Problem: VU Courier Service would like to improve their services by utilizing some of the technology currently available. Efficiencies in pickup and delivery operations will save the owner money on transportation and labour costs. The business operates as follows:
Each truck will make a delivery and pickup run in the morning and afternoon. Each driver will have a touch-screen portable digital device.
This feature allows the driver to view his or her scheduled pickups and deliveries for that run. In addition, since the trucks will maintain frequent contact with the home office via telephony and Internet access, the pickup/delivery schedule can be updated in real time. The owner decides that it will be sufficient to synchronize the digital device with the home office whenever a pickup or delivery is made, rather than maintaining constant contact. During those times, the route schedule can be updated with appropriate information. In the past, customers could either call the company and schedule a package pickup or visit the company's website. Customers could log in to a Web page that allowed them to enter details about each package, such as the "deliver to" address, the weight category, and the type of service desired. Service options included "three-hour," "same-day," and "overnight". To facilitate customer self-service, VU Courier Service did not require exact weights and sizes, but there were predefined size and weight categories from which the customer could choose. After the customer enters the information for all the packages, the system calculates the cost and prints mailing labels and receipts. The system would schedule an immediate pickup or one for later that day based on the type of service requested and the proximity of a delivery truck. This information would be displayed so that the customer would know when to expect the pickup. The process of picking up packages was fairly straightforward.
However, what would happen varied depending on what information was in the system and whether the packages were already labeled. When the driver arrives at the pickup location, the system displays any package information available for this customer. If the system already had information about the packages, the driver would simply confirm that it was the correct information. Additionally, the driver can correct the address, delete packages, or add new packages. In the case of a cash customer, the driver would collect the money and enter it into the system. The driver could print a receipt for the customer using a portable printer from the van. New packages not yet in the system would be entered by the driver, who would print mailing labels with his portable printer as well. It was also necessary for customers to be able to track their packages' delivery status. A package's status must be tracked from the moment the system learns about it until it is delivered. "Ready for pickup," "picked up," "arrived at warehouse," "out for delivery," and "delivered" were important statuses. Usually, a package would follow through all the statuses, but due to the sophistication of the scheduling and delivery algorithm, a package would sometimes be picked up and delivered on the same delivery run. The VU Courier Service also decided to add a status of "cancelled" for packages that were supposed to be picked up but weren't.