-
An original scenario
Here at Viamente we like to think we have developed a tool which is not only efficient, but also flexible enough to provide for the most varied usage scenarios. The following story proves how the Viamente Route Planner can be successfully adopted even by unconventional Users.
It is true that most of our Users are professional dispatchers and field service team leaders who need to route multiple vehicles on a daily basis. They need to make their fleets/teams efficient, maximizing the results of their mobile workforce while cutting costs and reducing the planning effort.
But the same need for efficiency can become critical, if only once a year, even for an unexpected User like an elementary school.
Liz Shayne, interim Head of School at The Schoolhouse Learning Centre, an independent Vermont elementary school, had a problem and was looking for a solution: “We stumbled upon the Viamente Route Planner when we were desperately looking for a simpler way to map the driving routes for a Mother’s Day Fundraiser our school does every fall — selling, assembling and delivering (door-to-door) over 500 individual “brunch bags” as gifts to loved ones, friends and colleagues”.
She needed to serve as many waypoints as possible with limited resources: a real logistics problem.
“Finding Viamente was a really lucky stumble”, she continued. “We were thrilled that we could cut many, many, many hours off of our mapping and planning (disposing of paper maps and freeing up at least 6 adults for other tasks)”. The Route Planner gave Liz not only optimal routes, but also the chance to reassign her resources to other important issues.
One of the things Liz and her team appreciated the most, was the intuitive drag & drop feature for modifying assignments manually: “It was extremely easy for us to use and flexible enough for us to make last minute changes. We were able to map efficient and reasonable routes for all 20 of our drivers and successfully made over 500 people smile.”Riccardo Bocci | May 18, 2012
-
A Viamente Story
“When we received Kate’s letter, we were deeply touched and happy that our software had been able to help her build Routes and assignments for her non-profit project for low-income, first generation college-bound students.” says Antonio Perini, Viamente CEO.
Kate’s story is a story of successful optimization of Routes and resources, serving a particularly noble cause.
Kate Hiester, Career Pathway Program Manager at Eastside College Preparatory School (a non-profit Northern California school, run entirely on donations) needed a flexible tool for her career-orientation event. The event, aimed at familiarizing students with possible careers after they graduate, saw high school seniors shadowing for a day over 60 professionals in 27 businesses around the Bay Area. Most students did not drive, so they needed to be transported to destination in 6 school vans.
“The company sites ranged from the Presidio in SF to San Jose, and we had just enough seats to accommodate the students. I was not sure that I could get them all where they needed to be while still fitting into their hosts’ schedules” said Kate.
Then she found Viamente.
“I chose Viamente because it is intuitive” continued Kate. “It works the way I’d design it. It was easy to import all the information and have it plan the routes for me. I was able to compare multiple scenarios within the first few hours of use, helping me settle on the best approach”. Of course there were also special considerations which came up after she had started planning and modifications needed to be done. Kate said that without Viamente she would have probably lost the day adjusting all the Routes, whereas with the Drag & Drop function she was able to solve the problem and send out the corrected Routes to the Drivers within the hour.
“I do want to thank you for creating a really great product!” concluded Kate. “It has been invaluable in my planning. I can’t really imagine another way I could have planned for 44 students to get to 27 different companies in 6 vans within 90 minutes. :) Truly amazing.”Riccardo Bocci | March 19, 2012
-
Viamente goes Down Under!
We are proud to announce that Viamente, the easiest Fleet Route Planner ever, is now ready to help Fleet Managers, Field Service Team Leaders and Drivers plan optimal Route Plans in Australia too!
The maps of Australia are finally available and Viamente’s network of satisfied Users (thousand Drivers and Managers worldwide use its online/mobile product every day) is bound to expand even more.
Thanks to Viamente’s flexible monthly subscription system and its full-featured Free Trial, Users can immediately verify the benefits of the only web-based Route Planner which allows even Smaller Fleets to take advantage of a superior Routing engine at an affordable price.
For the benefit of our Aussie Users, let’s see what are the advantages they will get when they create their Free Account.
The Viamente Route Planner intuitively displays Work Orders and Drivers on a map and suggests the Smartest Multi-stop Routes and which vehicle should serve which location. The optimal Scheduled Sequences of Stops are calculated by proprietary algorithms on the basis of the Constraints set by Users (Driving Times, Service Times, Time Windows, required Driver’s Skills and Load Capacity are the most important ones).
All this computation is done automatically and in seconds, making the Multi-vehicle Planning and Dispatching process easy and effortless.
So what are you waiting? Hop on board and create a Free Account!Riccardo Bocci | February 20, 2012
-
3 good reasons why the Viamente Route Planner perfectly fits the needs of the Parts Delivery industry: LBF’s choice.
LBF, Italian company which specialises in Logistics for the Automotive industry and transport of Parts, has chosen the Viamente Route Planner because of the flexibility of its web-based User Interface and because of other unique features.
LBF found the Viamente Route Planner after searching for a Mobile Workforce Optimization tool which could generate the best possible Routes and be compatible with some very specific needs the company had.
“When it comes to planning Routes and scheduling Deliveries, sharing accurate Expected Times of Arrivals (ETA) with our Customers is of paramount importance for us” says Diego Barrera, Head of Logistics at LBF. “We deliver parts to mechanics and repair shops and our Customers build their Service Schedule relying on the Delivery times we give them”.
LBF has found in the Viamente web-based Routing Optimization software the ideal tool not only to increase efficiency, but also to accurately predict driving times, idle times and stop times; this smart Route Optimization engine calculates ETA after considering all the Constraints and specifications linked to Drivers, Vehicles and Orders.
Success in the world of Transport and Delivery is largely dependant on the above-mentioned variables, and this feature of the Viamente Route Planner is the first reason that has driven LBF’s choice: with Viamente, customers will know when their goods will be delivered/picked up with very reasonable approximation.
The LBF case highlights another important need of the Transport industry: one of the constraints which mainly concerns transporters is surely Load Capacity. An optimal Route Plan must take into account the Load Capacity of every vehicle while balancing Workload; this takes us to the second reason why LBF has chosen Viamente: the delivered Route Plans are not the result of mere geographical consideration, but come from complex calculations which contemplate actual Driving Times, Load Capacity and Workload distribution.
An easy-to-access combination of control and flexibility of the whole planning process is the third reason which has played a key role in LBF’s decision.
The Optimized Routes are designed to maximize Fleet Efficiency. However, Fleet managers may still want to be able to modify them. With the Viamente Route Planner it’s possible to intuitively modify the Stop Sequences while keeping the possible constraint violations and the Expected Times of Arrival under control.
About LBF
Founded in 1994, LBF specializes in tires distribution. The company mainly operates in the central regions of Italy, with a particular focus on Rome and the surrounding areas. Since express transport products for the tires market perfectly match the needs of the whole industry of parts delivery, LBF also organizes warehouse, distribution and transport logistics.
Riccardo Bocci | November 22, 2011
