Optimizing the use of resources, especially those that have an environmental benefit, is, to an increasing extent, an extended challenge for society, especially in the logistics sector.

Due to the complexity of logistics operations, many companies face the challenge of reducing costs while being forced to optimize the use and management of resources, as in the case of energy. All of this combines not only environmental awareness and concern, but also a concern to remain competitive with other companies.

In this article, we analyze the importance of implementing actions to ensure the good use of energy resources to achieve a more sustainable future within your company.

Current Situation

The service sector, also known as the tertiary sector, is one whose economic activities are based on the distribution and consumption of goods in order to meet user demand. In turn, this sector encompasses logistics and transport as a subsector, key industries for the development and good functioning of those more developed economies.

However, the logistics industry is a sector in which there is a lot of competition and, given the increasingly specific requirements of users, the improvement of energy efficiency within the logistics process itself has become a key factor for logistics companies to continue with a tight price offer without detracting from the quality of their service.

For this reason, it is essential to implement solutions capable of integrating energy saving mechanisms into their logistics processes in order to achieve resource optimization in addition to remaining at a demanding competitive level such as logistics.

In line with this, according to statements made by Fernando López Zamora, Head of Development at EDF Fenice Ibérica, at the conference”Energy efficiency in logistics facilities” energy efficiency is “a tool for competitiveness and sustainability for companies”.

Emphasizing the fact that “today's industry must prepare to compete tomorrow. And energy and the environment are at the center of this transformation. Therefore, this preparation implies that there is a digitalization of the logistics industry with digital technologies that improve the efficiency of facilities and processes; that are committed to sustainability with efficient uses and consumption of resources; and that they invest in competitiveness to be able to produce the same thing while consuming less”.

Measures

Fleet Management System: the incorporation of specialized software for fleet management will allow the planning of shorter and more efficient routes, in addition to also achieving greater and better use of resources, since it will be possible to take into account the capacities of the vehicles, among others.

Warehouses: The incorporation of automated warehouses has established itself as an efficient solution for energy optimization because it ensures greater use of resources, both spatial and operational (intelligent warehouse management systems).

Electric vehicles: The electrification of vehicles is becoming increasingly popular thanks to a significant improvement in technology, the reduction of the final cost for users together with a lower cost of use and the absence of limitations on use (large city governments have implemented what are known as Low Emission Zones in order to restrict access to cities to all those vehicles that are the most polluting). Initiatives such as that of the company Avia, who have recently developed the EV12 model, a vehicle specifically developed for the city with 100% electric propulsion, making it an environmentally friendly vehicle.

Benefits of saving energy

With the implementation of more sustainable measures that help to save energy in the normal operations of any company, great advantages will be obtained for your company as a result:

1. Lower costs: The change in perspective on logistics operations, making it a much more sustainable sector, also bring economic benefits, since planning efficient routes will increase productivity while reducing fuel costs, among others.
2. Decrease in the carbon footprint: Thanks to new ways of proceeding in logistics, such as the use of electric vehicles or the optimization of routes, the impact of logistics operations on the environment is reduced, thus minimizing the known carbon footprint and improving the quality of life in cities.
3. Improving the corporate image: Today, organizations understand sustainability as a priority issue, and this is reflected in their value proposition. For this reason, more and more companies are taking sustainability into account in their activities and, also, as a value proposition in their marketing and communication strategies.

How can you add to energy savings in logistics? With an effective use of resources and logistics processes, such as planning more efficient and shorter routes or the use of less polluting vehicles. All of this will not only contribute to environmental efficiency but also to greater economic profitability for companies. If you want to know more about logistics and sustainability, don't miss our article about Green Logistics.

Get on board with energy efficiency with Routal Planner for 30% more efficient and sustainable route planning.

Find out how to improve logistics productivity in 4 simple steps

La productivity It is an essential indicator for analyzing the state and quality of logistics management of your company. Here are some of the recommendations that will help you increase logistic productivity of your company

Use of metrics and KPIs

To evaluate logistic productivity and process performance, the use of KPIs is essential (Key Performance Indicator). These indicators will help you measure and quantify your company's performance and compliance with established objectives. According to the article Logistics KPI: discover how to increase the productivity of your company from the technology consultancy Enzyme Advising Group, the incorporation of these parameters is an essential component in the success of any company.

