Presentation by Tom Cherrett (University of Southampton, UK) given at Internet of Cars symposium, 24 September 2014, Southampton.

1. USING SMARTPHONES AND
SMART SENSORS TO CONNECT
OXFAM’S DONATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
1

2. Oxfam community network

3. Localised Logistics
Man-with-van
‘Cascading’

4. The challenge & relevance to IoC
• Lack of driver ‘visibility’ & understanding
• Optimising activity & balancing workload
• Scope for being more reactive to opportunities
• Fostering greater collaboration between shops
- Can smartphones & sensors benefit decision
making in a charity setting

5. App functionality
- ios for iPhone, iPad
- Server at Uni of Edinburgh
- Smartbin banks report
03:00 and 15:00
- Banks (B), Shops (S), Other
sites (O), Driver (D)
- All sites are active
- Click on sites to view menu
- Messages appear through
push notifications

6. Understanding driver
activity
6

7. Viewing driver path
into the future

8. Remote monitoring of banks
for more sustainable logistics
8
Fill level

9. Trials – Longitudinal app trials
- 21/3 to 28/6 Watford (mon-fri)
- 3/5 – 20/9 Dorset (mon-fri)
- 5/6 to 13/9 Cambridge (mon-wed)
- 4 drivers, 3 area managers, 10 shop
managers, 1 depot manager.

10. Managing Time & Activity
- 83% of managers believed that their planning and/or
decision making had improved from knowing where the
driver currently was and would likely be
- All but 1 manager agreed that their understanding of how
time was used in the business had improved
- The app could just pass on scheduling problems to other
people unless the rules governing its use were not tightly
controlled
“It was useful several times to know he was in the local
vicinity so I could phone him and ask if he could do extra
work but I’m not sure he was to chuffed”

11. Managing Time & Activity
- 25% of messages sent after 17:00 and 19% after 19:00
- 67% of managers happy to message out-of-hours
(younger smartphone enabled managers more inclined).
“People communicated in the evenings. We are all quite
pressurised by time [during the day]”
“Sometimes one has a ‘eureka’ moment when half asleep
and you want to send a message straight away”.
- Few messages left on physical infrastructure during trials

12. Monitoring asset performance
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Net current value per visit

13. Re-appraising service needs
Suggested reductions in bank visits on the Watford round
Site Currently visited Suggested visits
Snells Wood Every Tuesday Every 3rd Tuesday
Datchet Every Friday Every 2nd Friday
Kingfisher Drive Car
40% of Thursdays 20% of Thursdays
Park
Farnham Common Every Tuesday Every 2nd Tuesday
Asda Tilehurst 60% of Thursdays 40% of Thursdays
Scope for shops adopting banks and servicing using volunteers

14. Optimising bank collections
Area 11,000km2
56 bank sites, 68 shops
Monitored 40 banks at 21 sites
Live demo (9 May-19 July, 2013)
Devised 4-6 vehicle rounds each day
- visited banks when >50% full
- fixed collection days for shops

15. Results - distance
savings
15
Total fleet savings = 1159km
= 32 km /day
= 3.2% reduction

16. Understanding activity patterns
500
400
300
200
100
0
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Dwell time for
others activities
Banks dwell
time
Shops dwell
time
Travel time

17. Quantifying the apps impact
Before & after analysis – difficult to identify app
benefits: (Oct-Nov V Mar-May when yields are
significantly greater during the former)
Before the app With the app %
Shop dwell
time (min)
18.67 15.59 -16.50%
Bank dwell
time (min)
25.83 23.40 -9.41%
Round orders did change once app implemented and
Area Managers were influenced by the real-time
information provided

18. Scope for greater collaboration
- 67% managers agreed they had collaborated more
- Lack of engagement by some members over time
- Targeting stock to specific outlets and shops sorting for each
other according to specialism could be a way forward
- Pressure to meet shop targets can work against collaboration
- Greater live visibility of stock can put pressure on drivers

19. Conclusions – IoC & ITS in a charity setting
- Live visibility of vehicles & volunteers welcomed
- No privacy issues, but drivers can become swamped with
requests & ‘back track’ on round
- Competition for prime stock advertised by driver
- Driver prediction function only used to estimate arrival times
by a few managers
- Setting area/cluster targets and use the app on a more local
level to manage cascade (sorting for others)
- Management structure not geared up for live reporting
- Ahead of its time!