Vehicle Routing Software Survey
Table 17
| Product | What do you expect to be the biggest change in the next two years? | Looking further ahead, what impact will drones and/or driverless vehicles have on VR software vendors? |
| ClearD Optima | Artificial intelligence apply to routing and planning | Planning will probably not change but more intelligent systems will need to be created to interact with them for execution. |
| DISC | ||
| Intelligent Routing | Company control of cloud based data. Companies look for the simplicity and scalability of cloud based services technology but would like to stay in control of their data. Self hosting is one traditional option, but does not scale well for smaller companies. With services platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) the option of self hosting is now extended to the additional option of full data control without the need of IT infrastructure. This allows for deployments where companies can stay in control of their data on a single platform while running the latest SaaS optimisation solution. | Driverless technology will be subject to the same constraints in the transport network as a human driver. Good savings opportunities come with shifting solutions in the time domain. The main advantage is that drive-time constraints and other human constraint factors can be improved. For driverless vehicles existing algorithms would be able to find new optimisations that may be infeasible at the moment. |
| JOpt | We expect to see more expert systems for specific functionalities. Automatic tour planning and optimization will become more and more just one component next to others in integrated ERP solutions. | Automatic driving will require more and precise tour planning which will rely solely on computer based solutions instead of manual processes. |
| ODL Studio | If drones / driverless vehicles deliveries do become mass market, the routing problem is essentially the same but will likely require new constraints / customisations. | |
| OptimoRoute | ||
| Optrak4 | Potential consolidation of vendors through acquisition | Drones are marginal (outside of small parcel deliveries). Driverless vehicles dependant on adoption rate; bigger consideration in short term is 'platooning' and the associated additional algorithmic challenges. For multi-drop work, robotised deliveries are a long way off. Until then, personnel (drivers, crew) are still essential for completing delivery process. |
| Routist | ||
| Routyn | Optimization of larger parts of the supply-chain simultaneously from the salesperson routes to the sourcing and warehousing and to the long-haul transportation and final mile delivery. | Drones and driverless vehicles will add new constraints to existing systems but its impact will be minimal. Other future changes will have much bigger impact. |
| Scientific Logistics Cloud-based Route Optimization | Highly automated planning | Unclear |
| StreetSync Pro | Regulatory changes, real-time routing requirements and expectations, continued move to cloud computing and mobile tools. |
Vehicle Routing Software Survey Pages:
Introduction | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8| Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | Page 13 | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 | Page 17 | Vendor List | Accompanying article