Toyota Tsusho Corporation ("Toyota Tsusho") announced today that it launched an optimized delivery planning service in November 2022 in collaboration with WILLPORT Co., Ltd ("WILLPORT") and Pioneer Corporation ("Pioneer"). The open logistics platform ("OLP") for last-mile deliveries ("Polaris Navi") WILLPORT has mainly pursued rolling out, accelerates DX in the crucial last mile delivery, to enable goods and services to reach final customers.

While the parcel delivery volume has increased by approximately 1.2 billion parcels in the last 10 years and is expected to reach 8.8 billion parcels per year by 2035, there has been a serious shortage of delivery personnel, resulting in an imminent social issue as the amount of cargo carried per driver continues to increase. Digitalization and streamlining are urgently needed, particularly in the last mile delivery, as delivery processes are becoming more complex with over 70% being specified date and time deliveries while non-digital methods are currently the norm for delivery arrangements and procedures.

WILLPORT is a startup company established in 2015 offering OLP for retailers to digitally handle delivery vehicle assignment, invoicing, and payroll in an integrated system.

Pioneer offers Piomatix LBS APIs, a new mobility AI platform service that was launched in October 2022 to help improve the operational efficiency of logistics mobility by leveraging its expertise in the car navigation system business over many years.

Toyota Tsusho has been promoting the digitalization and streamlining of logistics by working with its group companies to collect real-time location data from over hundreds of thousands of taxis and trucks since 2011, and to provide customers with connected services that combine advanced technologies such as machine learning and mathematical optimization technology.

The new service provides an optimized delivery planning service that integrates Pioneer's AI route search engine with Toyota Tsusho's connected services on smartphones and other devices through WILLPORT's OLP. The service enables efficient and labor-saving delivery processes by reducing travel distance and time for drivers and logistics companies, taking into account a variety of restrictions and real-time traffic congestion information. The service, launched in November, has been proven to reduce total delivery time by approximately 12% and total delivery distance by approximately 20% while showing more than 94% accuracy in terms of the specified delivery times.

This collaboration is an initiative that will contribute to the reduction of delivery service providers’ workloads and the development of e-commerce, as well as mitigation of traffic congestion and reduction of traffic accidents, by streamlining the delivery process through digitalization of the last mile delivery.

Under the Next Mobility Strategy, the Toyota Tsusho Group will strive to solve social issues in a more comprehensive manner by actively expanding its business with partner companies that offer innovative services, providing support for service expansion, and creating mutual synergies with existing businesses.