Route Optimisation Archives

How local authorities can use route optimisation for Home to School Transport (HTST)

Posted on: 18 April 2024

At a time when budgets are under so much pressure, facilitating Home to School Transport (HTST) efficiently has never been more important. Millions of pounds are being unnecessarily spent on passenger transportation, with limited efficiencies or cost-cutting initiatives in place through a lack of supporting technology or tools.

With spiralling costs, tightened budgets and limited capacity, local authorities are struggling to delivery their statutory obligations. So, what can be done to save costs while optimising HTST capabilities?

Most substantial challenges local authorities face with Home to School Transport (HTST)

SEND costs are set to triple to £1.125 billion over the course of a decade, according to the Isos Partnership for the County Council’s Network
Havering Council is spending £6.5m per annum on transporting 420 pupils, resulting in £2,500 per pupil
Birmingham City Council is currently spending £19.4 million on transporting vulnerable children to school
Norfolk County Council is spending £40m to arrange buses/taxis for 4,100 children with extra requirements, or more than £9,700 per child.

Local governments must find ways to:

Efficiently plan routes buses to minimise contracts and private taxis
Deliver safe and reliable service to pupils
Ensure safeguards are in place to protect vulnerable pupils
Establish communication with parents, schools and councils
Offset increasing council deficits through efficiency savings.

What CACI technology solutions can help local authorities overcome these challenges?

Pin Routes: Route planning & optimisation

As a next-generation route planning and optimisation software, Pin Routes helps local authorities plan and optimise routes for school transport. It is cloud-based, scalable software that features advanced algorithms and a state-of-the-art user interface, with functions including strategic analysis and static (periodic) and dynamic (daily) planning.

Pin Routes considers the individual needs of each child, special school requirements, vehicle capabilities, provider capacities and driver skillsets to help achieve lower costs and carbon emissions.

Pin Live: Live route management

This live route management software ensures all parties stay informed in real-time, giving parents and schools peace of mind with up-to-date information, keeping local authorities in control and simplifying the process for drivers and service providers.

Acorn: Consumer segmentation

CACI’s consumer segmentation tool, Acorn provides demographic, lifestyle and behavioural insights of pupils. Acorn unlocks detailed insights about families’ financial backgrounds which can be used to determine those pupil households who could contribute towards transportation costs. Access to this data equips local authorities with additional capabilities to better assess pupils’ eligibility for school transport while at the same helping the Council to meet with its statutory obligations.

Longer-term benefits local authorities will enjoy with CACI’s data and technology solutions

Saving operational costs:

Councils will have more time to effectively plan at a strategic level
Vehicles can complete more tasks
Pin Routes will ensure councils can undertake ‘what if’ analyses for future scenarios to uncover and implement strategic efficiencies
Inputs can be scaled up and higher volumes of transport can be supported each year.

Improve efficiencies:

Planners and schedulers can prioritise journeys quickly, effectively and on a regular basis
Transport providers can take the most effective routes between homes and schools to save on fuel, mileage and drivers’ hours
New tasks can be imported as they are booked and teams can pick these up as part of their existing plans, ensuring the right tasks will be prioritised.

Improve ESG and resident-centric operations:

Councils can be confident in delivering a consistent service to residents
Journeys will be made efficiently, reducing the spend on fuel and vehicle maintenance. Monthly cuts in CO2 emissions will also be recognised.
Enhanced scheduling and routing will increase driver and resident satisfaction as journeys are prioritised and optimised.

CACI is already a trusted data partner to the public sector and has a proven track record of delivering cost-effective, sustainable logistics solutions to organisations within the private sector. Whether through our innovative software and communication technology like Pin Routes, Pin Live and Acorn, our expert consulting services or our innate public sector knowledge and experience, we are committed to supporting your organisation in achieving its goals.

For further information on how CACI can help transform your route optimisation operations, please register here.

How CACI’s GIS software accelerates business growth for Müller Milk & Ingredients

Posted on: 6 December 2023

Background

Müller Milk and Ingredients Distribution (MMID) is a milk business collecting over a billion litres of raw milk annually, distributing it to supermarkets, convenience stores and wholesaler customers across the UK. MMID has approximately 6,000 delivery points throughout the country and runs a mixed fleet of heavy goods vehicles, ranging from 26-tonne rigid lorries to 44-tonne artics. MMID also owns six dairies and 10 distribution depots along the west side of the country.

