[oxtopus]

In one of my previous roles as a software engineer at a local, independent office supply company, this would have been a compelling idea. They ran a small fleet of leased delivery trucks, and employed drivers hourly, so as a company there is an incentive to reduce delivery costs, and the benefits. At $29 per vehicle per month, it seems like optimized routes would pay for itself relatively quickly. You'd need only to shave a few hours and miles off the routes per month to cover the cost, and then anything else is pure cost saving.

However, I think there are some caveats. Drivers were given all items at the beginning of the day with a set of destinations and a deadline. As long as everything was delivered by the end of the day, everyone was happy. Sometimes there were exceptions, and multiple trips needed to be made, or certain customers needed to be given priority at the discretion of the sales rep. Obviously, the drivers aren't interested in optimized routes, as that would cut their pay, and other factors would override the initial route decisions.

Best case scenario, the company is at a point where they are having to turn away customers, and they are able to increase their revenue by adding capacity through optimized routes.