It is recommended that when defining the logistics KPIs, they are developed based on the S.M.A.R.T. (Smart, Mmeasurable, Achivable, Realistic and Time-Bound) model:

• Specific: in line with your company's mission, vision and strategy.
• Measurable: Quantifying results will be key to strategy planning and subsequent decision-making.
• Achievable: define objectives as long as they are acceptable and real
• Realistic: objectives should be defined according to the capabilities and particularities of the strategy
• Time-limited: objectives with a limited period of time.

Within the KPIs, it must be taken into account which ones can be useful within each of the phases of the logistics process. This will make it easier for you to extract performance data from each department. Here are some of the most important in the different phases of the logistics process:

• Purchase and inventory: it is essential to measure the service offered by our suppliers and carry out an inventory in order to have a good organization (know the content, avoid possible errors and even reduce costs)
• Distribution: Quantifying the orders to be placed and evaluating the productivity of your employees will increase the efficiency of your warehouse
• Transportation: automating tasks related to transportation, thanks to the use of software specialized in route planning and optimization, will make the last mile an efficient and optimal process for your customers
• Order and delivery management: It is necessary to know times and quantities when carrying out a delivery service, since it will depend on increasing management and operational performance

Increase customer satisfaction

Prioritizing a stable relationship focused on customer satisfaction is the first step and an essential step to achieve success and thus increase logistics productivity.

To establish a good relationship with your customers, you must offer optimal communication throughout the process: it offers direct access, real-time monitoring of information, includes alerts, etc. It is also essential to guarantee adequate technical support: the resolution of incidents or questions that may arise quickly and effectively is essential for the satisfaction of your users. All of this will make them have all the information they may require and will help them build a much stronger relationship with your company, which will also have an impact on logistics productivity.

Optimizing resources: transport and logistics productivity

The optimization of resources when it comes to transportation is essential for the benefit and efficiency of your company, since it will help to control the traceability, trajectory and tracking of shipments. In addition, planning delivery routes efficiently and optimally will result in significant economic and time savings. Therefore, the use of specialized route planning software such as Planner, from SmartMonkey, will be a key element in increasing the logistics productivity of your company.

Design of planning systems, logistics scenarios and efficient warehouses

It is essential to have a good warehouse design, since it will have a direct impact on the supply chain and its effectiveness because this will help to manage one's own supplies properly and to greater logistic productivity.

The design or redesign of the warehouse should take into account key aspects, such as the prior analysis of the warehouse's space needs and associated areas, together with a previous study also of the expected inflow and outflow.

Do you want to know more aspects of the logistics market? We recommend that you read the article Digital transformation in the logistics sector: the 5 keys to achieving digital success to learn about the latest trends in the sector.

If you want to increase the logistics productivity of your business, join Planner and reinforce the scalability of your company.

If you're still one of the few laggards resisting digital transformation, you need to read this article. Learn about the path to logistical success

The profile of new users in the growing digital era stimulates the fact that companies are being pushed towards digital transformation (also known as logistics 4.0), in order to adapt their businesses to the new social, business and technological reality. In this way, users have adopted digital culture in their environment thanks to the incorporation of new tools, which often allow greater speed, efficiency and even user autonomy.

For all these reasons, most companies in practically any sector have already begun to adapt to this new era. This transformation triggers new business opportunities, revenues and even increased efficiency. In this way, all those companies that are successfully participating in the digital transformation process will be better positioned in the market given the competitive advantages compared to other non-digitized companies.

How to apply digital transformation strategies in logistics

Below we show you what are the most important aspects for proper business digitalization in logistics. All initiatives must take into account the particular situation of each company considering the difficulties it faces, the opportunities it has in its sector and the objectives it sets itself. Therefore, it is advisable to go step by step:

Strategy: it is very important that the company's strategy is aligned with the challenges of digitalization. Digitalization can be a very important lever in the strategy because if you only invest in technology without clear guidance, the result is usually not as expected.

Starting point and objectives: it is necessary to carry out a prior analysis to assess the current state of the areas most affected in the company due to the imminent digitalization.

