Google announced the launch of Last Mile Fleet Solution from Google Maps Platform and Cloud Fleet Routing API from Google Cloud—two new solutions to help fleet operators improve delivery success and optimize fleet performance. 

The pandemic has accelerated ecommerce adoption and strained supply chains, while consumer expectations around delivery speed and visibility have reached an all-time high. At the same time, last-mile delivery is estimated to make up more than half of total shipping costs. This means last-mile fleet operators must work harder to create better consumer experiences and improve their operations. Last Mile Fleet Solution and Cloud Fleet Routing API aim to help fleet operators address these challenges through an integrated suite of mapping, routing, and analytics capabilities.  

Cloud Fleet Routing API focuses on the route planning phase of delivery and allows operators to perform advanced fleet-wide optimization, enabling them to determine the allocation of packages to delivery vans and the sequencing of the delivery tasks. Natively integrated with Google Maps routes data, Cloud Fleet Routing API can solve simple route planning requests in near-real-time, and scale to the most demanding of workloads with parallelized request batching. Cloud Fleet Routing runs on the cleanest cloud in the industry and can help carriers meet sustainability targets by reducing distance travelled, number of delivery vans, and CO2 output from computing.

Hans Thalbauer, Managing Director, Global Supply Chain & Logistics Industries, Google Cloud, said:

“The pandemic further accelerated both e-commerce and the number of deliveries, which were already growing rapidly. The increased strain on delivery networks, plus many other factors like driver shortages, poor address data, factory closures, and an increase in fuel prices have impacted delivery time and success,” said