Rapidis Logistics Planner (RLP) Pickup and Delivery (PD) version for Demand Responsive Transport (DRT)

Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) is serving: Persons with disabilities (paratransit) Medical trips Seniors Schoolchildren Demand responsive transit is complicated and costly to operate, due to restrictions and constraints that are unique to DRT. At Rapidis we aim to make our tools for planning and optimization able to handle a wide variety of DRT requirements. We call it: Rapidis Logistics Planner

Benefits, who and how Benefits: Travel distance and carbon footprint is reduced Travel time and number of vehicles is reduced All plans meet restrictions and constraints Faster planning - complete plans in minutes 10 – 30 % cost reductions are common How to get it: Planning as a service (REST API) or Extension for ArcGIS Subscription service with little entry costs Integrates with costumer systems Who should get it: School bus operators Paratransit bus operators Municipalities with daily DRT planning Institutions planning and/or operating DRT buses Analysts making calculations prior to tenders

Planning with pickup and delivery An order in Demand Responsive Transit consists of 2 tasks – 1 pickup and 1 delivery. The trick is to combine all pickups and all deliveries into an overall plan (all orders and busses) that minimizes costs and respects all constraints and restrictions. Which one is preferable? That will depend on the actual travel times, how many passengers in each order, the capacity constraints of the vehicle etc. The figure shows 3 possible routes which all contains the same 3 paratransit orders ( pickup and delivery). A1A2 Time B1 B2 C1 C2 A1A2 Time B1 B2 C1 C2 A1A2 Time B1B2 C1 C2 Resource

The best overall plan– what is it? Bus operator Passager Family Municipality Politician Driver Institution The best overall plan meets the criteria that are important to me Service level Costs Restrictions are respected and costs kept low Not all busses arriving at the same time Not all busses at different arrival times Plans that are both realistic and logical Same schedule every day Same driver every day Minimal travel time Delivery on time As few busses as possible No empty busses Logistics Planner has functionalities that will calibrate the planning so the outcome will reflect the criteria, that are important in the specific scenario. I real life this is often a compromise between wishes from all parties involved

How the plan evolves A complete and cost optimized transport plan OD cost matrix – travel time from all-to-all locations A preliminary plan is done and the related costs are calculated Costs are minimized by swapping tasks between resources When costs for the overall plan stops decreasing the plan is optimized and ready

Cost minimizing for the best plan Drive time for busses Travel time for individual passengers Start costs for additional busses Service time Wait time for the busses Pickup or delivery outside time window (if allowed) Exciding max travel time (if allowed) Using resource outside preferred resource group (if allowed) The total costs for the overall transport plan can consist of the cost elements listed below. Each cost element can be calibrated making the plan fit most scenarios. Logistics Planner minimizes the total costs for the overall plan – that is the ”best plan” Each cost element can be scaled to fit specific scenarios. Drive time is often scaled higher than task time, which makes Logistics Planner focus on reducing drive time Resources can be individually scaled faster/slower on drive time and/or task time Planning can be forced to prefer as few busses as possible even when this results in higher total costs for the overall plan.

Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) Improve customer convenience with short transport times, late deliveries and more Mix different customer types on same vehicles Handle vehicle capacities, qualifications and breaks Logistics Planner is designed for DRT and has proven capabilities to: Minimize operational costs (number of vehicles, travel time and travel distance) Respect all constraints and restrictions Logistics Planner handles a wide variety of unique requirements for DRT and paratransit. On the following pages we will introduce some of the tools and parameters making it possible to design the actual planning to meet various needs. Among others you will see how to:

Inconvenience factors Max travel time in minutes Max travel time relative to the fastest direct route Time spent in a vehicle has a cost and will be minimized Waiting time will be minimized On-route waiting time can be limited Vehicle breaks can require empty vehicles Drop-offs can be specified to occur as late in time window as possible Passengers can avoid travel with particular passenger types and individual passengers Persons with same travel requirements can be handled as one joint order Inconvenience factors are parameters that makes the travelling less convenient for the passengers. The factors are related to the overall costs that Logistics Planner aim to keep low. As an example, the over-all costs of a plan can be set to increase if passengers spend more time travelling. As a result, plans with less travel time will be preferred.

