ECO-carpooling - Field Trip Optimization#
Smart carpooling application developed to optimize ECO-MED collaborators’ trips to intervention sites, reduce carbon footprint and foster collaboration between teams.
🎯 Objective#
ECO-carpooling aims to optimize business trip organization by automatically identifying carpooling opportunities between collaborators visiting nearby sites, thus contributing to ECO-MED’s sustainable development goals.
🚗 Problem Solved#
Before ECO-carpooling, trip organization had several inefficiencies:
- Individual trips to geographically close sites
- Lack of knowledge about colleagues’ intervention schedules
- Time-consuming manual coordination and unreliable
- High environmental impact of business trips
- Non-optimized transport costs
⚡ Main Features#
Smart mapping visualization#
- Interactive map displaying all planned intervention sites
- Automatic grouping of interventions by geographical area
- Proximity calculation between study sites
- Differentiated display according to user profiles
Automated ERP integration#
- Automatic retrieval of schedules from SX Everwin
- Smart processing of Excel exports via Microsoft Graph API
- Daily synchronization of planning data
- Real-time management of schedule changes
Advanced filtering system#
- Temporal filters (day, week, month)
- Profile filters by profession (botanist, ornithologist, etc.)
- Specific user filters
- Agency filters by membership
Trip optimization#
- Automatic identification of carpooling opportunities
- Distance calculation between intervention points
- Grouping suggestions according to time slots
- Economic and environmental gains estimation
🖼️ User Interface#
Main mapping view#
The main interface presents an interactive map where each point represents an intervention site. Color codes allow quick distinction of:
- Different user profiles
- Intervention periods
- Agency membership
- Grouping opportunities
Filtering panel#
The filtering system allows display refinement according to several criteria:
- Period: time range selection
- Profiles: type of expertise required in the field
- Users: specific collaborators
- Status: day/night intervention, duration, etc.
🛠️ Technical Architecture#
Technology stack#
- Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3
- Backend: Node.js, Express.js
- Database: MongoDB
- Mapping: Leaflet.js with OpenStreetMap tiles
- Integration: Microsoft Graph API
- Authentication: JWT integrated with Azure AD
Technical challenges overcome#
Complex ERP integration#
The main challenge was the absence of direct API to retrieve schedules from SX Everwin. The developed solution uses Microsoft Graph API to automatically extract export emails containing Excel planning files, then intelligently processes this data.
Deduplication algorithm#
Duplicate management in ERP exports with a smart algorithm based on specific business criteria (project, date, user, site) to keep only the most recent records.
Performance and optimization#
- Caching of mapping data
- Lazy loading of intervention details
- MongoDB query optimization with indexes
- API response compression
📊 Results and Impact#
Environmental gains#
- 🌍 30% reduction in kilometers traveled
- 🚗 25% decrease in number of vehicles used
- 💨 Significant reduction in CO₂ emissions
- 🌱 Contribution to ECO-MED’s CSR objectives
Operational gains#
- ⏱️ 50% reduction in coordination time
- 💰 20% savings on travel expenses
- 🤝 Improved inter-team collaboration
- 📊 Increased visibility on field workload
User adoption#
- 👥 85% of collaborators use the application
- ⭐ 4.7/5 average user satisfaction
- 📈 Continuous increase in organized carpools
🔄 Data Processing Workflow#
Automated data pipeline#
- Daily extraction of ERP export emails
- Smart parsing of attached Excel files
- Data cleaning and validation
- Geocoding of intervention site addresses
- Distance calculation and opportunity detection
- Interactive map update
Error management#
- Automatic validation of data consistency
- Anomaly reporting to administrators
- Graceful recovery in case of processing failure
- Detailed logs for diagnosis and maintenance
💡 Innovation and Added Value#
ECO-carpooling illustrates how technical innovation can serve environmental challenges. By automating carpooling opportunity detection, the application transforms a logistical constraint into a sustainable performance lever.
Impact on organization#
- Strengthened collaborative culture
- Environmental awareness raising
- Internal resource optimization
- Responsible company image
🎓 Skills Developed#
Technical#
- Heterogeneous system integration
- Geospatial data processing
- Route optimization algorithms
- Microsoft Graph APIs
- Interactive web mapping
Methodological#
- Field user needs analysis
- Mobility-oriented interface design
- User experience optimization
- Environmental impact measurement
ECO-carpooling demonstrates that technical innovation and environmental responsibility can converge to create high-value solutions, both operationally and in terms of positive environmental impact.