ANWB automates and improves service personnel dispatching

The Dutch automobile association, Algemene Nederlandse Wielrijders Bond, Royal Dutch Touring Club (ANWB), provides roadside service on request to its nearly four million members. It responds to 1.3 million service requests per year. Historically, ANWB has organized its operational planning process of assigning requests to service personnel based on region; more than 50 planners, working in sometimes hectic environments, assigned the service personnel in real time. However, the association had little knowledge of how its operational planning decisions could affect the performance that its members experience. In a large business process reengineering project, ANWB redesigned its planning processes to use state-of-the-art information technology and operations research techniques. As few as 14 planners, who work at a national level, can now execute the planning processes. Service operations efficiency has improved by 14 percent. Moreover, as new competitors have entered the market, ANWB has been able to retain its high customer-satisfaction ratings and large market share in the consumer roadside-assistance market while adapting its services to market prices.