Route planning with AI support: REWE Lieferservice takes deliveries to a new level

HANNOVER, May 19, 2025 - The REWE delivery service is setting new standards in the automated scheduling and planning of grocery deliveries with NUNAV retail technology.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI), forecasting algorithms and continuous optimization ensure efficient tours with consistently high flexibility for customers. The challenges in online fresh food retail are diverse and complex: a constantly growing demand on the customer side with only partial daily and hourly planning of specific tours and volumes, a diverse range of time slots at zip code level and the optimal utilization of vehicles are just a few examples. The solution implemented by REWE Lieferservice and Graphmasters provides solutions to these challenges. The cloud-based system was developed, tested and optimized for over two years and has now been rolled out across the board. When shopping online with the REWE delivery service, customers receive suitable time slots in real time during the checkout process, which minimize kilometers and thus also emissions. The most cost-effective and environmentally friendly options are highlighted. For customers, this service primarily means an improved shopping experience without them noticing the complex optimization in the background. Daniel Lückemeier, Project Manager at Graphmasters, explains: “The innovative system makes it possible to coordinate the selected time slots of the individual customers in such a way that the stop density can be increased and the most efficient delivery process with optimal capacity utilization can be achieved.” “With the NUNAV Retail solution, Graphmasters meets our requirements in a very complex environment. We have been able to develop and roll out a route planning tool that conserves resources and, above all, offers our customers optimum service with the greatest possible flexibility,” says Sören Pieper, Project Manager at REWE Lieferservice. One of the solution's outstanding functions is automatic rescheduling in a matter of seconds whenever order data or the availability of drivers and vehicles changes. NUNAV Retail is based on the proven NUNAV technology, which uses swarm intelligence and collaborative routing to distribute traffic across the entire road network and not just on a few main arteries. This effectively prevents traffic jams, so that deliveries reach their destination faster, more reliably and in a more environmentally friendly way. NUNAV Retail goes one step further than the solutions used by many well-known postal and courier services. With a longer planning horizon of several weeks and forecasts based on historical data, it not only suggests optimal time windows in the checkout process, but also offers significant advantages in the scheduling of drivers and vehicles. This in turn enables problems to be identified at an early stage before they can have a negative impact on delivery.