Advanced time windows Time windows place time constraints on tasks (pickups/deliveries) Each time window has a start time and an end time Optional and scalable tolerance with scalable penalty for task completion outside time window Optional to allow tasks to only start but not end inside time window Late delivery option places task as late as possible in the time window

Breaks Logistics Planner supports 3 different types of breaks Fixed breaks with empty vehicle at any location Floating breaks will be inserted after specified period of time Idle time breaks allows vehicle to return to depot

Loads and Capacity Vehicle capacities vs loads for each DRT/paratransit order Each vehicle can have multiple capacities attached (for instance 8 seats for sitting passengers, 3 spaces for passengers in wheelchairs). Every order/trip requires one or more capacities. An order/trip could be a single person (seated), a group of persons (seated) or a mixed group passengers (some seated, some requiring wheelchair spaces).

Sibling orders When 2 persons, (brother and sister), have identical transport needs. Due to the order handling systems, this may result in 2 orders that sometimes can be carried out by 2 different vehicles. To avoid this, Logistics Planner can detect such orders and handle them internally as a single order with summed up loads and service times.

Same Location Group Planning Planning the transportation for a group of persons from their individual homes to a common institution or event arriving at the same time. Better plans can be created when taking this information into account. Logistics Planner handles both common start and end locations.

Order Groups and Rules Order groups are used to specify if persons can not travel together. Each order can belong to zero, one or more order groups. 3 different types of rules specify the restrictions. Any number of order groups and rules can be used, but once a restriction is incurred between two orders, the two persons cannot travel together. Do not mix outside order group Do not mix with other order group Do not mix inside order group

Qualifications and resource groups An order/trip can require a resource/vehicle with certain qualifications or a vehicle that belongs to a specific resource group. A resource/vehicle can have 1 or more qualifications and it can be a member of 1 or more resource groups.

Multi delivery/pickup at same location All pickup- and delivery tasks have a duration. When more passengers are pickuped or delivered at the same location the following options can be used in Logistics Planner: Duration reduction factor for subsequent tasks at same location Max total duration for multiple tasks at same location

Fixed routes (predefined routes) Rapidis Logistics Planner can respect a route that is already defined. Other orders can be allocated to the bus before and after the predefined routes. The fixed route is treated as one long task with FixedTravelTime as the duration. Either pickup or delivery can have a time window, but not both. The example shows a fixed travel time order with a time window on the pickup task. The pickup must occur between 04:00 and 04:10 and FixedTravelTime is set to 16 minutes.

New features on request Many features in Rapidis Logistics Planner are developed to meet requirements from specific costumers. All new features has been and will be added to the core Rapidis Logistics Planner.

Rapidis: Founded employees We develop software and tools for simulation, analysis and planning in transport and logistics Consultancy in the same business areas ESRI Business Partner About Rapidis History of Rapidis Logistics Planner: First version in 2007 VRP version Postal version PD version (paratransit) launched in 2013 In 2014 available as an extension for ArcGIS In 2014 available as a cloud service (REST) Leif Dahl Petersen, MSc Man. Director Rapidis Logistics ApS., Partner

Selected references Fynbus, regional bus authority planning trips (Demand Responsive Transport - DRT) In cooperation with our partner Data Power Roskilde Brand, large municipality fire department performing paratransit (DRT) In cooperation with our partner SSD – Secure Software Development Falck Teknik, planning visits for service technicians In cooperation with our parter SimaTech Dansk Kabel TV, 35 technicians doing scheduled installation together with acute service tasks In cooperation with our partner Pro-Sat Nemlig.com, online supermarket offering delivery in 1 hour time slots In cooperation with our partner Informi GIS IDDesign, chain of furniture shops offering delivery with 35 trucks + 35 subcontracted trucks In cooperation with our partner PCSYS Please ask for detailed information about Logistics Planner VRP with specific tools for for distribution and visit planning for service technicians.

Business model – the next step Partner network Rapidis Logistics Planner is sold through a partner network. To become a partner you are probably a software company already selling solutions to costumers like bus operators, municipalities and local government concerned with Demand Responsive Transit. Rapidis Logistics Planner – documentation and test access If you like what you have seen so far – perhaps it is time to take a look at the full documentation. If you like to try it out, we can provide you with an access to the service. Please contact Leif Dahl Petersen,