HelloFresh reduces costs and CO₂ with PTV OptiFlow

Sustainability at its core 

HelloFresh aims to become the most sustainable food solution at scale and are committed to providing a more environmentally friendly way to buy, prepare and enjoy food. When it comes to ingredient procurement, they’re already leading the way. According to a benchmark analysis from 2021, their operations generated 63% less food waste per euro of revenue compared to other food retailers. The arguably bigger challenge, however, is distributing the meal-kits efficiently without compromising on quality or their responsibility to the environment. 

Managing a complex delivery network 

And the key to quality for HelloFresh is delivering all the products to customers on time and at their convenience. Given the nature of the business and the need to deliver the food whilst it’s fresh, it’s crucial that routes are planned as efficiently as possible. On top of this, the narrow time windows customers can choose for deliveries adds an extra layer of complexity. With delivery slots ranging from two to four hours, orders are dispatched from 15 distribution hubs and fulfilled by over 2,000 drivers operating more than 500 refrigerated vehicles. To tackle a problem this size quickly enough requires a technology solution that can scale. 

So, in 2019, HelloFresh migrated from PTV Route Optimizer to PTV OptiFlow and the results were almost immediate. 

PTV OptiFlow for best-in-class performance 

According to Jasper van Dooijeweert, Associate Director of Transport Planning at HelloFresh, they decided to use PTV OptiFlow for route planning and optimization because of its automation, its cloud-based technology and best-in-class performance. “We recently benchmarked our last-mile technology partners, and we find that PTV Logistics continues to come out on top and outperform the competition in value and ROI.” 

The migration from PTV Route Optimize to PTV OptiFlow was also very easy. “When we still used PTV Route Optimizer it took new transport planners quite some time to learn how to best create routes and navigate their way through all the menus and settings. The user interface of PTV OptiFlow is much cleaner and simpler to understand and we have noticed that after just one or two days a planner is capable of planning using PTV OptiFlow on their own.” 

Cost savings of up to 16% 

One of the biggest advantages of moving to PTV OptiFlow was the amount of money they were able to save with more efficient route planning. As Dooijeweert explains, “we saw an immediate 7% reduction in transportation costs. With our continued partnership with PTV Logistics the past four years, we’re now saving 16% in our transportation costs. This remarkable saving is attributed to the ongoing enhancements of the product, empowering us to efficiently manage an increase in volume of orders, while continuing to improve our delivery service offering to our customers.” 

Efficiency through automation 

One of the ways they were able to achieve these efficiencies was by automating many processes that had previously been done manually. These tasks – whilst necessary – were preventing the team from working on more strategic projects to support business growth. According to Dooijeweert “Thanks to the automation of the planning process and fast optimization times using power, we spend less time on a daily basis to create our operation plan. This leaves more time for our planners to work on initiatives that improve our delivery service to our customers or strategic scenario plannings to see how we can further optimize our delivery network.” 

Even with automation, planners still have ultimate control as changes can be made manually as necessary. “While most of the planning process is automated, it still is possible to make manual adjustments to our orders or vehicles straight from the user interface. Something that we still use on a daily basis, for example [during] carnival in the south of the Netherlands recently, where we had to manually move orders to plan around the busy city centers.” 

Flexibility for workers’ satisfaction 

Another benefit of PTV OptiFlow is that it’s cloud-based, which means it doesn’t require you to be in a specific location to use it. Any last-minute adaptations to routes due to changes in orders or resource availability can be made remotely. This is good news for planners as Dooijeweert explains, “Since PTV OptiFlow is cloud based, it allows our planners to work remotely, giving them the flexibility to work from home, or at one of our distribution hubs, where they can be in close contact with the operational teams.” This in turn makes HelloFresh a more attractive place to work. “Our planners are required to work during the weekends, which turned out to be a blocker for candidates during our hiring process. By allowing them to work from home during weekends, this has become less of a blocker.” 

Happy drivers and satisfied customers 

The same can be said for drivers too as PTV OptiFlow can help plan routes that avoid high traffic areas or are awkward to navigate. “We used to have our drivers’ cross rivers by ferry. That didn’t always go smoothly for several reasons. Now PTV OptiFlow plans the routes while avoiding ferries.” They’re also able to factor in live traffic information to adapt routes on the go, “this enables us to avoid traffic jams and rush hours better than before and we can further increase our on-time deliveries. The drivers’ working conditions improve as well. Less stress, fewer mistakes and damages contribute to the drivers arriving at the customer’s door in a better mood.” 

These benefits pass on to the customer too. They have the flexibility to choose very specific time windows that fit better with their schedules, and PTV OptiFlow ensures they arrive on time. “By integrating PTV OptiFlow's predictive traffic data into our logistics planning, we consistently achieve an impressive 93% delivery accuracy, with our meal boxes arriving within 30 minutes of the scheduled time.” 

More sustainable operations 

The ultimate goal for HelloFresh when switching to PTV OptiFlow was to help make their logistics operations more environmentally friendly and, so far, they have succeeded. Firstly, they have been able to reduce the number of kilometers driven for deliveries by planning more efficient routes. According to Dooijeweert, “PTV OptiFlow has helped us lower the number of planned kilometers by over 20% compared to plannings created by PTV Route Optimizer.” It has also helped them to incorporate more electric vehicles into their network. “PTV OptiFlow has enabled us to switch to electric vehicles, by considering mileage limitations as well as charging requirements in between routes. With help from PTV OptiFlow, we now deliver 85% of our deliveries in the Benelux fully electric. Our goal is to make that 100% the upcoming years.” 

Further optimization in future 

Whilst HelloFresh has already seen great results through PTV OptiFlow, they remain ambitious. As Dooijeweert lays out “Our vision of the transportation industry is one where transportation is no longer about trying to get from point A to point B as cheaply as possible, but one where every aspect of the journey should be considered. Think about leveraging driving behavior data and weather conditions to accurately predict the range of electric vehicles and optimize the charging during or in between routes.” 
To achieve this requires advanced technology, and HelloFresh already plans to continue working with PTV Logistics to make it happen.