Australian firm Premonition is a logistics optimisation firm, aiming to help both customers and shipping companies meet efficiency targets in an ever-growing consumer market. Due to a surge in online shopping, customers are demanding items faster and faster, and many shipping organisations are struggling to meet the demand.

Created by Brad Lorge and classmates at the University of New South Wales, the technology is able to optimise large job sets. It can reroute multiple vehicles in real-time based on factors including changed traffic conditions, weather, delivery windows, incoming orders and returns, vehicle capacity and a driver’s final destination.

Lorge said: “It adapts as new information becomes available. If there were a major accident or a new order came in, we could reroute an entire fleet of thousands of vehicles in a split second, if that was the right thing to do in that moment.”

The company is now working with several large clients to improve the efficiency and overall results of their fleets. Lorge claims the software has resulted in a 5% to 15% reduction in the amount of kilometres driven each day by a given fleet, while maintaining the same outcomes.

“Today, mobile consumers want to be in control, they want to see and understand what’s happening with their delivery in real time, and they want more options and flexibility about when and where their delivery will arrive.”

The app has the capability for drivers to optimise their workflow, whilst allowing customers to track their deliveries and change delivery details at the same time. This has led Lorge to dub the software “Uber for couriers”.

The team created the early version of the optimisation technology in 2011 and placed third worldwide in the 2013 Microsoft Imagine Cup. In the future, Premonition plans on working with cities to minimise traffic congestion and improve logistical management.