Mario Santanilla

Volvo

As an intern in the team I worked on all aspects of the project, from research to prototyping.

My Role

May - August 2023 (3 months)

Timeline

Volvo’s Innovation Lab,
Mountain View, CA, USA

Location

Designed a route planning solution that saves time, money and adds safety.

What we are building

Item is building software that makes it easier to buy (and sell) electric alternatives

OVERVIEW

Built a Route planning product that improves the operations of the refuse (garbage) industry operations. The robust system expands from the in-cabin to the back office to create a holistic fully integrated solution.

Frictionless communication

for a smooth operator

The refuse truck is the same
as it was in the 90’s!

The blind leading the blind

First research of the trucks

Day to day opperations

Eventhough the refuse industry has a very tech forward culture and is always innovating on their operations, the truck hasnt been the case.

The effect of a disconnected truck ripple into the drivers behaviour, as well as, to the opperations in the back office.

1995 Mack Model R

2021 Mack LR Electric

Market

3 players build the truck,

none of them communicate with each other.

The OEM produces the chasis, a tier 1 company produces the body that stores the garbage and third parties produce the sensors that are attached to the truck.

Competitor Analisis

The most popular route planning services for the industry cant give an integrated solution since they cant access the chasis for the most important data.

Broken Communication

Driver Insights

Since routes are handed on paper, majority of drivers do them from memory.

Very slow and manual note taking is the standard procedure during the route

Third party tools are not easy to access and produce cognitive overload

Jim Clayton - Operations Manager

“We only talk to the driver mostly during our check-ins... one at
10 AM and one at 3 PM. Between those we have to figure out changes, reroutings, new stops, everything!”

Operations Insights

Back and force between multiple
tools and drivers

Without real-time data the best solution is guessed

Pen and paper is the tool use to join the dots between the multiple tools used.

Focusing our solution

A direct communication

aided by the truck

for smooth operation.

From our research we had three main conclusions that guided how we executed the solution we came up with.

Design a solution that allows for Volvo to integrate novel technology to update the in-cabin experience

Incremental Innovation

Our solution should use truck data to make decisions faster and more accurate than the back-office.

Automate decision making

Real-time communication

It is crucial to enable a direct communication between truck and back office.

Route

Maintenance

Fleet

Operations

Route

PHASE 1

PHASE 2

PHASE 3

Route planning and GPS integration

Streamlining real-time communication between back-office and driver

Safety alerts - seatbelt, speed & tire pressure

Route planning & optimisation using real-time traffic, GIS, weather data

Pre and post inspection done digitally and updated in real-time

Driver check-in interface

Integration of maintenance interface

Feature to report bin issues

Real-time truck safety alerts using truck telematics

Route planning & optimisation using real-time data with the historical routes to generate most efficient routes

Preparing for the future

Integration of cameras to report issues and live tracking of all the functions

Integration with other platforms like billing and CRM

Safety alerts with collision avoidance systems

Predictive Maintenance using all the data collected from truck breakdown and maintenance

Leading the next generations of trucks through a digital product

A Sneak PEEK into our FINAL DESIGN

A route planning service is the best product in which Volvo can take control of the in-cabin experience, integrate technological advancements and carve themselves a bigger stake in the industry