Partida Budgetary for digitalization: the company's internal procedures or bureaucratisms should not be an impediment to making the investments in technology necessary for digital transformation. One of the pillars of digitalization lies in the simplification and automation of many processes, which is why it is often welcome.

Talent 4.0: it is essential to bet and invest in those employees who have specialized training in supply chain management, in addition to also having advanced skills in software and digitalization.

Metrics and KPIs: it is essential to analyze each stage and measure its results (KPI) in order to make the best decisions that increase the efficiency of our company.

LEAN method: Prototype, measure, and iterate. It is necessary not to approach the project in a very ambitious way if the company does not have the human capital with sufficient experience in this type of project. It is preferable to start with small projects that give confidence in the execution and management of change in the company itself.

Technological tools: key factors of logistics 4.0

Once analyzed what are the strategies to be implemented towards logistics 4.0, it is now necessary to know those technological tools and key factors in order to carry it out.

Cloud Computing: Cloud computing technology is a pillar of digital transformation since it allows you to store data online, thus allowing different sectors or departments to share information without the need for a software or storage system.

Management software and systems: The implementation of new technological solutions (software) that help to systematize management will promote the automation of some processes that until now were mostly manual, such as planning delivery routes. Thanks to the use of our tool SmartMonkey Planner efficient route planning is already a reality for many small and large companies, such as the case of Alfil Logistics or Pink Basket, among others. Do you want to know more about the benefits of intelligent route planning? Read the following article and discover the success in Success Story: Alfil Logistics — Alfilxpress.

Big Data: With the incorporation of Big Data, companies have the possibility of being able to work with a large volume of data in a much more strategic and analytical way, thus allowing them to more easily forecast market demands and trends or transport weaknesses and needs, among others.

Internet of Things: It allows the interconnection between the different items in the same system in order to act collaboratively and intelligently. This, within the logistics chain, represents a great benefit already implemented in a large part of the process chain.

Advantages of digital transformation logistics

Automation in logistics processes: Especially in inventory, warehousing and route planning, among other processes.

Extensive data collection across the supply chain: measurable and analyzable

Predictive maintenance based on collected data

Advanced control in all processes and digitized quality system

Management system for digital performance

Bigger and better user experience — end customer

In short, the adaptation of the logistics industry to this new digitalization is crucial for the evolution of the sector, not only because of the threats to those companies that are unable to adapt, but also because of all the competitive advantages that will be obtained by all those companies that know how to take advantage of existing opportunities.

Do you want to know more trends in the logistics market? We recommend that you read the article Green Logistics: discover what it is and how to join the current market trend to learn about the industry's latest complaint.

If you want to be part of the digital transformation and technological advances in logistics, join Planner and reinforce the scalability of your business.

Don't be left behind and join the latest trend in the sector with Green Logistics

In the last year, especially marked by the pandemic resulting from COVID-19, a new trend has become popular in the logistics industry characterized by greater environmental responsibility in terms of resource use and process management. This trend is what we now know as Green Logistics.

In a global context in which climate change is already one of the main concerns for citizens, sustainability plays a leading role in the priorities of many companies. This concern also applies to many industries, such as logistics, due to the constant CO2 emissions produced while traveling. For all these reasons, sustainability is already a key element in logistics processes, which have been forced to generate while developing new models that integrate environmental vision into their processes.

Below, we explain what it is and how you can join the Green Logistics:

La Green Logistics refers to all those efforts and actions aimed at measuring and minimizing the impact of logistics on the environment. In short, a set of initiatives to reduce the environmental impact derived from logistics activity.

According to the article What is Green Logistics and what benefits does it provide of ESIC, various solutions are proposed in the logistics industry to make it more sustainable and, in short, it can become what we already know as Green Logistics:

Delivery in bicycles, electric motorcycles, tricycles, quadricycles, as well as in electric vans and cars: The use of these vehicles would significantly reduce the emission of CO2 to the environment and would reduce current levels of pollution within large cities.

Autonomous vehicles: Mobile autonomous driving lockers that carry the package to the place of delivery, where the vehicle stops, waits for the customer to pick up their package from the assigned locker with a pin code and follow their route until the next delivery (...). In this way, CO2 emissions would be significantly reduced and the delivery of packages would be expedited.

