Google Cloud launches Optimization AI: Cloud Fleet Routing API to help customers make route planning easier

Increased customer demands, climate concerns, and higher delivery expectations from the consumer market are just a few of the emerging macro trends that retail, logistics, and consumer packaged goods industries face. To stay competitive in this environment, businesses need to improve execution, both to serve customers and to address the onslaught of logistical and environmental factors that go into delivery. Significant and pressing among those factors: companies need to make intelligent use of new technologies that not only accelerate business impact, but also contribute to sustainability improvements required in a post-carbon digital economy.

That’s why today, Google Cloud is announcing the public general availability of Optimization AI and of its first feature: Cloud Fleet Routing (CFR) API. Optimization AI helps businesses plan for the future, decide the appropriate action, and clarify the business impact; CFR specifically helps vehicle fleet operators to create accurate fleet-wide routing plans at scale.

Our customers have shared with us that they would like to send out the fleet as early as possible, allow for later cutoff times, and easily incorporate changes to plans. In addition, providing an effective action plan that customers can quickly and reliably disseminate to their fleet is a must. By intelligently harnessing the scale of Google Cloud's infrastructure, CFR can solve small route planning problems in seconds and offers batch processing that can scale up to model even very large  logistics operations.

For example, to continue improving its delivery service and leverage one of its main strategic pillars, which is to offer the fastest delivery in the country, Brazilian retailer Magalu adopted the CFR API to optimize last-mile route for same-day delivery, all while navigating a dense logistics network that involves more than 2.1 million shipments per month. 

“Google's Cloud Fleet Routing API not only helps us meet our growing demand with efficient routes, it also gives us more reliability. The Google Cloud solution allows you to calculate multiple pickups and deliveries on the same route in seconds. Thus, we improve our ability to plan routes quickly, flexibly and accurately, generating more productivity and scalability. This also contributes to more efficient costs, which keeps us more competitive,” said Talita Paschoini, IT Director at Magalu. 

It is not easy to accurately predict and fulfill competitive ETAs while making cost-effective allocation and scheduling decisions, and it is near-impossible to do so with manual planning. With our CFR API, customers have options to bring their own distance matrix or use the native integration with Google Maps to take advantage of AI-infused ETA. Sharing accurate visit times and infeasibilities as early as possible helps customers build trust with the brand. With CFR, it has never been easier to spot opportunities to reduce CO2 footprints via fuel savings, promote work-life balance by providing optimal workloads, and meet customers’ demands.

“At Instabox we have environmental sustainability close to heart - and optimizing our routes is a crucial way of bringing more value to customers while limiting our environmental footprint,” said Staffan Gabrielsson, CTO and co-founder at Instabox. “Google's Cloud Fleet Routing API improved the efficiency of our routes and reduced the planning time. Our customers are getting their deliveries faster through our increased capacity and we are reducing operating costs at the same time."

Last mile operations are fraught with disruptions: change of delivery time, vehicle malfunction, last-minute workforce changes, and the list goes on. To help our customers stay agile, the CFR API lets them reoptimize their existing plan up to 20 times a day without incurring any additional cost. This ability is especially useful for the last mile, where dynamic changes such as traffic congestion or ad hoc requests can require frequent re-optimization. As a result,  customers can use our CFR API to plan effective disruption responses worry-free, so that operators can quickly take the best action with consumers as soon as possible.

To learn more about how to get started on the Optimization AI: Cloud Fleet Routing API, check out the product page. For an integrated last mile planning and execution use case, check out Last Mile Fleet Solution to get  started. Please join us for the Spotlight session “Shining a light on supply chain and logistics” to learn more about how Google Cloud can support demand shaping, inventory positioning, and perfect fulfillment by providing the end-to-end visibility you need for optimized planning and decision making.

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For additional support, select partners have created discovery sessions, proof of value projects, and pilots to help you get started.