CS/27CASE STUDY

ViaPlanner
Cost-Aware Route Scoring for EU Fleets

Your cheapest route is not your shortest one. A 100 km detour can cost less than the direct line once fuel, tolls, weather and load are in the math. ViaPlanner scores every plausible route on landed cost per trip and shows dispatchers the breakdown against the naive shortest and fastest options — on the Rotterdam → Munich reference corridor, −€36 per trip against the shortest route and −€54 against the fastest ETA.

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At a Glance
Capabilities
Landed Cost per Trip Scoring
Load-Aware Fuel Consumption Curves
Per-Segment Toll Modelling by Truck Class
Dispatcher Breakdown vs. Shortest & Fastest
Technologies
Regional Daily Diesel FeedPer-Segment Toll ModelWeather & Traffic Delta ModelTruck Profile EngineTelematics / TMS AdapterDispatcher Web View
Delivery Model
Scoring engine alongside the existing TMS · telematics adapter + truck profiles + dispatcher onboarding · pilot-led rollout
[01]Business Context

Dispatchers are flying blind on landed cost

Today's routing tools optimize for distance or for ETA. Neither one tells you which route actually costs your fleet the least money to drive. Diesel prices swing €0.10–0.20 per litre across a single corridor. Toll bills shift sharply by truck class — a heavy five-axle pays far more than a light rig on the same road. Headwinds and steep grade quietly push fuel burn above the spec sheet, and a loaded trailer drinks noticeably more diesel than an empty one, with the gap compounding over a corridor. None of that reaches the screen: a driver picks "shortest" because it is the only number shown.

Key Context
Fuel — diesel spreads of €0.10–0.20/L within a single corridor
Tolls — bills shift sharply by axle count, gross weight and Euro band
Weather — headwind and grade push burn above the spec sheet
Load — a loaded trailer burns materially more than an empty one
Tooling — "shortest" is the only number on the dispatcher's screen
[02]Client Needs

What prompted the project

Fleet operators did not need another recommendation engine. They needed the cost of each option made explicit, inside the tools they already run.

N/01

Score Routes on Landed Cost

Turn every trip into one comparable number — fuel plus tolls plus the weather and traffic delta — instead of distance or ETA.

N/02

Model Tolls by Truck Class

Toll cost has to be computed per segment against axle count, gross vehicle weight and Euro emission band, not averaged across a corridor.

N/03

Make Fuel Load-Aware

Consumption curves must reflect loaded versus empty running, priced against regional diesel refreshed daily.

N/04

Show the Math

Dispatchers will not take a longer route on trust. Every recommendation has to land beside the shortest and fastest with the cost stack visible.

N/05

Sit Alongside the TMS

Score every route without replacing the systems the operator already runs — a column in the existing workflow, not a migration.

[03]The Challenges

Why an expert partner was required

The hard part is not finding routes — it is pricing them honestly, from inputs that move daily, and then earning a dispatcher's trust with the answer.

Pre-Project ChallengeThe Cost Signal Is Invisible
Distance and ETA Only
Existing tools optimize for the two numbers that are easy to compute, neither of which is money.
Defaults Win
A driver picks "shortest" because it is the only number on the screen — the cheapest option is never surfaced.
Impact
Avoidable spend accumulates trip by trip, invisible to the people making the routing decision.
Execution ChallengeInputs That Move Daily
Regional Diesel Spreads
Prices swing €0.10–0.20/L across a single corridor and change day to day.
Live Conditions
Headwind, grade and congestion shift both fuel burn and arrival time while the trip is being planned.
Impact
A score computed once is stale by the time it is read — the engine has to recompute on change.
Execution ChallengeToll Models Are Class-Dependent
Per Segment, Per Class
Toll cost is the sum of segment tolls, each a function of axle count, gross weight and Euro emission band.
The Largest Avoidable Spread
Fuel dominates every route, but toll spreads are the largest source of avoidable spend between the options.
Impact
Averaging tolls destroys exactly the signal that makes the longer route cheaper.
Adoption ChallengeNobody Trusts a Black Box
A Longer Route Looks Wrong
A 50 km detour that costs less contradicts both the dispatcher's instinct and the number on their current screen.
ETA Has to Be Priced Too
On the reference corridor the recommended route trades +50 minutes of ETA for the saving — that trade has to be stated, not hidden.
Impact
The breakdown is the product. Without a visible cost stack the recommendation does not get taken.
[04]Solutions Provided

What We As Web delivered

Every trip comes down to three numbers: fuel cost plus toll cost plus the weather and traffic delta equals landed cost per trip. ViaPlanner computes all three for every candidate route, then shows the stack.

