- Decrease carbon emissions
- Cut petrol usage
- Improve asset utilization
- Increase customer service
Paragon CEO and president of Paragon put forth ideas as capabilities a route planning software system should offer and they are as follows:
Schedules and routes trucks daily
Should your order quantities differ daily or weekly, a system that can automatically calculate efficient truck routes and multi-stop schedules on a daily basis is recommended. Overall kilometers, fleet costs and daily planning efforts are then reduced.
Enhances fixed routes and schedules
In order to handle a transportation operation that has regular order dates and quantities, make certain to go for a system that calculates optimized routes and schedules. This system will fulfill this while meeting required customer delivery windows, truck capacities, driver hours and other transport restrictions that come up.
Optimizes deliveries continually
A system that re-optimizes schedules on a consistent basis will be able to maximize efficiency by considering delivery areas, available resources and confirmed existing deliveries all in the while accepting and managing new orders.
Supports clients
Successful route planning projects all consist of one thing in common and that’s having advanced support services. For example, an allocated support consultant whose specific job is to make sure that software implementation takes place is key in the route optimization project. A hotline service during off-hours might also help.
Links with live vehicle tracking
Should there be irregularities in route times and distances, managers are able to act quickly to control costs using live vehicle tracking. Having comparisons between routes that are planned and actual routes makes sure that drivers are following the plan. This also allows customers to be alerted immediately when there are delays.
Considers “what-if” scenarios
Transport efficiency will be improved through the use of historic data that will prepare for vehicle size changes, shifting driver hours, and alternative delivery locations for distribution networks.
Uses multi-period planning
Multi-period planning decides the best delivery patterns for each customer, ensuring multiple deliveries to the same customer are sufficiently spread out across the planning period, while also combining deliveries geographically and balancing workload across the period. Having and allocating delivery profiles in such a manner ensures that customer delivery requirements are met and helps in minimizing transportation costs.
Creates software development plans
Software development plans that are clear and set for the future are very important. A solid and competitive supplier should be evolving its product regularly by taking advantage of new technologies and coming up with solutions that encompass the needs of transportation operators.
Combines central scheduling
Combining central scheduling of all fleet movements awards transportation planners the opportunity to plan nationally or regionally. Inter-depot trucking movements, supplier collections and packaging disposal can be integrated to reduce costs and create major inefficiencies.
Pays attention to reporting
KPI’s and business intelligence reporting enables companies to identify operational trends, predict cost implication and detect possible preventive measures.
Remember to also find out How To Prevent Truck Driver Fatigue Through Optimized Driver Scheduling!
Source: inboundlogistics