Three hundred farms, and no tanker turned back

Lena runs the morning milk round for a large dairy cooperative north of Munich. Every morning, eighteen tankers collect milk from three hundred farms. When a road is closed, the driver finds out at the barrier, in the dark. He turns back, the round runs late, and Lena spends her morning on the phone, redrawing routes. With xMap Flows, Lena built Pathfinder. Every morning at three, Pathfinder takes the farms on today’s round, checks every closure and roadworks near each one, plans each tanker’s round, and sends each driver the route, with the closures marked. At three, Pathfinder spots a closed bridge near Freising and roadworks outside Erding. The drivers have their routes before they start the engine. Not one tanker turns back, and every farm is collected on time. The roads still close. Lena’s tankers just stopped finding out the hard way.

The story in words