Choosing planning software: 10 questions for your supplier about AI and electric trucks

If you choose planning software or a TMS now, you choose for the next five to ten years. In that time a large part of the fleet will drive electric and AI will be part of planning. Almost every supplier says it supports this. With these ten questions you see in a demo whether that is true. Always ask: "Show me, with our data."

Electric vehicles

1. Does the software calculate with the battery, per trip and through the day? Not just "range in km", but consumption per trip, depending on load, season and route, and the charge left after each trip. Ask what happens when the battery drops below a minimum.

2. Does the software plan charging moments? Charging at the depot between two trips, charging during the driver's rest, or fast charging on the road. A trip that only fits with charging in between should be spotted by the software itself. See also Charging time and rest time.

3. Does the software know what your grid connection can handle? If all trucks charge at once, the connection can be overloaded. Good software takes the available power per quarter hour into account, or works together with a charging or energy management system. See also How many electric trucks fit on your grid connection?

4. Can you plan diesel and electric side by side? For the coming years fleets will be mixed. The software must be able to make the best choice per trip, including zero-emission zones in cities.

Planning and rules

5. Does the software check driving and rest times and working hours? The EU driving and rest time rules for trucks, and the national working time rules for vans. Ask how the software shows a violation and whether it can prevent it.

6. How much slack does the proposal leave? A plan that just fits on paper leads to rushing and damage in practice. Ask whether you can set a minimum slack per stop and whether tight stops are visible.

7. Can you easily adjust the proposal? Dragging trips, splitting them, swapping a driver, letting a trip leave later. Do you immediately see what each change does to costs, battery and rules?

AI and explanation

8. What exactly does the AI do, and what does the software calculate itself? Ask which part is a calculation method (optimisation) and which part is AI. Costs, battery and driving times should come from a verifiable calculation. Let the supplier explain how the AI arrives at a proposal or answer.

9. Can the software explain why? "Why doesn't this truck do the afternoon round?" A planner must be able to understand a proposal before adopting it. And management wants to know why costs are rising. Ask whether the software can explain that in plain language.

10. What happens to your data? Where is the data stored, who can access it, is it used to train AI models, and how does the supplier comply with the GDPR and the EU AI Act? See also Ground rules for AI in planning.

Finally

Bring a real day to the demo: your own orders, vehicles and drivers, with a few tricky exceptions. That shows straight away what the software can do. And decide beforehand what you want: requirements prevent the nicest demo from winning instead of the best solution.

On the AI day you work with an AI route planner yourself, so you know which questions matter at your next demo.