Parcel Simulator

Dispatcher challenge · Dar es Salaam · Tuesday

Run the day from 07:00 to 20:00

A simulated working day; timetables and services are illustrative.

Get parcels onto today's departures to Dodoma: the 12:40 flight, the 13:00 bus, the 16:00 lorry and the 18:55 SGR. Safiri hands every parcel over at the operator's office, which takes parcels any time until an hour before departure. Same-city parcels are due by 20:00. A parcel that misses today goes on tomorrow morning's first departure, still inside the 24–48 hour delivery promise, so nobody is compensated. The day is scored on how many parcels left today, and on profit.

• One trike does every run, in three slots: A 07:00–11:30, B 11:30–16:00 and C 16:00–20:00, which also does the evening drop-offs. A loop can hand over at any office it reaches before the cut-off: slot A can reach all four, B the lorry and the SGR, C only the SGR. Each loop collects, hands over and drops off, then the trike waits at base for the next slot. Large parcels go on the trike or a smart car.
• The planner handles the routine. Home bookings join the slot the sender picked, and wakala and locker drops join the next slot that visits. A slot locks two hours before it starts, and any parcel that would make its loop run past the slot's end or miss a cut-off comes to you.
• You handle the rest: express orders, late bookings, failed pickups, rain and a puncture. Move a parcel to an open slot, send a smart rider (a marketplace rider, who takes jobs 07:00–20:00; it costs more, but goes now), or move it to tomorrow morning (free, but slower, and an express customer gets the premium back). High-value parcels can't go with marketplace riders.
• You can open the Safiri centre at any time. The trike then unloads there once instead of queueing at each office, and sealed-sack trunk vans meet the cut-offs.

End of day · 20:00

A solid day