What happens when you let go of years of logistical habits? Sietze de Wit shares how Fruitful Office made the switch from fixed routes and drivers to AI-supported dynamic planning.
Ahead of the Logistics & Delivery Lunch Event, we spoke with Sietze de Wit, Head of Operations at Fruitful Office, about the transition from fixed routes and drivers to AI-supported dynamic planning.
Fruitful Office delivers fresh fruit daily to customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. It is a growing operation where planning routes and drivers is becoming increasingly difficult to manage with just a schedule and a calculator.
During the Logistics & Delivery Lunch Event on October 1st, Sietze will share how that transition came about and the role AI plays in it.
Before Fruitful Office started working with RoutiGo, route planning was done using an in-house system that divided the city into fixed zones. Every new customer was assigned to a zone and, consequently, a fixed route. It was practical, but with a clear downside: one route could be full while another zone still had capacity, and no one saw the logic in moving a customer across zones simply because there were too many variables at play.
“The more vans we have, the more routes, the more customers—it’s just no longer manageable. And with simple solutions like zoning, you really can’t keep up anymore.”
The switch to dynamic planning delivered immediate, measurable results: fewer routes, fewer kilometers, and fewer drivers. But the impact wasn't limited to the numbers. Drivers also received a new app, and some of their autonomy shifted into the background: while it was previously difficult to see if a driver was actually following the planned route, that is now fully transparent. What emerged was a new, more transparent collaboration between planning and the drivers—something that took getting used to for both sides.
One question had been lingering for a long time: are the planned stop times actually accurate? To find out, AI analyzed over four months of driving data, covering more than 64,000 delivery stops. It turned out that the planned times were structurally far too high; in reality, drivers took nearly half the time the system assumed.
Based on this, a new, much more accurate formula was calculated to predict actual stop times—something that would have taken weeks of manual work without AI. Reliable stop times are the fundamental requirement for automatic planning: if they aren't accurate, the system plans routes that are impractical in the real world.
This raises a bigger question: if a system determines the routes, where does human control remain? For Sietze, the answer lies primarily in clear frameworks: the more clearly you define the rules and goals for the system, the better it can work for you. If you only ask for the shortest route, the system will optimize for that, even if it means a delivery arrives late.
At the same time, Sietze believes there remains a clear oversight role for the organization itself. Leaving a complex problem with so many variables to a system means you must be able to intervene as soon as things go wrong.
For organizations still working with fixed routes, Sietze’s message is clear. In a sector with tight margins, route optimization is not a luxury but a necessity, especially as a company grows or routes change. No human, no matter how experienced, is fast or sharp enough to keep doing that manually day in and day out.
Dynamic planning is still in full implementation, but Sietze is already looking ahead: to optimizing how vans are loaded, and in the longer term, to the question of where Fruitful Office’s locations should actually be if customer demand shifts further.
During the Logistics & Delivery Lunch Event on October 1st, Sietze will walk you through how Fruitful Office made the transition to dynamic planning, what that meant for drivers, planners, and customers, and his perspective on the balance between AI-driven suggestions and human oversight.
Want to hear his story firsthand and discover what you can start doing today? Make sure to join us and reserve your spot for the Logistics & Delivery Lunch Event on October 1st.
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