GEOG 850
Location Intelligence for Business

7.2 Introduction to Routing, Scheduling and Telematics

PrintPrint

 Watch this video about the Geospatial Revolution (5:13):

Figure 7.1: Geospatial Revolution, Episode 2, Chapter 2: "Powering Business"
Click here for transcript of the Geospatial Revolution video.

JACK LEVIS: Geospatial technology allows us to turn data into knowledge. When you have 60,000 drivers, if I can just reduce one mile per driver per day, that's more than 20 million miles a year. That's tires that aren't being wasted, that's 2 million gallons of fuel, that's 20,000 metric tons of carbon not going into the air, if I can just save one mile. We spend about $1 billion a year on technology to make that happen. TIMOTHY AHN: In an average day, I will do 115-125 stops. I'll travel probably anywhere from 120 to 140 miles depending on the route of that day. Some packages have to be delivered by 8:30, some by 10:30, some by noon. Pickups in the afternoon and then some special things for customers. JACK LEVIS: So our mathematicians or our operations researchers, by using the data from the geospatial technologies, use analytics and create algorithms to take this huge amount of alternatives and turn that into the route that's the best for today. SPEAKER 1: Have a good day, people. JACK LEVIS: So when a package comes in the building, we print out a label that tells us what package car it goes into, where in the car it goes, what order the driver is going to deliver it. And then we move the electronic data into the driver's handheld computer so they have that at the same time. SPEAKER 2: So it looks like the flow is pretty good. We may want to change the time on that pickup. Make that a 1:30. TIMOTHY AHN: This little device gives me a preplanned ideal way to deliver things and what my day is going to be. I look at the delivery order listing so I can envision how I'm going to do things, whether I want to make changes or whether I agree with it. WARREN CHAREST: Wrong place. TIMOTHY AHN: It's quite the tool to have. JACK LEVIS: It has a GPS chip inside of it, a communication device. So every time a driver makes a delivery we transmit up and say here's where the driver was at that moment. In the center, where the operations are occurring, they have a map and they can see every driver in their delivery territory and where they are in near-real time. So if a customer calls and says, I need an on-demand pickup, we can look and say what driver is the better driver to give it to. So she takes it, she drags it over to the route she wants to dispatch it to. Automatically goes into that driver's handheld computer and the driver says, yep, I can do it, or there's something I know you don't, sorry, I can't, sends it back. JOE SAVAGE: Telematics yesterday, phenomenal results. We had one seat belt event yesterday. Telematics helps me communicate with my workforce. --of 14 bags per driver. I have real physical data that I can give back to them that we can use for improvement in the operation. JACK LEVIS: We put sensors on a vehicle to tell us if a vehicle's backing, if the driver's seat belt's on, if they shut the door behind them. JOE SAVAGE: The biggest thing of it is the safety perspective. How about this one? I can look at the speed that they're traveling throughout the day. I can look at it whether they stop at a stop sign. Let me ask you about this one, since I got you. And I can see how far they backed their vehicle up. There was a reason why you backed out. TIMOTHY AHN: That is a 55-mile zone, and I'd just rather just stay out of the way. JOE SAVAGE: So you backed in the line to avoid the curb. JACK LEVIS: Sometimes the driver says, nope, I consciously did that. JOE SAVAGE: OK, that makes perfect sense. JACK LEVIS: And that conversation can make our people and customers more safe. When you see little red circles, that's where something's wrong with the map. It takes a human along with the software, and sometimes we have to call the best experts and that's our drivers. WARREN CHAREST: We use this tablet to plot roads that either don't go through or we wouldn't send a package car down there, there's better ways to deliver from point A to point B. We're looking for also new developments. Many times with GPS data, new developments come in, and the map just hasn't caught up with it. WARREN CHAREST: Point Sewell Road. TIMOTHY AHN: OK. JACK LEVIS: So if he brings up some readings of where drivers have driven, there's a road missing, he'll draw in the road. Everything will snap, the red dots will go away, and we've updated that portion of the map. The world changed around us, so we took all that information that's in people's heads and we put it in computer systems. And we put it all on a map. We've moved from being a trucking company that has technology to a technology company that just happens to have trucks.

Credit: Credit: from Penn State Public Broadcasting

Skim:

Consider the following questions:

In the very last statement (in the Geospatial Revolutions video), the UPS manager describes the company as one that is “an information company that just happens to own trucks” rather than a trucking company that uses information.

  1. Why do you think the UPS manager described the company in those terms?
  2. Has technology and information become more important than physical assets?
  3. Regarding the "Field Service Management..." and "Roadnet Technologies Inc." articles, briefly what process has improved dramatically between the articles written in 2005, 2011, and today?
  4. What other industries utilize logistics?
 

Deliverable:

Post a comment in Canvas to the Lesson 7.2 - Transportation Sector forum.

  • Choose one of the above questions and post your response.
  • Reply to one of your peers' posted comments.

Due Tuesday 11:59 pm (Eastern Time).
Check the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Glossary of Transportation and Logistics Terms

If you are not familiar with logistics, supply chain, or transportation terminology, a quick internet search of federal or state Department of Transportation sites provides definitions and context.

Just-in-Time supply chains rely on a system where components or assembled products must be delivered to a destination at the exact time needed. The container or vehicle transporting the goods is the movable warehouse.

Route is the manner or track that a shipment moves; including the carriers handling it and the points where carriers transfer responsibility for delivering the goods.

Routing or route planning is an optimized delivery plan to coordinate multiple destinations, products, and customers. The process calculates the most cost-effective geographic routes for delivering goods to multiple stops (nodes) by minimizing the distance and/or time elapsed. Routing maps are provided to drivers in electronic, audible, and dynamic nagivation systems with options of integrated GPS, fuel efficiency measurements, and traffic analysis.

Supply chains are the logistical management system which integrates a sequence of activities; starting with delivery of raw materials to the manufacturer along a system of nodes and chains to delivery of the finished product to a customer.

Telematics are networked electronic sensors and component computers which are integrated in an information technology system to transmit real-time data. Telematics connect vehicles on the move, road safety systems, logistics networs for asset management, electical engineering, and company computer enterprise systems. Modern technologies create the networked environment using global satellite navigation systems (GPS, GNSS, GLONASS), cellular and wireless data transmission, IoT, and intelligent vehicle technologies.