (opex costs) and robustness (tour stability, which is reflected in the number of manual rebalancing operations). Kardinal’s Sekto model is the only tool on the market capable of jointly optimizing these two dimensions, enabling users to control the impact of strategic decisions. Its core mechanic is based on historical data in a machine learning logic, allowing users to size their fleet while taking into account the seasonality of the activity, its evolution and its geographical distribution.

As more cities introduce inner-city access restrictions, ranging from physical restrictions to road signs, post networks can use these restrictions automatically in their daily tour planning process. With this step, NUNAV Courier ensures networks and their drivers 100% conform to inner-city restrictions while keeping their delivery promise. This real-world scenario is made possible by processing OpenStreetMap data – which makes it very easy for local operators to introduce local knowledge for the post network – during the daily planning process based on day-to-day objectives (least distance, fewest personnel, utmost punctuality, etc). This presentation will provide an in-depth look into the multicloud computing platform NUNAV and how Austrian Post is using NUNAV Courier in its day-to-day operations to ensure all its drivers are productive from day one, while abiding by city restrictions.