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The price of petrol has been high for a long time now. For a company with 10 technicians out on the road every day, fuel costs quickly add up to tens of thousands of euros per year. And that amount grows too, if prices keep rising.
You can’t influence the oil price. You can influence the kilometres you drive.
What does planning look like in practice?
At a lot of field service companies, planning still works like this: technician 1 drives from Amsterdam to Utrecht, while at that exact same moment technician 2 drives the other way. No coordination, no logic. Just: “off you go.”
This sounds exaggerated, but it’s a common pattern. Especially at growing companies where planning is done manually or largely runs on gut feeling. The result: unnecessary kilometres, high fuel costs, and planners piecing together the same puzzle all over again every week.
In practice, smart route planning can save 15 to 25% on fuel costs, without deploying extra staff or disappointing customers.
What exactly does FieldBuddy AI do?
FieldBuddy AI is a feature within FieldBuddy Go that helps planners fill the schedule. You select the orders that need to be scheduled, specify a period and a group of technicians, and the AI automatically compiles a list of planning proposals.
One of the most important things FieldBuddy AI does here: it matches the right technician to the right job. Not only based on availability and location, but also based on skills. Does a job need a certified electrical technician? FieldBuddy AI then only proposes technicians who actually hold that certification. That way you avoid someone driving unnecessarily far for a job they’re not allowed or not able to carry out.
Example
You have 8 open orders for this week, including 3 breakdowns that require an F-gas certificate. FieldBuddy AI automatically filters for the technicians who hold this certificate, cleverly combines those orders based on location and availability, and presents a ready-made planning proposal. You review it, click confirm, and the schedule is set.
FieldBuddy AI also takes the following into account:
- The start and end point of each technician (the preferred destination)
- Availability per roster, including work orders and appointments already planned.
- The travel time needed between stops, calculated based on distance
- Preferred execution dates, regions, and required skills per order
How does FieldBuddy AI work in practice?
Using FieldBuddy AI has been kept deliberately simple. From the Dispatch Panel you open the FieldBuddy AI wizard with two steps:
FieldBuddy AI runs in the background while you carry on working. As soon as the proposals are ready, you get a notification. You choose which proposals you accept, and the work orders are created straight away. No manual shuffling, no spreadsheets, no guessed travel times.
Step 1
Select the orders you want to schedule
Step 2
Choose the period and the technicians
Step 3
Review the proposals and confirm
And after that: route optimisation
Once the schedule is filled, you can have the route optimised per technician on a daily basis. FieldBuddy Go automatically calculates the most logical order of work orders and appointments, based on the locations and the technician’s preferred destination.
Think of FieldBuddy AI as the smart brain behind the initial planning, and route optimisation as the final optimisation pass on the day itself. Together they make sure every technician drives the shortest possible, most logical route every day.
15-25%
lower fuel costs
Minder km
shorter, more logical routes
Rustiger
planning for your team
You're still in the driver's seat
A question we often hear: “Is the AI going to take over the planning from me at some point?” The answer is no. FieldBuddy AI generates proposals based on data. You review them, adjust them where needed, and give the final approval. Control stays where it belongs: with the planner who knows the operation.
What changes is how much time and energy it takes to arrive at a good schedule. And you can put that freed-up time into what really needs attention: complex situations, customer contact, and coaching your team.
Ready to plan smarter?
FieldBuddy AI and route optimisation are both part of FieldBuddy Go. Whether you have 5 or 50 technicians in the field, the principle stays the same: every unnecessary kilometre you don’t drive is money you don’t spend.
And that starts with a schedule that doesn’t run on gut feeling, but on data.
Curious how FieldBuddy AI and route optimisation work in your operation? Take a look at FieldBuddy Go or plan a demo.
