Have you ever had a laundry list of errands to run, then reached the end of the day only to find yourself making the same trip twice because you were stuck in traffic or didn’t plan your route efficiently? It’s a frustrating problem, and for companies it can mean exponentially higher costs, more man-hours, and increased CO2 emissions.
But thanks to Greenplan, it doesn’t have to. Their route planning software helps companies with their green logistics to make the most of their drive time. By using real-time GPS data – updated every five minutes – and easily planning routes beyond standard geographical boundaries, they can cut costs, increase on-time deliveries, and slash CO2. We asked Greenplan co-founders Clemens Beckmann and Florian Merget to share three things you may not know about their innovative e-commerce scale-up.
1. Green logistics isn’t just for freight carriers
“Big postal players and freight carriers are obvious customers for Greenplan, but there are so many applications for their technology,” says Clemens. He highlights their work for CSG technicians out on repair or maintenance calls. “With our software, they substantially improved the way the engineer’s route is planned. Before, they had around three jobs per day, per technician, and now they have six and a half. Efficient service time for technicians is now close to 80%.”
2. The solution can radically change commercial transport
Greenplan can save companies up to 30% on costs and make huge reductions to routes, vehicles, staff time, and importantly, CO2 emissions. It’s a fundamentally different approach to route planning, which is both a win and a challenge for the company. “To get new customers into the game is quite challenging, because this is a very sophisticated tool,” explains Florian. “Particularly for postal operators, they’re quite conservative and bureaucratic so it really takes time, it’s seen as a very fundamental change.”
3. There’s a shelf full of awards to prove it
One of the professors on Greenplan’s R&D team, Prof. Stephan Held, won the 2021 Amazon Last Mile Challenge, and it wasn’t a close race – their entry was 42% better than the second place winners. They’re also the proud owners of the 2020 PostEurop Innovation Award.
Greenplan is also currently running a pilot with PostNL as part of the Econnections program. They’re using their green logistics software to assess the carrier’s evening deliveries and find route planning gains that can help PostNL improve sustainability by cutting down on driving distance. Greenplan is busy with benchmarking, so stay tuned for news on what they’ve learned!
Econnections is an innovation initiative from bol.com, Deloitte, Google Cloud, IKEA, Mollie, and PostNL to accelerate sustainability in e-commerce. The program aims to reduce the growing ecological footprint of the e-commerce sector. Its mission is to realize 500 million (more) sustainable online purchases by 2026. Seven scaleups are participating in Econnections 2022; Chargetrip, Drop & Loop, Greenplan, Manyfolds GmbH, Optiply, PlasticFri® and Returnless.
