Societal impact with Transvision: CQM ensures more efficient Valys taxi transport
Hundreds of thousands of Dutch people are eligible for subsidized transport. Why? Because they can no longer arrange their own transport independently. Think of people with a chronic illness, mobility limitations or the elderly. 'Valys' arranges taxi transport for them over a longer distance. This is carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport by Transvision, an expert in providing (specialist) passenger transport. Transvision has the important task of properly planning all Valys taxi rides – approximately 5,000 on a 'normal' day to 15,000 on a 'special' day such as Christmas Day. The more than a hundred local carriers that drive for Valys, in combination with the longer distance journeys, make planning a complex and challenging task. With efficient transport planning for Transvision, CQM achieved a significant reduction in the number of kilometers driven and an increase in customer satisfaction. A case with social impact... You can read all about it here!
Strong reduction
empty kilometers
30 min.
optimal daily schedule
Higher
customer satisfaction
Laurens van Remortele is CEO at Transvision. He is committed to sustainability within and across the entire organization and aims to make a significant contribution to society. He works with CQM to optimize Valys' complex transport planning puzzle.
Planning Valys taxi transport more efficiently
“We wanted to plan Valys taxi transport more efficiently. This was necessary because – before we had CQM’s taxi combination algorithm – planning was handled by the carriers themselves. This means that the carriers scheduled their own trips based on the supply in their own postal code area. For example, this regularly resulted in a long trip to Groningen, where they drove back ‘empty’, without a customer. To prevent this, they could check via our site whether a ride was available to ‘take back’. To do this, they contacted other carriers to potentially swap trips. You can probably imagine that this requires a lot of preparatory work, involving various phone calls and careful thought to arrive at the desired route. We at Transvision thought that this could be done better,” says Laurens.
Automatic scheduling
“The taxi combination algorithm plans and optimizes automatically, as you might expect. The idea behind it? Better vehicle utilization, driving fewer kilometers, being more punctual, and having more satisfied customers. We succeeded! We used location intelligence from our partner Geodan for this, which provides map data with accurate road speeds and converts addresses into coordinates. That input is crucial for calculating distances and coordinates with our state-of-the-art algorithms,” Peter Hulsen (partner at CQM) chimes in, responding to Laurens.
Sustainability through CO₂ reduction
Laurens: “At Transvision, sustainability is high on our priority list. Driving fewer kilometers means lower CO₂ emissions. We achieve this by optimizing occupancy. Valys is a fantastic, socially responsible product supported by the national government. With the taxi combination algorithm, transport becomes more predictable, leading to higher customer satisfaction. Ultimately, we also hope to be able to deploy the algorithm for other modes of transport, such as seated patient transport. So that we can make significant progress there as well.”
A lot of data and rules in transport planning
Peter Hulsen: “The Transvision project is and remains challenging because the world is constantly changing. An example is the introduction of daytime speed limits on highways in the Netherlands. In addition, you have to deal with many stakeholders, such as passengers, taxi operators, the government, and Transvision itself. All of this influences the ability to plan transport effectively. Before the introduction of the taxi combination algorithm, planners at around 80 different locations were working on this complex puzzle, which sometimes took half a day to a full day to develop a plan, and where ‘empty’ kilometers were still being driven. With the algorithm, this calculation time has been reduced to half an hour. The planner determines the optimal route with the highest occupancy, the fewest kilometers, and takes into account all the aforementioned stakeholders.”
Going further together than the question
A 'you ask, we deliver' mentality is convenient. But every now and then, it is necessary to hit the brakes or to shift into high gear. That is what CQM does.
Laurens van RemorteleCEO, Transvision
Higher customer satisfaction
“I am therefore incredibly pleased with the final result. In addition to reducing the number of kilometers and thereby reducing emissions, drivers are given the opportunity to do what makes them happy: taking customers to their desired destination without complaints. After all, they are the customers' first point of contact, so all experiences are conveyed to them. Now these are mainly positive messages; passenger satisfaction has increased enormously,” says Laurens.
No friction, no shine
Laurens concludes: “I think it is really incredibly cool that we managed to translate the technical idea we had in our heads into practice. We were already thinking about such a taxi combination algorithm at Transvision back in 2008. In 2016, we launched a ‘planner race’ in which various parties could pitch their ideas, and CQM won this competition. CQMers don’t simply deliver what is asked for, but ask follow-up questions. They never just start on an assignment without thinking, and they dare to engage in discussion. A ‘you ask, we deliver’ mentality is easy. But every now and then, it is precisely necessary to hit the brakes or to shift into high gear. That is what CQM does. No friction, no shine; that is what partnerships are all about!”
The Transvision project was realized using the route planning service CQMaps. This tool calculates all distances between large numbers of locations in a very short time.