Urban minihubs: To reduce pollution in cities and traffic jams caused by the increasing number of vehicles that enter and leave them every day, it is proposed to place minihubs within cities that avoid such journeys (...). This reduces CO2 emissions and offers a distribution solution that is closer and more convenient to the customer.

Mobile fleet management: These are computer systems that allow us to adapt the route to customer demand on a daily basis, through the use of mobile minihubs that travel to the required delivery area.

Delivery robots: The robots, made up of a wheeled table where packages can be loaded, would follow the delivery people, helping them to carry the heaviest shipments (...). This system can be very useful in places in the center of cities where road traffic is prohibited.

Benefits of Green Logistics in your company

Optimization of resources: use strategies to make effective use of resources, such as shorter and more efficient delivery routes, making better use of vehicle capacities and keeping them in good condition, among others. An example of this is the success story of the company Alfil Logistics, since with an efficient use of their resources, they managed to improve their productivity by 15% for the urban distribution of goods in the city of Barcelona.

Reduces the harmful impact on the environment: Thanks to the use of new ways of proceeding in logistics (the Minihubs urban, electric vehicles or route optimization), the impact of logistics operations on the environment is reduced, thus minimizing the known carbon footprint and improving life in cities.

Economic savings: The new ways of doing things in the logistics industry, making it a much more sustainable sector, also bring economic benefits, since the use of electric vehicles, together with efficient route planning, can reduce and increase productivity while reducing fuel consumption, among others.

Improving your company's corporate social image and brand value: Nowadays, organizations understand sustainability as a priority issue, and this is reflected in their value proposition. For this reason, more and more companies are taking sustainability into account in their activities and, also, as a value proposition in their marketing and communication strategies, as is the case of Savinco

How to join Green Logistics?

With an effective use of resources and logistics processes, such as planning more efficient and shorter routes or the use of less polluting vehicles. All of this will not only contribute to environmental efficiency but also to greater economic profitability for companies.

Join Green Logistics with Routal Planner for efficient and sustainable route planning.

If you're still managing the last-mile routes of your ecommerce with Excel or Google Spreadsheet, don't worry, you're not the only one, but you probably need some help

Our goal is to make life in the last mile a little bit easier and more efficient. But before I go into detail, let me tell you the story of Eduard at Farmily.

Farmily It is a small business that distributes fruit and vegetables at home, direct from the farmer. I am a customer myself and I can say that I have eaten the best strawberries of my life. Even better than those in my small urban garden, which hurt my little pride as an amateur farmer.

As a good entrepreneur, Eduard decided to set up his own online store and manage the entire process: generating demand, preparing shipments and delivering to the customer. I was clear that if I wanted to provide a good service, I needed to control the entire chain. You can imagine that before Routal, management was completely manual. Several Excels, papers everywhere, the odd shipment lost, nothing that didn't happen to you.

For him, just organizing the routes could take several hours a day, sometimes it was hell when one of the delivery people failed him. One day that this work was unsustainable, delaying preparation in the warehouse and impacting the quality of the service and preventing customers from repeating. For Eduard, continuing to work in that way made it difficult for him to grow and did not allow him to live in peace.

The daily problems of managing an ecommerce manually last mile

• I spent many hours planning routes.
• The preparation in the warehouse was delayed
• The performance of the routes could be clearly improved (but I didn't have much more time)
• I didn't sleep well at night

Eduard wondered if there was another way to do things. You can imagine that living in the countryside (as a family of farmers) rethinking what was established was not very common in their environment but I was clear that I needed to change something. Fast.

I agreed with Eduard speaking through the Chat, (I recommend that you use it, we have experts in last mile logistics who can help you improve your processes) and he told me that he controlled Excel and that he managed the entire company with this tool but he didn't use any other application other than email and Whatsapp to communicate with the delivery people. Every day at Routal, we see hundreds of small businesses that operate that way and suffer with the manual management of their operations. There is life beyond the spreadsheet and it's a better life.

I encouraged him to Watch a video of less than 5 minutes upon how we could help you save time in your daily life. In addition, you could try the tool at no cost..

In less than 30 minutes I had understood how the tool worked and I had my next day's schedule ready and saved a vehicle. I'll let you imagine what happened the next day.

