Aquila lowers costs and emissions with optimized routing and field mobility solutions

For over 20 years, Aquila has provided transportation and logistics services to some of the largest brands in the world. To drive growth, they were looking to optimize route planning and adopt new technologies for navigation and customer service.

Implementing route optimization and real-time navigation

Aquila serves more than 70,000 customers in the Balkans, delivering over 6,000 orders per month. The company has 17 distribution and cross-dock centers, and a fleet of over 800 vehicles. They have made considerable investments in technology and infrastructure to secure their market position and prepare for expansion across the region. To keep up with their customers’ growing and changing needs, they needed to upgrade from manual planning to an optimization solution. Besides improving service levels, they were looking to optimize their logistics network and lower transport costs.

Improving transparency and planning accuracy

To optimize their logistics processes, Aquila turned to ORTEC Routing and Dispatch. ORTEC’s route optimizer is equipped with powerful algorithms that result in cost-efficient routes and accurate ETAs for customers. We also implemented a mapping algorithm that helps Aquila’s drivers avoid wrong turns and inefficient routes. It helps them choose the most appropriate roads for each trip. The Routing and Dispatch solution optimizes routes and dispatching for Aquila’s own vehicles and their subcontracted fleet. It provides visibility over their entire operation; acting as a logistics control tower.

We went further, by integrating a Mobile App for drivers. The Mobile App, with embedded navigation from HERE Technologies, helps 280 drivers review the details of their planned routes, and send and receive real-time updates. They can use it to register empty pallets and refueling stops, as well as on-route incidents, like delays. This provides transparency and adds to the collective intelligence behind the planning process.

“We needed an application that would work on the operational side of the business, so that if we sent a job to a driver, he could quickly confirm that he’d received it and then confirm the loading, arrival time, unloading time, departure from the customer, and other operational functionalities. Now, if a driver wants to take a certain road that adds kilometers to a trip, we can direct them to a more efficient route through the app. This allows us to save time and money.” - Adrian Pantazi, Transport Development and Projects Implementation Manager at Aquila

Keeping costs under control, while improving customer satisfaction

Besides making headway with optimized logistics, Aquila now benefits from improved customer service. We implemented a Customer Track & Trace web portal and a Cross-Docking Scanning Platform as part of their solution suite.

With the Customer Track & Trace web portal, Aquila’s clients can create and upload new orders, check their delivery’s progress, order details (including PoD pictures) and more. The Cross-Dock Scanning Platform includes a web app for Aquila’s customers to book time slots and a Windows desktop app for their warehouse employees to scan inbound and outbound pallets.

Aquila can interact with customers through this online booking platform, where the customer can see which ramps are free at any specific hour. It also offers them the possibility to see how many pallets have been loaded or unloaded on a specific truck in real-time, using barcodes that can be generated by the X-Dock platform. This gives customers greater insight into the status of their order and deliveries.

“If the customer is interested in seeing the progress of their order, they can get updates on whether it’s been loaded and when it departed. They can see the truck’s location on the map and the estimated time of arrival. This is hugely beneficial for both of us, as they can plan accordingly, or see if there will be a delay.”

With ORTEC’s solutions, Aquila has improved customer service levels, optimized daily routing operations, benefitted from cost savings, and gained visibility over the planning process.

“One of the main reasons we chose ORTEC Routing and Dispatch is cost savings, but another is making sure we stay ahead of our competition, by meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations. We’re looking forward to a long-lasting collaboration with ORTEC.” - Adrian Pantazi, Transport Development and Projects Implementation Manager at Aquila