The encyclopedia · R&D & Science · Operational decision · 2014–2016
Metro Meals on Wheels cut delivery driving 15% with a spreadsheet router
A spreadsheet plus free maps API plus genetic algorithm built near-optimal delivery routes, cutting driving time about 15% for a meals-on-wheels nonprofit.
Metro Meals on Wheels Treasure Valley
The solution
Metro Meals on Wheels Treasure Valley delivers food daily to people in need, and its routes were built by hand, which was slow, inconsistent and costly for a volunteer-driven nonprofit.
The team built a spreadsheet tool that uses a no-fee driving-directions API to build travel-time and distance matrices, then solves the routing problem with a modified genetic algorithm to generate near-optimal schedules.
The tool, now in regular use, substantially reduced delivery planning time and cut delivery driving times by approximately 15%, so meals arrive sooner and fuel costs fall.
Why it worked
- Free APIs and spreadsheets made the tool costless to run and maintain.
- The genetic algorithm gives near-optimal routes without commercial software.
- Shorter driving times mean meals arrive sooner and fuel costs fall.
- The method was new: building the travel matrix via a no-fee API had not been studied before.
What can be applied
For a small nonprofit, near-optimal beats perfect: a free API plus a heuristic in a spreadsheet beats a custom optimization package nobody can afford or maintain.
Aftermath
The tool became the standard planning process at Metro Meals on Wheels Treasure Valley, and the approach was published in Interfaces (2016) as a low-cost routing template for other nonprofits.
Sources
- Metro Meals on Wheels Treasure Valley Employs a Low-Cost Routing Tool to Improve Deliveries
- Metro Meals on Wheels Treasure Valley Employs a Low-Cost Routing Tool to Improve Deliveries
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