He came back, every day. Routal Planner became an indispensable tool for their daily lives. But Eduard wanted to save himself one more step. The step of having to download files and copying cells from one file to another. From the product team, we thought about how we could help so many users who use Google's online Excel and have to carry out that process every day. At that time (and a few hours of development later) the add-on was born that integrate Google Spreadsheet with Routal Planner for all licensed customers Gorilla 🐒

And Kong 👑

completely free of charge.

This integration allows Eduard and any Google Sheets user to easily and quickly import all stops/deliveries in a schedule with just one click. What used to be 10-15 minutes of downloading, adjusting and uploading is now literally 2 clicks (open the plugin, upload to the plan you need).

In this video you can see the entire process. Sit down, get ready, because 30 seconds are very intense (of which the upload time is no more than 10s).

Try it for free!

This is the story of a traditional small business that didn't want to settle and decided to improve its daily lives. I encourage you to follow in his footsteps and not stop growing like Eduard. I leave you with the most repeated questions that our users ask themselves and that we like to help them answer.

Don't I have time?

I understand it, I share it and I am convinced of it. You've come this far and others have done it. You know you need to do something different like Eduard did. As a teacher I had when “I didn't have time to do my homework” said: Time is relative, use it properly and invest it; it will give you back much more time than it will take away.

Will it be complicated?

If you are managing your business with Excel and are able to remember each of the pages, files and how they are organized, I assure you that Routal Planner will seem like child's play to you. If we can explain the operation in just 4 minutes, it won't take you more than 20 to get everything working (and if you have any questions you can consult our documentation or let us help you in our chat).

I'm too small for all this

That's one of the reasons why many users don't dare. They always expect to be bigger, better, better-looking. In my opinion, you manage to get bigger, offer a better service and get customers to repeat when you do things right. Excel is fine when you start, but not forever. Adding specialized tools that help reduce process times, increase performance and improve delivery convenience makes companies better, bigger and more beautiful.

We have customers who started with just 3 or 4 deliveries a day but wanted to improve the service. They wanted to save time, to let the customer know where the delivery person is, to have information at all times, and much more. All of this has allowed their customers to repeat. Improving has allowed them to grow and what used to be a vehicle is now more than 10 in just one year. You can do it, too, and it's easier than you think.

What does this integration allow?

With the Routal Planner route optimizer integrated with Google Spreadsheet, we allow any company that manages its daily lives using spreadsheets/Excel to continue operating in the same way while obtaining the performance improvements of a route optimizer. Savings of more than 30% of last mile operating costs, reduce planning times by more than 80% and improve the service delivered.

Facilitating data migration further helps reduce management and planning times, making it an almost automatic process. The goal is for you to spend time on tasks that really add value to your business. Technology must be on the side of users and that data flow without any friction.

How much does this plugin cost?

Free, nothing, Free. It is part of the license Gorilla 🐒

And Kong 🦍

, so you can try it with your trial account (🤫 you only have 10 days, make the most of them).

Contact us for more details and any questions or suggestions you may have!

GManage recycling when no one has access to the recycling bins

The coronavirus crisis has had major repercussions on a global scale. From the economic shock resulting from a major financial crisis to social disruption and citizen unrest in this “new normal”. However, there are consequences of the pandemic that have not enjoyed the same media repercussion despite sharing their degree of importance, as is the case of sustainability and recycling.

An adverse effect throughout this prolonged pandemic year has been the strong demand for single-use products (mostly plastic), such as gloves, masks or protective screens, among others. The increase in this type of waste has skyrocketed and even today they pose a difficult problem of environmental unsustainability.

The decomposition of such waste in a sustainable manner has become an arduous task, since energy expenditure is high in addition to producing high polluting emissions in the incineration process. This, added to the already prevalent problem of “climate unsustainability”, could easily have led us to think of a real environmental disaster on a global scale. However, according to sources such as Eldiario.es, state that an adverse effect of the pandemic has been increased environmental awareness and an increase in domestic recycling.

According to this medium, more quantity is currently being recycled compared to previous “pre-pandemic” years, in addition to other types of hitherto invisible waste, such as those mentioned above, are also recycled. In this way, everything suggests that commitment to the environment, despite suffering such a dramatic situation as COVID-19, has occurred in an increasingly firm custom in homes, thus becoming a practice of irrepressible promotion.

