Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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TECHNOLOGY: ROUTING OPTIMIZATION Will Salter, the company's president and chief executive officer. Fleets use a module in the system to provide their customers with a self-ser- vice online portal. Once their customers place an online order, the module can send the customer a link to the self-ser- vice portal in a text or email message. The customer can use the portal to select a delivery date and time for their shipment from a list of options Para- gon HDX has determined are feasible for a final-mile routing plan. Going residential To meet customer expectations for real-time information, Pitt Ohio has developed a software program that pulls data from different systems to predict a delivery time window that is 99 percent accurate for every shipment. A notification is sent electronically to customers the moment that a loaded truck leaves a terminal. Sometimes the time window for de- livery is four hours, while other times it is two hours, depending on the charac- teristics of the route and the sequences of stops, Muessig says. "We don't want to disappoint with a prediction," he says. "People don't want to be home all day." The notifications are sent to custom- ers through electronic data interchange and a web service API to integrate the information into their own IT systems and customer-facing websites. Those who use EDI get a "by when" status, such as "by 4 p.m." Those using the API get a more specific window such as "after 12 p.m. and before 4 p.m." Muessig says that in addition to giv- ing Pitt Ohio customers greater peace of mind knowing their shipments are on the way, the technology also reduces incoming phone calls. For Southeastern Freight Lines, residential LTL deliveries are maintained strategically at between 3 and 4 percent of total freight volumes. The Lexington, S.C.-based company uses advanced technology to maximize the usage of its equipment and nearly 3,000 drivers where residential deliveries make the most sense in its freight network. "It's a matter of whether or not you can do it profitably and if it fits within your strategies," says Woody Lovelace, senior vice president of corporate plan- ning and development. SEFL uses a proprietary routing opti- mization, dispatch and mobile comput- ing system called Laser that can provide a highly accurate ETA shipment status on the day of delivery to within one hour, which helps reduce the number of missed deliveries. "We can be tighter if we want to," Lovelace says. Laser's routing component acti- vates when shipments are inbound to SEFL's service centers in 14 states. The company contacts the consignees to set delivery appointments to ensure that someone will be at home to receive their shipments. About 25 percent of daily ship- ments in the company's network have appointments. SEFL wants to auto- mate this process, but doing so would require more customers to include e-mails and cell phone numbers of residential consignees in their bills of lading, Lovelace says. On the morning of delivery, SEFL's routes are optimized and trucks are loaded. Laser calculates ETAs for every shipment before trucks leave their terminals, and delivery notifications are sent to customers via EDI or web service APIs, which helps reduce the number of incoming calls regarding shipment arrival times, Lovelace says. A service advantage Integrated routing software and tracking platforms also are being used by fleets in service trades such as construction and landscaping to meet e-commerce requirements. People have become used to ordering services on demand. A homeowner may want to order snow removal or an electrical and plumbing repair from a mobile app in the same way they book inner-city transit with Uber. The transportation provider's app instantly calculates a price and gives a real-time ETA for the pickup. "The technology demand from consumers is stronger and stronger," says Andy Hopkins, president of Twin Pines, a Southborough, Mass.-based company that provides lawn care, maintenance and repair services to homeowners and businesses. With his background as an IT con- sultant, Hopkins has a vision for Twin Pines to be a high-tech, on-demand service company. Twin Pines got its start in landscaping, Lexington, S.C.-based LTL company Southeastern Freight Lines uses advanced technology to maximize the usage of its equipment and nearly 3,000 drivers. 62 commercial carrier journal | october 2016