Plan routes efficiently: plan ahead of traffic jams and know if that extra bus is convenient

Jan Willem Hoek
Froot
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Problem

Froot needed to plan many stops over multiple routes. Using Google Maps and Excel no longer worked.

Target

Automatically plan optimal routes and stops in a simple way.

Result

From planning days to just checking and done

Planning routes efficiently? Jan Willen Hoek of Froot didn't have to think long about that. Froot delivers fruit to companies. They not only pay attention to the quality of the products, but also to presentation and service. Jan Willem Hoek, co-owner of Froot: "Just putting some apples and pears somewhere doesn't make you a nice, vital employer. Every employee must have easy access and it has to look good. Moreover, we go the extra mile when it comes to service. For example, a sick colleague receives a free get well kit. And everything in the customer's house style, of course. All that fruit has to be delivered on time. This was no longer possible with Excel. Now that we work with RoutiGo, everything runs a lot smoother'.

Plan multiple routes in no time

When Jan Willem and Jeroen Beekman started Froot in 2017, they planned the route themselves. Jan Willem: "That went fine at first. You get to work with Excel, Google Maps and a small online planning program and in no time you have two or three routes planned. But the more routes you get, the more difficult it becomes. At some point you just lose track. Then suddenly you have two routes going to The Hague and three buses in Amsterdam. How efficient are those routes then? No idea. And I'm only talking about the Randstad.'

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'Apart from the fact that the way of planning became increasingly inefficient, we couldn't really take customer wishes into account anymore. And that's what it's all about. That's why we switched to RoutiGo's planning software, combined with track and trace in our buses. The customer wants his fruit as early as possible on Monday morning. We therefore start extremely early: before six o'clock most of our buses are already on the road, ahead of the traffic jams. By the time half the Netherlands is stuck in traffic to Amsterdam, we have already delivered our crates there. So when people arrive at the office, in most cases the fruit is already there. The last crate is delivered no later than three o'clock in the afternoon, so that our drivers also drive back to our location in Alphen aan den Rijn before the traffic jams break.'

Estimating when your routes will fill up

'That driving ahead of traffic jams has two additional benefits. When our buses are not stuck in traffic jams, they also emit less nitrogen. Moreover, the most efficient planning also makes for happy drivers. If they are not stuck in traffic jams, it also means they get home to their families sooner. What is also very nice is that the RoutiGo software is good at estimating when routes are filling up and when it is therefore time to start thinking about an extra bus. We are now in the process of linking RoutiGo to our business processes. This will allow us to automate scheduling even further. We will be working on that soon and it looks very promising.'

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