And why the other heroes of the pandemic? Because despite the exponential growth in terms of environmental awareness, dealing with the pandemic situation has not been easy for recycling companies. There have been exceptional situations, as has occurred in some homes and surroundings in Chile, where it has not been possible to have suitable points to be able to recycle properly (the appropriate recycling containers were not available), which made it difficult to carry out this practice. This, together with the inconvenience of the strictest home confinement stages, posed a great challenge. Taking into account this problem, companies such as Chile Rembre have been able to find a solution. Thanks to your proposal S.O.S. Rembre, managed to overcome the obstacles of the pandemic by facilitating the practice of recycling thanks to their home waste collection service. The sole responsibility of the users who participated in this initiative was, solely, to collect all those containers or waste that could be recycled, such as cardboard, plastics, metals and glass.

Given the significant growth in operations, as each family had to visit practically door-to-door, Rembre was forced to look for a tool that would help them plan their waste collection routes more efficiently. Smartmonkey.io Planner it has allowed them to efficiently, quickly and safely manage all routes, reducing routes, fuel consumption and emissions by more than 30%, helping to have even more efficient and environmentally friendly operations. Without a doubt, a solidarity project committed to the environment that has made this crisis a more livable world.

This health crisis has shown us the importance of being able to count on a more sustainable world that must be preserved. Therefore, simple gestures such as the practice of recycling or improving the efficiency of last-mile operations can represent the necessary change towards a better planet.

We encourage you to recycle a little more and to improve the efficiency of your last mile operations in a simple way and completely free of charge with Routal Planner.

Today we bring an article that fills us with pride, we are very grateful to have met the team of Savinco and to be able to do our bit to the incredible social impact project that they are carrying out in Peru and Ecuador.

The case of Savinco Social Finance and how they create better futures in Latin America:

Most residents of rural areas of these countries face 3 problems when managing their income, the first is that There is no habit of saving which translates into a constant vulnerability because it does not generate a fund that they can access in the face of any need. The second problem is that, due to their low incomes and poor economic stability, banks and other financial institutions They deny the delivery of credits, but even when they do, we come to the third problem, which is the lack of financial education so this credit can cause more difficulties than solutions.

The mission of Savinco is to improve the quality of life of families through financial inclusion, they achieve this by providing a comprehensive solution that directly attacks the 3 problems mentioned, the first thing they do is form groups of between 15 and 40 people that function as a support network that meets once a month. These groups receive training on how to manage their finances by qualified coaches, at each monthly meeting of the group Savinco receives savings from each of the members and provides them with access to credit with better conditions than the market.

To manage all this, they use their technology. Qmobile a software that allows users to track their progress, their money movements and, above all, to make the entire process transparent.

The project of Savinco It bears the name of “Save to learn” and it opens the door for these people to achieve financial independence, but how big is this project?

These are currently the numbers:

The most surprising thing about these numbers is that they weren't enough for Savinco, they were still determined to provide more tools to their groups and decided to create Savinco Rural, a platform that operates in Ecuador to sell products between its groups. They carry tomatoes, lemons, passion fruit, corn and even honey that they buy in some groups to resell in others, creating their own market and boosting income capacity among their members.

This is when it comes in Routal, with hundreds of different locations for each group and more than 19,000 members, it became very difficult to manage product shipments and movements. Our software allowed you to Savinco optimize their daily routes in order to reach more people and bring smiles where there were none before.

We invite you to follow this beautiful project on:

https://savinco.org/
https://savincorural.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SavincoEcuador‍

If you too have a social project that you think we can contribute to, don't hesitate to contact us!

Managing deliveries is a jungle, but there are cases where there is light at the end of dense and dense nature. Today we will talk about one of them and how they managed to solve the problems they faced when launching a new division focusing on last-mile offices.

Alfil Logistics Success Story:

Alfil Logistics is a company with 20 years of experience in the market, manages more than 300,000 shipments annually and has more than 400 employees. They had the objective of growing through a new service that would offer a comprehensive logistics solution for e-commerce and decided to do so through a new division that they called Alfilxpress.

El 95% of Alfilxpress deliveries were to private homes, this was the first problem since the systems they had been using were not optimal for last-mile transportation. Another weak point they had was that they did not have real-time information about their offices and what they did have was in different systems.