The Challenge

MMID is a large and complex business forming several types of delivery points of varying volumes. Due to the thousands of delivery points and farms that the business collects raw milk from, gaining a comprehensive and translatable view of customers has been a complicated task. A lack of granularity into the visualisation of farms and depots had prevented MMID from innately analysing customer trends and ultimately supplying senior management with a digestible lay of the land that could enhance their decision- making and strategies.

The Solution

MMID uses CACI’s market leading GIS platform and unique data solutions to create a map of the UK that highlights where depots, shops and supplies are located. The tool equips MMID with valuable visual insight that far exceeds the capabilities of a data spreadsheet in terms of highlighting customer patterns and trends that can be presented to senior stakeholders concisely. Key findings can be translated via a map when meeting with senior stakeholders and the map can be drawn on directly to illustrate any areas or circumstances that need to be addressed.

Anthony Helm, Central Transport Planner at MMID, explained the impact that having this detailed visual representation of these countrywide locations has had on their business operations.

We recognise CACI as one of the major players in this sector and the tool as a leading solution. Our work with CACI has spanned over a decade and their ongoing support and consultancy along with the tool itself have made tremendous differences to our location planning processes and outcomes.

The Benefits

In terms of farm collection, CACI’s GIS tool has supported MMID by effectively refreshing and reviewing the boundaries between various operations. This insight enhances their planning for reducing overall costs and fuel consumption of their fleet, both of which are critical agenda points for the business to tackle when considering their carbon capture. On the delivery side, CACI’s GIS tool has aided MMID in strategically moving their customers to the appropriate delivery profile based on their geographic locations. This has bolstered the entire process of onboarding new customers.

Read the case study

You can access and download the full case study here. If you have any questions or want to learn more about CACI’s solutions, please get in touch with us.

How CACI helped DX to grow business and drive efficiencies

Posted on: 15 August 2023

About DX

DX is a well-established provider of a wide range of delivery services to both business and residential addresses across the UK and Ireland. First established in 1975, DX now provides one of the widest ranges of overnight delivery services in the region, as well as logistics services.

The Challenge

DX instigated a tender with both business development and operational objectives:

Business Development

To introduce a tool to improve the contract bidding process. The solution needed to provide:

Flexibility to model different datasets from a diverse range of existing and potential clients
Data-driven information to determine the most appropriate solution
Reliability to provide accurate overheads and costings for the business to plan
Speed to produce quality results within short timeframes to aid winning more business

Operational Use

To implement the most appropriate route planning and optimisation software to bring daily efficiencies and cost savings across multiple contracts. The operational requirements were:

Significant cost savings
Accurate ETAs
Flexibility to use on many different types of contract
Usability for numerous teams of planners

The Solution

CACI won the tender and implemented its market leading route optimisation solution. Initially it was rolled out across multiple contracts, being used by different teams of planners, as well as in solution design to support and improve the business development and pricing function. DX have now been relying on CACI for over 10 years to grow their business and keep their staff and customers happy.

The Benefits

DX use CACI’s solution in business development to model client data for each tender, improving the process and increasing the company’s win rate. James Wood, Head of Solutions says:

On a daily basis it is absolutely key to us. This is about providing efficient data-driven solutions. Gut feel backed by data becomes irrefutable.

The route optimisation solution has introduced efficiency to operations through process improvement, as well as bringing huge savings by reducing costs.

Read the full case study here. For more information on how CACI can help you optimise your operation, get in touch and one of our data experts will happily arrange a time to talk.

How CACI’s optimisation software gave Agrovista a 10/10 experience

Posted on: 12 July 2023

About Agrovista

When Agrovista, a leading supplier of agronomy advice, farming services and seed and crop protection products, wished to grow but faced unpredictable challenges when trying to do so, it became clear that data and technology would be crucial in supporting their growth ambitions. Agrovista delivers agronomic potential to their customers by helping them manage their operations more efficiently and profitably. To do this, they supply the following services:

As specialists from the business who visit farms to assess disease pressure, weeds, infestations and nutrient deficiencies to increase the yield.
As logistics and support teams that focus on the delivery of the solutions to any problems that arise in the specialists support stage, such as the provision of pesticides or nutrients.

The Challenge

Fulfilling all customers’ orders. Agrovista’s operations team wanted to further improve service levels and interactions with customers without losing that focus on core business functions.
Agrovista’s planning team was not familiar with route optimisation software. The business was also keen to avoid major changes for the team.
Agrovista needed to find a way to efficiently ship products out from their 20 depots across the country, which was particularly difficult in rural areas.

