CEVA Logistics improves planning productivity 40% with AI-powered last-mile dispatching

Local first and final mile dispatch planning is complex and full of exceptions, because vehicle capacities, service requirements, appointments and location specifics add an immense number of variables to every routing plan. Every missed delivery appointment affects business operations, customer satisfaction and bottom lines, while customers increasingly expect speed, cost and sustainability together.

CEVA deployed a dynamic AI-powered last mile route dispatching tool for local pickup and delivery operations at more than 40 U.S. locations. The software is integrated into CEVA's existing transport management systems, and its AI algorithms handle the planning, consolidation and dispatching of deliveries, which frees dispatchers to focus on exception management and customer service. Machine learning capabilities support predictive analytics that anticipate where customer pickups will occur, inform dwell time assumptions for stops and identify the most efficient routes, and the technology also determines the right vehicle size.

With the tool running at more than 40 U.S. sites, CEVA reports fewer transport routes, increased cargo delivery volumes, improved on-time delivery performance and a 40% improvement in planning productivity. It also credits optimized routing with reducing travel time, fuel consumption and vehicle idling, but gives no figures for these. CEVA is now looking to expand the tool into European markets, particularly the United Kingdom and France, and is also expanding into milk run optimization of full truckload and part truckload transports for dedicated services in the U.S.

• Standardizing dispatch practices across sites is part of the payoff, alongside the route optimization itself.
• Letting the software handle planning, consolidation and dispatching leaves dispatchers to concentrate on exceptions and customer service.
• Track planner productivity as well as on-time performance, since the tool changes how dispatchers spend their time.