Letter Delivery Austrian Post Office

Planning Flexible Delivery Districts

Mailman routes and delivery districts are traditionally rather static sytems. Using new algorithms from the planning tool DIALOC, a pilot project was done that to a great extent automatically plans dynamic delivery districts.

Just as other markets exhibit seasonal fluctuations, the amount of mail going through a postal system varies throughout the year. The pre-Christmas period is understandably an absolute peak, while summer vacation times tend to be low. Yet mail carrier routes are often rigidly structured throughout the year.

In order to accommodate flexible adjustments, the planning process needs not only a complete correct data base of all mail-receiving addresses, but must also attain

• a procedure for evaluating in terms of differentiated time-efficiency, and
• the greatest possible coordination between existing and adjusted delivery districts.

The number of possible solution combinations is astronomical. On an average, 25 mail carriers leave each delivery base daily on routes that deliver to up to 200 different addresses. It takes sophisticated mathematical optimization methods to master this complexity and find practical solutions.

A pilot project successfully tested ways to adjust delivery districts for synchronous volumes. A new version of the planning tool DIALOC was developed specifically for the needs of mail delivery. Its optimization method is founded on genetic procedures for location planning with simultaneous capacity efficiency using simplex methods.

LOCOM’s approach has already been adopted by additional postal services for planning projects that require managing highly complex objectives.

The Austrian Post AG is now examining widening usage of DIALOC for additional tactical and operative purposes.