The Solution

Agrovista invested in CACI’s route optimisation software. This software was used to plan routes that met Agrovista’s business constraints, including a same-day delivery requirement. The implementation took advantage of the flexible integration options offered by the software, embedding it within Agrovista’s existing systems and automating the route creation process. This meant that compliant and efficient routes were pre-created for the planning team, all within software that they were familiar with.

The Benefits

The newly automated process for route optimisation helped Agrovista achieve several goals, including:

Planning efficient routes that adhered to all of Agrovista’s unique constraints. This allowed Agrovista to deliver all orders on time, keeping their customers happy and minimising costs.
Making software changes with minimal disruption to staff and the wider business.
Increasing the time-efficiency of the planning and operations teams.
Simplifying processes, allowing them to re-focus efforts on the core business.

As one of their top trusted suppliers, CACI’s reactivity and proactivity helped the business achieve their cost-reduction and route optimisation goals and will continue to support their rapid expansion strategically, effectively and at cost. Agrovista was impressed with CACI’s people, systems and processes, scoring CACI a 10/10 for their overall partnership experience. Going forward, Agrovista is actively looking to grow their relationship by adding other products and services from CACI’s logistics portfolio.

Read the full case study here. For more information on how CACI can help you optimise your operation, get in touch and one of our data experts will happily arrange a time to talk.

How location intelligence & customer insight optimise fulfilment services

Posted on: 3 May 2023

Nowadays, creating an optimal fulfilment service requires you to have access to sophisticated location intelligence data and superb knowledge of your customers. CACI’s Paul Dawsey and Dom Saunders, who work in the Logistics and Supply Chain business unit, presented the impact that location intelligence and customer insight have on optimising a distribution network and two examples of influential optimisation models at the Leaders in Logistics Summit on 28 March 2023.

Why are location intelligence & customer insight so important?

Having the right data for any type of location logistics solution is critical. Road network data, precise attributes and customer data are all critical parts of the distribution network optimisation process as they allow you to extrapolate the necessary details to ask the right questions and strategise accordingly.

There are several benefits that gaining these insights will have on your business’ operations, including:

Improving your understanding of and ability to inform store locations, and expand or contract store locations accordingly
Adhering to customers’ individual preferences for the delivery of products
Personalising fulfilment options and determining what works best for specific customer demographics
Enhancing the accuracy of your predictions for the length of time that drivers will need to spend at drop-off points, which will improve customer satisfaction and cut costs.

Example model 1: Network distribution modelling

To effectively model your distribution network, especially when making expensive decisions, your thought process should be backed by data. This will help you understand your customers in a way that will allow you to quantify and locate the demand that they have for your products, their consumption of your products, their collection preferences and more.

Once you have quantified and located demand, you can determine your baseline to strategically tweak the model you are building. Depending on what happens or changes in the marketplace and your sector in the coming years, and its impact on your model, you can formulate the right questions and conclude where changes need to be made.

Different customers will also present inevitably different logistics challenges. Profiling these customers will help you gauge how to better adhere to their existing and future demands. Pairing customer insight to understand demand with location intelligence to find the best locations to effectively reach your target customers will highly support the functionality of this model.

Finally, testing a range of ‘What if?’ scenarios depending on various changes your business may experience– population growth, market trends, what your market department is focusing on or how consumers will want to shop— will help you answer questions to gain strategic insights on your business’ efficiency, optimisation, costs, bottlenecks, products and services. This enables you to make recommendations for change.

When you take these answers and insights to the board for sign-off, you will have a significant amount of evidence through this model to back up your claims.

Example model 2: Delivery stop time modelling

Understanding the key factors that influence property level delivery stop times will ensure this model is created effectively. A grasp on the intricacies of property locations, households, context and vicinity and carrier data have become standard business practice for success in more recent years.

Effectively modelling property delivery stop times begins with accessing unique data feeds via customer and property intelligence data, road network and traffic data and carrier/historical customer data. These datasets can be then used in route optimisation tools such as CACI’s Pin Routes to fine-tune optimal routes, further increasing the level of optimisation. They show how dynamic the stop time analysis can be and how to consider running costs, regulations, and other impactful factors. They can also flag high traffic volume index, Acorn type, unloading duration and more to analyse existing stop times, compare delivery times, adapt strategies and conclude the optimal routes for drivers to take.

These data feeds support the development of your solution or model to produce an output of precise stop times based on customers’ addresses, enhance stop time generation and improve customer service and insights.

