Haulage: routes by hand, fleets by habit, charging limits

Routes are planned by hand, dispatchers are short

What happens. The dispatcher builds the day’s routes from the orders, with a feeling for which drivers know which customers. When a dispatcher is ill or leaves, the plan gets worse the same day.

What it costs. Extra kilometres, empty runs, overtime and missed delivery windows all come from plans that were good enough rather than good. Dispatchers are hard to find and take months to learn the area.

Why the usual fix fails. Routing software works only when the data and the rules of the house are in it, and many dispatchers do not trust a plan they cannot see the reasons for.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From order, route and time records, I compare the routes driven with optimised ones for the same orders. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you what an optimisation could save for your fleet, and how the dispatcher would stay in the loop.

Daily fleet allocation across branches is done by hand

What happens. A rental or service fleet has vehicles in many branches, and demand differs by branch and by day. Each morning someone decides which vehicle moves where, using last week’s pattern and a phone.

What it costs. Cars stand idle in one branch while another has no vehicle for a customer. Transfers between branches cost driver time and kilometres without earning anything.

Why the usual fix fails. A rule such as a fixed stock level per branch ignores events, weather and bookings already made. A more complex tool gets abandoned if it cannot be explained.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From booking, return and transfer records, I check how much better the allocation could be with a forecast and an optimisation. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you what the gap is in your data and how a daily plan would be presented to the person who decides.

Electric truck depots get less grid power than they need

What happens. A depot with many electric trucks needs a large grid connection, but connections and transformers take a long time to get. Many fleets will start with a fraction of the power they would like.

What it costs. Trucks that are not charged in time miss their tour, and charging all at once creates peak charges. Operators are caught between the grid limit and the departure times.

Why the usual fix fails. Buying more charging points does not create more power. A first-come first-served charging order ignores which truck leaves first and with what range.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From tour plans, vehicle data and the depot’s connection limit, I check how charging could be scheduled so that every truck leaves charged enough. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you how many trucks your connection supports with optimised charging, and what data the schedule needs.