Forty school buses, no surprise road closures

The challenge

A closure on a bus route usually reaches him as an angry call from a parent. The driver finds the roadworks at six forty, turns back, and forty children reach class late. Saeed spends his mornings on the phone, rerouting by guesswork.

How the flow works

With xMap Flows, Saeed built Pathfinder. Pathfinder is an AI employee: a flow of 6 blocks.

1. Every school day at half past five,

   School days at 5:30 (Schedule)

2. for every stop on his forty routes,

   Every bus stop (My data)

3. Pathfinder checks for closures and roadworks nearby,

   Closures near each stop (Traffic incidents)

4. keeps the routes that are hit,

   Routes affected (Filter)

5. writes each driver a simple detour,

   Write the detour (xMap LLM)

6. and posts it in the drivers’ channel.

   Drivers’ channel (Microsoft Teams)

What it solves

• Closures found too late: solved by Schedule and Traffic incidents
• Forty children late: solved by Filter and xMap LLM
• Mornings on the phone: solved by Microsoft Teams

The result

At five thirty, Pathfinder flags three closures near eleven stops. Each driver already has the detour before turning the key. Every bus reaches school on time, and Saeed drinks his coffee while it is still hot.

The roadworks still appear overnight. They just stopped making children late.

An illustrative scenario: the figures are modelled to show what the flow produces, not a customer's results.

The flow, block by block

1. 1

   School days at 5:30

   Schedule

   Starts the flow on a timetable.

2. 2

   Every bus stop

   My data

   Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.

3. 3

   Closures near each stop

   Traffic incidents

   Road closures, roadworks and other incidents on online maps right now, with where they are.

4. 4

   Routes affected

   Filter

   Keeps only the items that match a rule.

5. 5

   Write the detour

   xMap LLM

   Tell the AI what to do in plain words.

6. 6

   Drivers’ channel

   Microsoft Teams · Teams

   Runs an action in Microsoft Teams.

Templates to build it

Ready-made flows with the same blocks. Open one, change the city and the kind of place, and run it.

• Roadworks and closures near my projectsRoad closures and roadworks near each of your sites, every morning.
• Road closures near my depots, every hourClosures and roadworks near each depot every hour, to dispatch on WhatsApp.
• Where growers need a cold storeGrower areas with the fewest cold stores, scored for a packhouse, approved.
• Road closures on cash-in-transit routes, every morningClosures around each branch on today’s cash routes, before dispatch.
• Incidents near schools at drop-off timeIncidents near each school before drop-off time.
• Road closures around my key suppliersClosures around key suppliers each morning, for procurement.

Industries

Learn how it works

• How to score candidate store sitesCompare sites on residents, competitors and neighbours, with an AI score and a reason.
• Location intelligenceUsing where things are, and what is around them, to make business decisions.
• Reverse geocodingTurning coordinates into a street, district or address.
• Build your first flow in ten minutesFrom a blank page to a flow that emails you a ranked list every morning.
• Enrich a list onceA CSV of addresses or companies back with phone, website, rating and an AI score.
• Traffic incidents and road closuresClosures and roadworks in an area or near each of your places.

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