How can CACI help you optimise your fulfilment services?

Implementing a digital model that will showcase exactly what needs to change and improve will be paramount to running a successful, long-term distribution network. The right model based on the right data is what will help you build in the right way—gaining efficiencies, reducing costs and improving your customer service.

To find out how you can use location intelligence & customer insights to optimise your distribution network strategy, contact our team of experts.

CACI & Ordnance Survey (OS) data helped McQueens Dairies enhance their business, routing and milk delivery

Posted on: 19 April 2023

About McQueens Dairies

McQueens Dairies is a third-generation family firm that provides doorstep milk delivery. Established in 1995, they started with a single milk round in St. Andrews, Scotland. Fast forward 28 years and they deliver to thousands of households throughout the UK.

Over the last six years, CACI and Ordnance Survey (OS) data have been helping them enhance their business, routing and milk delivery.

The challenge

House numbers are not always sequential, and in dense housing areas, you can’t always drive to the front of every house. The larger distances that must be travelled in rural areas in addition to the added number of minutes per delivery from where a driver can park to a property’s front door can become costly for the business. Moreover, while the average postcode contains 15 properties, some postcodes can contain up to 100. As a result, even having the correct address does not always eliminate ambiguity. With this in mind, McQueens Dairies got in contact with OS CACI partner in 2017 with the aim of optimising their routing and reducing that ambiguity to effectively reach customers on a broader scale.

The solution

To optimise their vehicle routing, McQueens Dairies have been using a bespoke solution from CACI called StreetServicer. Underpinned by OS AddressBase, StreetServicer is ideal for microlevel routing, such as meter-reading, milk deliveries or refuse collection. McQueens selected CACI’s StreetServicer as it proved to be the superior solution compared to what the other providers they spoke to could offer, and they recognised the tremendous efforts made by CACI to ensure the project would operate successfully.

Microlevel routing from StreetServicer also informs delivery drivers on what side of the road to walk on and when to cross the road. This provides the most optimised journey possible, whether they are in their milk float or they must park it to carry out the rest of the journey on foot. StreetServicer has been supporting McQueens by equipping their drivers with the most efficient delivery routing rounds down to the exact coordinate.

The benefits

Since adopting CACI and OS data, McQueens Dairies have reduced their fuel consumption by approximately 100,000 miles per year.
30 minutes per delivery shift have been saved thanks to routes being mapped out for drivers in microlevel detail.
A significant reduction in the burden on administrative staff has been experienced, as it would have taken two full-time staff to manually route all rounds every day.

Read the full case study here. For more information on how CACI can help you optimise your operation, get in touch and one of our data experts will happily arrange a time to talk.

Understanding the impact of ESG & sustainability on businesses

Posted on: 7 March 2023

What is ESG and why is it relevant?

ESG (environmental, social and governance) is a set of measures through which a business can assess its impact on the world. Alongside sustainability, these are factors that affect every consumer and therefore businesses alike, increasingly influencing how we think, behave, and live our lives. ESG and sustainability are quickly becoming the criteria on which businesses succeed or fail, especially as we look further into the future.

Why do businesses need to act on ESG & sustainability fast?

The Companies Act 2006 requires large and medium-sized companies to publish an annual strategic report which must include information on ESG-related items, such as the business’ environmental impact, employee disclosures, social, community, human rights issues, and the company’s policies on each. In addition, the UK passed the net zero emissions law¹ in 2019 targeting net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. To reach that target, the government has pushed reporting requirements. As a result, consumers and businesses are increasingly looking to reduce any unsustainable processes and practices, which is increasingly influencing how we behave and how we live our lives.

As companies are recording their environmental impacts, individuals are becoming more aware of their own carbon footprints. In fact, 62% of the UK population² now believe that climate change is the biggest threat to civilisation. Social consciousness continues to grow as consumers make decisions on how businesses conduct themselves, and 36% of the UK³ claim that they try to only buy from companies that are seen as socially and environmentally compliant. Businesses are starting to understand that not only is acting in an ethical and sustainable manner not having a negative impact on business, but that it is a requirement to act in the positive.

So, how can CACI help businesses navigate consumer attitudes towards ESG and sustainability?

Using CACI’s ESG Score to support ESG & sustainability-driven businesses

CACI can help businesses make informed decisions to quantify and ultimately improve their carbon and social impact. The ESG Score can help businesses identify customers that are most concerned about ESG issues and support businesses in engaging with them regarding the brand’s products, prices and propositions.

