Five riders who never sit in a closed road

The challenge

Every morning the riders set off on the same old routes. Then a road is closed in Braamfontein, or roadworks block Rosebank, and a rider sits in it for an hour. Parcels arrive late, customers phone angry, and Thabo spends his day saying sorry.

How the flow works

With xMap Flows, Thabo built Pathfinder. Pathfinder is an AI employee: a flow of 7 blocks.

1. Every morning at six,

   Every morning at 6 (Schedule)

2. Pathfinder takes the day's drops,

   Today's drops (My data)

3. checks each one for road closures and roadworks nearby,

   Closures near each drop (Traffic incidents)

4. shares the stops between the five riders in the best order,

   Five fair routes (Route planner)

5. sends each rider his route with the closures marked,

   Each rider's route (WhatsApp Business)

6. picks out the drops with a closure next door,

   A closure next door (Filter)

7. and warns those customers before they wait.

   Heads-up to the customer (WhatsApp Business)

What it solves

• Riders stuck at closures: solved by Traffic incidents and WhatsApp Business
• Late parcels, angry call: solved by Filter and WhatsApp Business
• Routes planned by habit: solved by Route planner

The result

At six, Pathfinder finds three closures. Four drops sit right next to one, so those riders know before they leave, and those customers get a new time. By noon, not one rider has sat in a closed road, and the phone stays quiet.

Thabo used to say sorry all day. Now his riders just get there.

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

   Every morning at 6

   Schedule

   Starts the flow on a timetable.

2. 2

   Today's drops

   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 drop

   Traffic incidents

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

4. 4

   Five fair routes

   Route planner

   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.

5. 5

   Each rider's route

   WhatsApp Business · WhatsApp

   Send text, media and template messages from your WhatsApp Business number.

6. 6

   A closure next door

   Filter

   Keeps only the items that match a rule.

7. 7

   Heads-up to the customer

   WhatsApp Business · WhatsApp

   Send text, media and template messages from your WhatsApp Business number.

Templates to build it

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

• Road closures near my schools before the buses leaveRoad closures near your schools sent to bus drivers before each run.
• Merchandiser visit plan for the weekEach merchandiser’s stores for the week, in the best order from the depot, around road closures.
• Road closures near my depots, every hourClosures and roadworks near each depot every hour, to dispatch on WhatsApp.
• Heat stop for outdoor work, every hourA WhatsApp heat stop to supervisors when a site reaches 45 degrees.
• Frost warning for my farmsA WhatsApp frost warning to farm managers when nights get cold.
• Road closures near the courts before hearingsClosures and roadworks around every court you attend, on WhatsApp at 6:30.

Industries

Learn how it works

• Reverse geocodingTurning coordinates into a street, district or address.
• 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.
• Get messages on WhatsAppAdd your number once; your AI employees write to you from xMap’s WhatsApp, nothing to connect.
• Plan the day’s routes for your repsPut the stops in the best order, one route or one for each rep, with directions links.
• Traffic incidents and road closuresClosures and roadworks in an area or near each of your places.

More stories from Logistics & ports

• The dock knows before the load gets warmZoe runs cold chain dispatch at a large chilled food distributor in Brisbane.
• Twenty new lockers, every one where people liveBen plans the parcel locker network for a large delivery company in Vancouver.
• Not one sofa caught in the afternoon stormGabriela runs a small furniture delivery business in Panama City, with two vans and a lot of sofas.
• Six drivers, fair shares, no door twiceYi-ting runs a small family delivery company in Taipei, with six drivers and orders from three online shops.

All 137 stories →