S/01

The Three-Term Cost Model

Fuel, tolls and a weather-and-traffic delta, resolved into one landed cost per trip.

Fuel cost — consumption as a function of load, multiplied by distance and regional price per litre, using load-aware curves for loaded versus empty running.
Toll cost — the sum of per-segment tolls computed from axle count, gross vehicle weight and Euro emission band.
Weather and traffic — a delta applied to both fuel burn and ETA for headwind, grade and congestion.
S/02

Live Inputs, Recomputed on Change

Truck profile, regional daily fuel feed and per-segment toll model, each refreshed independently.

The truck profile carries load, axle count and Euro band, so the same corridor prices differently for different rigs.
Regional diesel prices refresh daily rather than sitting as a static planning assumption.
Tolls are modelled per segment and per class, and the score recomputes whenever an input moves.
S/03

The Dispatcher View — Show the Math

Every recommendation lands beside the naive shortest and fastest, with the cost stack visible. No black box.

On the Rotterdam → Munich reference corridor with a 14 t load and a Euro VI rig, three routes return three different landed costs — and the cheapest is not the shortest.
Route A via Luxembourg: €487 across 1,130 km and 13 h 40 m (€312 fuel, €175 toll) — recommended.
Route B, the shortest at 1,080 km: €523 (€298 fuel, €225 toll), +7.4%. Route C, the fastest at 12 h 50 m: €541 (€321 fuel, €220 toll), +11.1%.
Fuel dominates every route, but the toll spread is what makes Route A cheaper despite being 50 km longer — and the +50 minute ETA trade is stated alongside the saving.
S/04

Integration — a Column, Not a Replacement

We score every route. We do not replace your TMS.

Telematics and TMS stay in place, supplying live truck position, the dispatch list and the truck profiles already held in the operator's system.
ViaPlanner scores every plausible route against fuel, tolls, weather and load.
The dispatcher view returns the lowest landed cost with the breakdown against shortest and fastest — delivered through a telematics adapter, truck profiles and dispatcher onboarding, with We As Web leading the lift.
[05]Results Achieved

A 50 km detour that pays for itself

The corridor figures below come from the Rotterdam → Munich reference example (14 t loaded, Euro VI) as modelled by the engine. The fleet-level findings are from pilot deployments in Q1 2026 and are illustrative of early-stage results rather than a completed rollout.

R/01
−€36 per trip vs. the shortest route

On the reference corridor the recommended route lands at €487 against €523 for the shortest — 7.4% cheaper across 50 km more distance, driven almost entirely by the toll spread.

R/02
−€54 per trip vs. the fastest ETA

Against the fastest route at €541, the recommendation saves 11.1% per trip — the real cost of buying 50 minutes of arrival time, made explicit rather than absorbed.

R/03
Lower cost per trip across pilot corridors

In pilot deployments the recommended route beat the dispatcher's default on the majority of trips tracked — per-truck savings that compound across a fleet without asking drivers to take routes they refuse.

R/04
Live in weeks, not quarters

Telematics adapter, truck profiles and dispatcher onboarding — We As Web leads the lift, and the engine runs alongside the existing TMS rather than replacing it.

[06]Technology & Team

A scoring engine that prices what routing tools ignore

Load-aware consumption curves, a regional diesel feed refreshed daily, per-segment toll modelling by truck class, and a live weather and traffic delta — surfaced through a dispatcher view that shows the cost stack, and fed by an adapter into the operator's existing telematics and TMS.

Technology Stack
Load-Aware Consumption CurvesRegional Daily Diesel Price FeedPer-Segment Toll Model (axles · GVW · Euro band)Weather & Traffic Delta ModelTruck Profile Engine (load · axles · Euro)Route Candidate ScoringTelematics & TMS AdapterDispatcher Web View (Cost Stack Breakdown)
Team Composition
Routing & Optimisation EngineeringData Engineering (fuel & toll feeds)Telematics / TMS IntegrationDispatcher UX & OnboardingProduct Management
[07]Conclusion

Dispatchers do not need another recommendation engine

They need to see why the longer route wins. Fuel, tolls, weather and load are all knowable at planning time, and together they decide what a trip actually costs — yet the only number on the dispatcher's screen is distance or ETA. ViaPlanner turns those inputs into one landed cost per trip and puts the recommendation beside the naive shortest and fastest with the full cost stack exposed.

On the Rotterdam → Munich reference corridor that is €36 per trip against the shortest route and €54 against the fastest, for a stated +50 minute ETA trade — savings that compound per truck and per corridor, without changing routes drivers refuse to take. What the pilot fleets found was that the breakdown changed the conversation — the argument stopped being about detours and started being about diesel spreads. The engine scores every route; the operator's TMS stays exactly where it is.