CACI’s ESG Score also uncovers individual attitudes towards environmental issues, social equality and governance, and can be applied to an existing customer base to identify a business’ exposure as well as help them re-position for the future.

The resulting data helps to inform decision-making and decipher the impacts that carbon footprints have in various societal capacities and circumstances.

Carbon footprint of household + travel

A household’s carbon footprint is assessed based on household consumption – food, housing, transportation, clothing, and other personal services. It is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Leveraging the depth of our unique consumer data, CACI can assess the type of property, mode of commute, consumption behaviour and more to estimate the carbon footprint of a household. Businesses can use his information to target the right households and areas with focused messaging to help reduce global carbon emissions.

Carbon Footprint of vehicles

CACI’s route optimisation software, Pin Routes, allows businesses to create routes for visits, deliveries or collections, ultimately reducing logistics costs and improving sustainability by reducing unnecessary driving. It now also allows businesses to understand the carbon emissions or carbon footprints associated with logistics operations. This in turn can be used to make informed decisions that can help with the move towards electric vehicles.

Carbon Footprint of marketing

There is a carbon cost for all marketing activity– even an email takes up space on servers and has a sunk carbon cost. CACI quantify the carbon impact of various channels, allowing our clients to undertake a full carbon impact assessment on all of their marketing activity and identify optimum channel mix to best balance campaign efficacy with carbon impact.

Social Impact Assessment

The provision of services across the UK is not equal, with some areas having much better access to civil services (e.g. healthcare, education or leisure centres) than others. CACI has quantified the accessibility to these services at postcode level and has identified areas that require additional support. The goal of impact assessment is to bring about a more ecologically, socio culturally and economically sustainable and equitable environment. By improving an area’s social provision, businesses can promote community development and empowerment, social cohesion, build capacity, and develop social capital (social networks and trust).

To learn more about how CACI can help your business improve its carbon and social impact, contact us today.

Sources:

Enabling Advantage Smollan to efficiently deploy field force and deliver industry leading ROI

Posted on: 2 September 2022

Highlights

Field force solution that enables consistency across global markets
Helping deliver industry leading ROI
Frequent updates of the call-file is key
Important part of the tech environment helping to deliver up-to 98% promotional compliance
Consistent coverage of all geographies enabling multi-market projects

About Advantage Smollan

Advantage Smollan helps brands and retailers win at the point of purchase. It is a global provider of outsourced sales and marketing solutions for retailers and consumer goods companies.

The challenge: Create technology support for the core service, which is consistent across markets

Whilst Advantage Smollan was seeing great success with its owned Europe-wide model, many of these companies had brought their own ways of working and legacy technology with them when acquired by the group.

They needed consistency in what they were delivering and measuring across the group, to best leverage the geographical footprint.

The solution: Instrumental part of the technology stack for improving ROI

Working with the Advantage Smollan team, CACI implemented its InSite FieldForce and CallSmart solutions to help optimise sales territories and staffing resources.

The team needed to know when and how to visit stores, plus react quickly to the latest data. CACI processed the data to ensure sales calls were updated overnight and that routes were optimised dynamically, to make sure the Advantage Smollan team were able to visit the stores that had the highest sales potential.

The results: Maximizing promotional compliance

CACI have been able to help Advantage Smollan achieve their ROI targets regularly, enabling the team to do business with customers based on performance and winning business by proving that they can identify the single most efficient way to deploy field force.

Tic Nica, Advantage Smollan’s Head of Customer Technology Europe, commented: “Our use of CACI tools is critical. You can’t do this type of work in a competitive market anywhere in Western Europe without having a tool like this. You are not going to be efficient.”

The benefits: Rollout across European markets

Advantage Smollan is so pleased with CACI’s solutions that it has introduced us to its international partners.

There is a hope to expand the use of CACI solutions across all of the European companies by the end of next year, migrating all markets to the same field sales approach.

By enabling consistency across their global markets, Advantage Smollan can use group-wide KPIs and create benchmarks, which will help them focus on the stores they need to.

Continue reading the full case study

To view the full customer story click here.

To find out more about how we can help your organisation do amazing things with data, please get in touch.

Pin Live

Cleaner air, but at what cost?

Posted on: 19 October 2021

We are more aware of our environment than ever before due to an increase in greenhouse gases, holes in the ozone layer, environmentalists protesting on our roads and pollution in our cities. Despite being the 15th best country for air quality and the 6th most environmentally friendly country, our government is under pressure to show that they are trying to improve and meet the ever-stringent environmental targets they are faced with. We all know that it’s the right thing to do, but it comes at a cost to individuals and businesses as we adjust to a new way of life. However, there are ways that we can minimise that cost by being more efficient and planning ahead.

