Today, traffic dispatching, requires significant manpower and any automation of this process will significantly improve efficiency and reduce costs. The main challenge that these companies have is that there isn’t any software that can handle the often complex operations a logistics provider in an automated way.
During the project we have approached and researched the operations of several different type of logistics providers. The main challenge that these companies have is that there isn’t any software that can handle the often complex operations a logistics provider in an automated way. The existing software solutions that are being used have all been developed by software companies with limited expertise and knowledge in logistics operations. The main need we found among logistics providers was the ability to automate much of the operations that is mainly traffic dispatching, which require significant manpower. The ability to automate dispatching, which includes allocation of delivery assignments, scheduling, and routing, was also the feature that was lacking in the various software platforms that logistics providers were using. The optimization of logistics fleet is highly complex, an NP-hard problem, and still an unsolved problem in research.
We found that several parameters have to be taken into account in the optimization algorithm such as type of vehicle, the speed of which each courier delivers, type of item, and changes in the route.
We also received great interest in our platform and services by several of Sweden’s largest online retailers. By providing them with our delivery services the retailers have been able to provide their customers in turn fast and convenient deliveries. This has enabled to gain data and iterate on the platform faster.
Our platform is in an ok shape. It is implemented with modern and mostly up-to-date technology. It is of small size and besides the algorithms of average complexity. While there are no critical issues in the assessed projects, there are a number of improvements needed, in order to reduce accumulated technical depth and ensure future maintainability. In particular, the test coverage is low and should be improved. Yet, due to the small size and modularity the effort should be reasonable.
Our current platform would require numerous months of work to replicate with the right competence. For each day as we gain more data and add more complexity to the platform it will require more resources to create anything that is of equal or similar value.
