Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/201087
LOOKING FURTHER T ransAm Trucking uses optimization software to match the loads in its network with available equipment and drivers. The software – Driver&Load from Manhattan Associates – instantly analyzes a large dataset of load origins and destinations, transit times, empty miles and available driving hours. TransAm (CCJ Top 250, No. 86) has benefitted by decreasing its deadhead mileage and keeping commitments with customers for on-time service and drivers for home time and pay. The automation also gives the company's load planners – called customer service managers – more time to focus on higher-level challenges such as network balance and capacity commitments. About two years ago, the Olathe, Kan.-based refrigerated carrier implemented Manhattan's Load Analyzer, providing managers with visibility of key performance metrics and a standard We can see where each area is for balance and profitability. – Ron Crum, applications manager, TransAm Trucking MAXIMIZING LOAD CUBE The goals of any fleet – particularly those with private or dedicated operations – are to maximize payload and decrease miles for customers. Routing technology instantly analyzes the options for building cost-saving loads and routes. Penske Logistics (CCJ Top 250, No. 43) developed its own Plato routing optimization software, allowing it to adapt the software to unique customer requirements more easily. "It has served us quite well over the years," says Tom Scollard, vice president for dedicated contract carriage. Using Plato and other resources such as thousands of fleet studies, the Reading, Pa.-based company created a database to compare the performance of a customer's or prospect's fleet to engineered standards to show how many trucks, drivers and miles the fleet needs. Penske uses a Plato feature called Frequency Routing to optimize the payloads for inbound freight to manufacturing facilities. Rather than calculate routes based 54 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL Penske Logistics developed its own Plato routing optimization software, allowing the Reading, Pa.-based company to adapt the software to unique customer requirements more easily. solely on minimizing distance and time, the technology can determine if a route should pick up a half-full load weekly or two quarter-full loads twice a week. Cardinal Logistics Management (CCJ Top 250, No. 72) uses DirectRoute to save customers money by squeezing out the last "cube" of trailer capacity. For a major cabinet manufacturer, Cardinal minimizes delivery costs by building full truckload shipments from the customer's produc- | NOVEMBER 2013 tion facilities to its cross-dock locations, and then building full truckload routes for final deliveries. The Concord, N.C.-based company uses TMW Systems' Appian DirectRoute optimization system in association with its order management system to make this "max cube" linehaul service possible. The final plan is fed into its enterprise software, TMW Systems' TMW Suite, for dispatch.