Bikes at every dock on the hottest day
Lars runs operations for a big city bike share in Copenhagen.
Listen to the story:
The challenge
On sunny days everyone rides to the harbour baths and Amager Strand. By noon those docks are full, while Norrebro has no bikes left. His van crew starts each morning guessing which docks to fill, and by the time they know, the sun has gone in.
How the flow works
With xMap Flows, Lars built Balance. Balance is an AI employee: a flow of 7 blocks.
Every morning at five,
Every morning at 5 (Schedule)
Balance reads how many bikes are in every dock,
Bikes in each dock (My data)
checks today's forecast at each one,
Sun or rain today (Weather forecast)
works out each dock's shortfall with the team's own sunny day rules,
Bikes needed by noon (Custom code)
keeps the docks that will run short,
Docks running short (Filter)
plans the van's loop from the depot,
The van's loop (Route planner)
and sends it to the crew's phones.
To the van crew (Telegram Bot)
What it solves
- Empty docks by noon: solved by Custom code and Filter
- Van crew guessing: solved by Route planner and Telegram Bot
- Sunny days missed: solved by Weather forecast
The result
On a hot Saturday, Balance sees twenty six degrees coming and twenty two docks that will be empty by eleven. The vans leave at six with the loop planned and move four hundred bikes back into the city. Riders find a bike at every dock all day.
Lars's crew stopped chasing the sunshine. Now they get there before it.
An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.
The flow, block by block
- 1
- 2
Bikes in each dock
Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.
- 3
Sun or rain today
The weather forecast (Open-Meteo, from national weather services) for up to 16 days: temperature, rain, wind and UV.
- 4
Bikes needed by noon
Your own JavaScript, for what the other blocks cannot do: change, add or drop fields, filter and reshape the items.
- 5
- 6
The van's loop
Puts the places that reach it in the best order to visit them in a day, from a start you pick: one route, one for each rep (by a field such as owner), or shared out between a number of reps.
- 7
Templates to build it
Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.
- High UV days: advice for my clinics' patientsOn high UV days, a short sun safety tip for each clinic's patients.
- Heat stop for outdoor work, every hourA WhatsApp heat stop to supervisors when a site reaches 45 degrees.
- Wind alert for crane liftsA Slack alert to stop crane lifts when strong wind is forecast.
- Frost warning for my farmsA WhatsApp frost warning to farm managers when nights get cold.
- Weather-driven promotions per storeA promotion idea for each store when heat or rain is coming.
- Heavy rain at my properties, with a checklistAn alert to facilities when heavy rain is coming at your properties.
Industries
Learn how it works
- Territory planningDividing a market into areas for reps or teams.
- Route planningPutting a day's visits into a good order, for one rep or several.
- Data enrichmentAdding details to records you already have.
- Plan the day’s routes for your repsPut the stops in the best order, one route or one for each rep, with directions links.
- Weather forecastUp to 16 days for each place or city.
- Your own tables and lists (My data)Upload a CSV, save lists of results, and use them in flows.
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Build this flow on your own city
Run a live search on the home page without an account, or let Ask xMap build the flow from one sentence.