In addition to these problems, they had a high staff turnover as they handled high peaks in demand and had little time to plan their routes every day. This is how their exhaustive search for a solution began to help them optimize their service, enrich information and improve decision-making.

When they started using Routal they saw an improvement of a 15% of productivity in their delivery companies, they managed to reduce the number of vehicles they used in Barcelona, improved the quality of information and thus reduced multiple errors (such as constant problems they had with delivery addresses).

15% improvement in productivity

One of the big headaches of shipping management is failed deliveries, Alfilxpress I managed to reduce them considerably thanks to the fact that our platform offers a system to notify consumers that their package is close to arriving and also allows us to link addresses with the delivery time windows selected by customers.

Another great advantage is that now Alfilxpress you can track your vehicles live, see the comments of each incident and be able to react quickly to any unforeseen event, all thanks to the visibility we provide on our platform.

Just like Alfilxpress, hundreds of customers are discovering the benefits and tools it offers Routal to be able to cross the jungle of deliveries.

We hope this article was useful to you and if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us!

In this article, we'll talk about what roundabouts and organizations have in common.. Let me start with the obvious differences:

• Un roundabout is a road construction designed to facilitate traffic flow at intersections that cross roads.
• Una organization is an administrative structure and administrative systems created to achieve goals or objectives with the support of people themselves, or with the support of human talent or other similar characteristics.

The question is:

What do a roundabout and an organization share?

Before we can answer that question, we need to understand its use. In Europe, the use of roundabouts is widespread (25,000 in the United Kingdom, 50,000 in France, etc.). In recent decades, its implementation has grown a lot. The reasons are obvious: They reduce the number of accidents, improve the speed of passage, reduce pollution and are cheaper to maintain.

Different scientific studies have demonstrated the benefits and benefits of Roundabouts front traffic lights (traffic lights go...). The question that one can ask is why a country like the United States has barely 7,000 roundabouts, when in terms of surface area and inhabitants it far exceeds all European countries?

The answer lies in the fear of change. Everyone knows how a traffic light works (even my 4-year-old daughter knows when it can pass). Our decisions behind the wheel in front of a traffic light are automatic, requiring no mental effort. On the other hand, venturing into a roundabout requires maximum concentration to avoid a collision. I still remember learning to drive and having to go through the big and dreaded Plaça Espanya Barcelona, it was almost like going into hell... and I think it still is for many drivers.

Fear of change usually causes an opinion contrary to a new proposal (no matter how many studies say that the change will improve some aspect). This reasoning sometimes reminds me of our sector, logistics. Not infrequently do we encounter people within organizations who, because of this fear of change, are unable to see the potential for improvement of a new tool or process.

Oddly enough, the opinion of the population regarding the construction of a roundabout and the use of route optimization tools are very similar. The percentage of people against building a roundabout ranges from 60%-80%. A number similar to the number of companies that decide that they are not interested in saving logistics costs by 30% through a route optimization solution such as Routal.

Imagine getting through the first call, convincing the management team and the head of operations. Queda the difficult task of convincing the end user. The one who may view your solution with suspicion and disbelief. The question that person usually asks is the following: “A tool that will make my life easier, make my work 30% more efficient than me and save me an hour a day on something as complicated as route planning? I know who will be the next to go to the strike lists...

The fear of change, combined with a fear of losing a job, generates a very high aversion to change. I don't blame them, it's natural and it perfectly fulfills the saying of “Little Virgin, little virgin, let me stay as I am”, or what is usually said in the world Tech,”If it works, don't touch it”.

In any case, I think that in a world as changing as the current one, with competition always on our heels, doing things the same way, because it has always been that way, is much more dangerous than starting to improve processes and use new tools and technologies. With clear common sense, but in the Long Run, I think or do organizations evolve and adapt or die out.

I think that is one of the main risks for organizations: The lack of talent in their teams that leads companies to not know how to adapt to new changes and condemns them to extinction. Xavier Marcet explains very well in just a minute.

In conclusion, companies able to adapt to changes, manage the talent of their teams and know how to manage change are much more likely to survive in an environment as changing and uncertain as the current one.

Xavier Ruiz — CEO

Post inspired by Freakonomics Ep 454 Roundabouts