Editor’s note: Today’s article comes from Axel Enblad, Founder and CPO and Jan Tägtström, CTO of Alrik. They share how Alrik is using Google Maps Platform to bring transport intelligence to construction with accurate, reliable data.
Managing logistics in the construction industry is a complex operation involving countless moving parts. On any given day, a supplier might be dealing with hundreds of delivery constraints, from the weight and type of materials to the specific entry requirements of a busy building site. Traditionally, this has been managed through fragmented, manual workflows, which often lead to black holes of handwritten notes and siloed spreadsheets, making it impossible to know the true cost of a delivery or the efficiency of a route.
We founded Alrik to solve this lack of transparency. Our automated, transport-intelligence platform gives suppliers, hire companies, merchants, and contractors complete control over their internal and external fleet and supply chain. By providing our customers with a single system of record, our platform replaces guesswork with clear, actionable insights into transport costs and fleet capacity, enabling customers to manage operations with precision.
When we began developing our platform, we needed to be able to calculate transport costs for external carriers with absolute accuracy. To do this, we required reliable, real-time data on distances and travel times. As we looked for a map provider, only Google Maps Platform offered the depth of rooftop-level accuracy and reliability we needed to build our pricing engine with confidence. With our infrastructure already running on Google Cloud — including Cloud Run for our services and Cloud SQL for MySQL databases for our data management — we found it simple to integrate the Google Maps Platform APIs into our technology stack. Now, with all our services in one place, we can move quickly, turning complex location data into a competitive advantage for our users.
Alrik's automated, transport-intelligence platform gives suppliers, hire companies, merchants, and contractors complete control over their internal and external fleet and supply chain.
From pricing transparency to real-time coordination
Our first product was Fleet on Demand (FOD), which we designed to solve the industry’s pricing problem. In construction, a delivery address is often just a starting point. The actual drop-off location might be a specific gate or a temporary access road on a vast building site. Using Address Validation and the Geocoding API, FOD allows users to turn vague site descriptions into validated, geocoded locations. This ensures that when our pricing algorithm calls the Routes API, the cost estimates for carriers are based on reality, not speculation. Our users benefit from instant price transparency, helping them quickly secure extra capacity from external carriers whenever their own fleet is fully utilized.
Fleet on Demand allows users to turn vague site descriptions into validated, geocoded locations.
Building on the success of our FOD product, we set about solving the broader daily challenges of coordination with the launch of our Cockpit product. Cockpit provides a real-time, bird’s-eye view of a supplier’s entire operation, visualizing every order, truck, and driver on a single map. By integrating Google Maps Platform Mobility services, we’ve enabled a new level of agility for our customers. Coordinators can now drag and drop orders between vehicles to increase fleet utilization and reduce total driving time. As they do, the platform automatically recalculates estimated arrival times for every stop on that route, with the Routes API analyzing real-time traffic conditions and road networks to provide the most accurate timing possible.
This visibility allows us to offer track-and-trace capabilities, providing the end user with a real-time link showing exactly where their building materials are. This transparency has significantly reduced the volume of phone calls between coordinators, drivers, and sites trying to understand when the materials will be delivered.
Alrik offers track-and-trace capabilities, providing the end user with a real-time link showing the exact location of their building materials.
We’ve also integrated the Route Optimization API to enable teams to automatically organize dozens of pending orders into the most efficient multi-vehicle tours. Tasks that once took an experienced logistics planner an hour can now be completed in just a few seconds. By using these tools to manage their fleets more effectively, one of our customers reduced their delivery costs by 28%.
Alrik's platform delivers alerts in real-time reducing the volume of phone calls between coordinators, drivers, and sites trying to understand when the materials will be delivered.
Setting the standard for the future of logistics
With Google Maps Platform, we’re empowering our customers to be more efficient and more sustainable. By providing accurate distance data, Alrik makes it possible for merchants and hire companies to automate their emissions reporting. This is a significant benefit for our customers, as it allows them to provide their own clients — such as large construction developers — with precise CO2 data for every project. In a market where environmental compliance is increasingly important, this capability has become a vital sales tool that helps our customers win more business.
Looking ahead, we’re continuing to develop the platform to meet the unique needs of heavy logistics. We’re currently working with the Google Maps Platform team to test new support for heavy goods vehicle (HGV) routing in Europe. This will allow us to provide even more accurate routes by accounting for vehicle-specific constraints like bridge heights and weight limits. We’re also enhancing our optimization algorithms to factor in cargo complexity, automatically understanding, for example, the different loading requirements of steel versus drywall to ensure the most efficient use of every truck’s capacity.
Google Maps Platform has been a fundamental enabler of our growth. It hasn't just provided us with maps, it’s given us the speed and reliability we needed to build a world-class interface that simplifies a notoriously complex industry. As we continue to expand across Europe and beyond, we’re confident we have the right foundation to keep transforming construction logistics and solving the real-world challenges our customers face every day.
