Fritom cut delivery distance ~24% by planning two depots as one network

Fritom, a Dutch logistics provider with roughly €150 million annual turnover, ran two domestic freight carriers as autonomous business units, each planning its own routes from its own depot. That structure left requests crossing each other's territories and trailers returning empty.

Working with the University of Groningen, Fritom redefined the problem as a generalized pickup-and-delivery model and tested two collaborative configurations over 220 real operating days. A variable geographical division, where delivery areas shift with demand and shuttle capacity varies daily, outperformed both the fixed-division design and no collaboration.

The best configuration cut total travel distance about 24% versus separate operation and 6.6% versus Fritom's existing ad-hoc collaboration, with the variable split alone saving 202,573 km more than the fixed one.