Daihatsu Starts Sales of “RAKUPITA SOUGEI,” its Day Care Facility Pick-up and Delivery Support System

Oct. 03, 2018
Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd.

Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Daihatsu”) updated its Group Slogan to “Light you up” to mark the company’s 110th anniversary. The company intends to strengthen its unique MONODUKURI, with the aim of providing mobility solutions that support and enrich individual lifestyles all over the world, and, at the same time, is also promoting initiatives that increase points of contact with customers and local communities through KOTODUKURI.
As part of its KOTODUKURI activities, Daihatsu has decided to commercialize its "RAKUPITA SOUGEI" pick-up and delivery support system, which was developed in 2017, for day care facilities. Sales will start on October 10.

The "RAKUPITA SOUGEI" system aims to promote the use of compact cars to pick up and deliver users of day care facilities; compact cars are favored since they allow users to be quickly picked up from and delivered to their doorsteps. The system was developed to resolve issues that employees at day care centers had with picking up and delivering users, and demonstration tests started in November 2017 with the goal of future commercialization. The benefits of the system have now been verified, and Daihatsu has accordingly made the decision to start sales. Full-scale implementation of the system has already started at some facilities owned by two companies that cooperated with the demonstration tests—SOMPO Care Inc., and Azu Life Care Co., Ltd., which is part of the Leopalace21 Corporation Group.

The system will be sold to facilities either directly by Daihatsu, or through selected Daihatsu sales companies. The system will operate under an affordable payment structure, starting at 3,000 yen (excluding consumption tax) per month per facility, with facilities able to use the system free of charge for a maximum of three months. The payment structure is outlined below.

<Payment Structure>

Monthly fee Standard pricing
(Scope of contract: 9 facilities or less)		 Major customer discount pricing
(Scope of contract: 10 facilities or more)
Initial costs Free of charge
PC licensing fee 3,000 yen per facility (excluding consumption tax) 2,000 yen per facility
Mobile terminal rental fee* 4,000 yen per unit (excluding consumption tax) 3,500 yen per unit (excluding consumption tax)
Automatic telephone notification function fee* 1,000 yen per unit (excluding consumption tax)
Mobile terminal insurance fee* 300 yen per unit (tax-exempt)

*Options

Daihatsu is set to host a booth at the 45th International Home Care & Rehabilitation Exhibition, H.C.R. 2018, which will take place at Tokyo Big Sight from October 10 to 12. To coincide with the launch of the "RAKUPITA SOUGEI" system, at its booth Daihatsu will demonstrate how the system might be used at day care facilities, and will also hold hands-on activities with actual equipment.

The "RAKUPITA SOUGEI" System: its features, and customer feedback from the verification tests

System features

◆"RAKUPITA SOUGEI" is a simple, smartphone-based telematics system that can be used immediately in all facility-owned vehicles
◆ At present, pick-up and delivery schedules are typically created manually by experienced employees; the "RAKUPITA SOUGEI" system enables anyone to easily create optimal pick-up and delivery schedules
◆ The created pick-up and delivery schedules are sent to dedicated smartphones that are provided to all drivers. Transportation records and cancel notifications can also be mutually shared between drivers and a facility via a single smartphone—the first time such a function has been implemented in Japan*. By reducing the number of time-consuming jobs they have to carry out while driving, the system enables drivers to focus on driving.
*>In a day care facility-oriented pick-up and delivery management system, according to in-house research.
◆ The system utilizes movement records to enable pick-up and delivery routes to be reviewed and vehicle numbers to be optimized, so making pick-up and delivery work more efficient.

Customer feedback

◆ The time taken to create pick-up and delivery schedules has been reduced by half, while multiple staff are now able to create schedules (staff responsible for creating pick-up and delivery schedules).
◆ It is possible to see where pick-up and delivery vehicles are at any given time; if we have an inquiry from a facility user, we are now able to provide them with an immediate answer (facility manager).
◆ The system visualizes the operational status of each vehicle—this enabled us to reduce the number of vehicles in operation (facility manager).
◆ Departure and arrival times are recorded automatically; this has reduced the time required to fill in movement records (driver and escort staff).

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