Anyone who has lived in an inner-city area will be aware of the high levels of pollution from vehicles, contributing to lower air quality, especially along busy roads. This increases people’s risk of heart and lung disease and asthma. To help reduce this, local governments are starting to introduce clean air zones where certain vehicles are either not allowed to enter or will be charged a fee for doing so. The aim of this is to encourage drivers to use newer vehicles which meet the Euro VI emissions standard, to purchase ‘zero emission’ vehicles such as those powered by electricity or hydrogen, or to use public transport.

London introduced its first low emission zone in 2008 for large commercially operated diesel vehicles and expanded this in 2012 to cover vans, minibuses, utility vehicles and more. In April 2019 an Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) was created, covering the same area as the congestion charge zone in inner London, but applying to a wider range of vehicles including cars and motorcycles.

Vehicles entering these zones have their number plates read by a network of cameras and must either meet the newer emissions standard or the drivers will be charged a daily fee of between £12.50 and £100, depending on the vehicle type.

Since the ULEZ has been launched the London Assembly claims that it has reduced the number of polluting cars driving in the zone each day by 44,000 and that toxic NO2 concentrations have been reduced by 44%.

From 25 October 2021, the ULEZ in London will be significantly expanded from central London to create a single, larger zone up to the North and South circular roads. This is an increase in area of 1,809% (21-380km2) and covers 3.8 million people, compared to the existing ULEZ zone is which covers 203 thousand people.

For drivers of diesel cars older than September 2015 and some pre-2005 petrol who want to enter this zone at any time of day, this means that they will have to pay a daily charge or have to spend thousands upgrading to a newer car. The average price to buy an electric car is around £44,000 – almost 1.5 times the average salary in the UK so this option isn’t feasible for everyone. From a personal point of view, I own a perfectly good 2011 VW Golf diesel, but as the CACI offices in West Kensington are now within the ULEZ zone, this means I’ll have to pay the charge or buy a new car if I want to come into the office.

Car drivers are not the only ones who will be impacted by the expanded ULEZ zone. Delivery drivers, logistics companies and people living in the zones will also be negatively impacted by the changes. Specifically, anyone delivering goods inside London will need to ensure that they are driving a newer vehicle which meets the emissions standards, or they will need to pay the charge. This inevitably will be passed on to customers who will be paying for living in an area with lower pollution.

London is not the only city that is affected by low emission zones. CACI have recently undertaken a study into low emission zones and have discovered that in addition to London there are five other UK cities with low emission or clean air zones currently in place, including Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Oxford, and York. In addition, a further ten cities are proposing to launch low emission zones in the next couple of years. Some of these low emission zones in these cities only currently apply to buses, taxis, or HGVs, but it is likely that they will be extended to include all vehicles in due course, as has been seen in London.

Comparing the existing and expanded ULEZ zones in London

So, if you’re responsible for a fleet of commercial vehicles, keeping the costs down and also meeting customer expectations – what do you do about it?

Based on the research into low emission zones, CACI have created a dataset of both the current and proposed low emission zones across the country. Knowing the location and extent of these zones is useful in understanding the demographic profile of people living within the areas for marketing and planning, especially as there is likely to be a greater demand for electric vehicles, cycle lanes and environmentally friendly transport solutions in these areas. CACI’s behavioural demographic solutions Acorn and Ocean can help identify households that are likely to be concerned about their environment and those who might be most affected by changes to transport infrastructure.

For logistics companies scheduling deliveries, knowing whether an address falls inside a low emission zone will help calculate any additional delivery charges that need to be applied or determine if that delivery should be served by a more modern, lesser polluting vehicle. If you need to plan for vehicles entering these zones on a daily basis but need to minimise your costs, whilst achieving your carbon efficiency targets, the dataset can be used in conjunction with your route planning software (such as CACI’s Pin Routes), so that the application can identify the roads and customer addresses that fall within the zones, and can plan the routes to minimise the cost whilst still meeting customer requirements.

As the number of low emission zones increases and we are forced to change the way that we travel, we can look forward to a further reduction in air pollution in our cities. However, the significant cost to both individuals and businesses as we change the way that we go about our daily lives is something that cannot be ignored. These environmental challenges are not going away, legislation and environmental targets are likely to become more and more stringent, meaning that we need to put in a solution now.