FLOW – Dynamical Fleet Scheduling

A number of companies run a fleet of vehicles to transport goods and people or to provide some other service for their customers. They face the challenge of combining punctuality towards their customers with the greatest possible efficiency in the use of their vehicles. Predicted travel-times are a key parameter for both aspects of planning. So far, planning systems treat travel-times as a static parameter which they deduce from speed limits and street categories. This model fails to take into account common and well-known factors such as rush hours, accidents or building sites.

Optimization with Real-time Data
The FLOW-project addresses this problem and studies the potential gains that can be achieved by using dynamical, real-time traffic data. New optimization methods for vehicle routing were developed for two study-cases: ambulance routing and taxi services.