Vehicle Rental
Background: A Unique Operational Challenge
Vehicle rental companies face a distinctive logistical problem: every delivery and collection involves both a vehicle and a person. Unlike traditional logistics, the movement of staff is as critical as the movement of assets. If not managed carefully, this leads to:
- Staff being stranded after dropping off vehicles
- Uncoordinated collections where no one is available to retrieve the car
- Unrealistic or inefficient staff scheduling
- Excessive reliance on manual planning and last-minute fixes
As the company scaled its operations and fleet size, the complexity of planning these journeys manually became unsustainable. They needed a system that could automate the logic, reduce human error, and improve operational efficiency.
The Solution: Intelligent Logistics Coordination
We built a purpose-designed logistics coordination tool tailored to the specific needs of vehicle delivery and collection workflows. The software creates efficient, realistic daily plans for the team, intelligently coordinating tasks to ensure smooth operations from start to finish.
Key capabilities of the tool include:
- Smart scheduling that accounts for earliest pickup times, return routes, and staff availability
- Linked actions where staff traveling together are automatically grouped
- Automatic conflict resolution to avoid duplicated or impossible assignments
- Real-time logic that adapts to practical constraints like vehicle location and team movement
- Task grouping and sequencing to minimise travel time and reduce planning overhead
The system not only plans each route but also ensures that no staff member is ever left without a way to return, something that was previously managed manually with spreadsheets and ad-hoc decisions.
Impact: Scalable Operations and Reduced Risk
The tool replaced a time-consuming and error-prone manual process with a fast, accurate, and scalable system. As a result, the company can now:
- Confidently manage more deliveries and collections with fewer planning resources
- Reduce the risk of operational disruption due to miscommunication or unrealistic assignments
- Free up staff time previously spent on coordination, allowing them to focus on value-added tasks
- Enhance customer experience through more predictable and punctual handovers
This project demonstrates the power of applying intelligent automation to niche but critical operational challenges. By embedding domain-specific logic into the tool, we delivered a solution that not only works, but works exactly the way the business does.
