Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85369
TECHNOLOGY: OPTIMIZED ROUTING C APPIAN LOGISTICS HAS INCORPORATED HISTORICAL AND REAL-TIME TRAFFIC SPEED DATA WITH GOOGLE MAPS INTO ITS DIRECT ROUTE SOFTWARE. structure as the baseline for determining the cost of add- ing new business. Prospective business can be uploaded quickly into RoadNet and optimized with the existing routes, says Len Kennedy, president. Telogis offers a suite of cloud-based fl eet manage- ment software. Telogis Route, FAST ACCESS Proprietary routing tool helps Cross Country Courier cut miles, OT ross Country Courier recently saw its northern Minnesota load volumes grow rapidly. The less-than-truckload carrier began running overflow trips to the region to compensate for three routes that consistently were over capacity – but this problem didn't last long. In 2009, during the height of the recession, the Bismarck, N.D.-based fleet had developed a route design tool to cope with a 25 percent decrease in revenue. For its recent operational chal- lenge in northern Minnesota, Cross Country Courier used the same tool to restructure its opera- tions while preserving as much revenue as possible. Jay Dillman, director of information systems, developed the tool using Microsoft Access. Pertinent data is drawn from all of the company's databases, and the inter- active system enables the operator to test route scenarios and determine the most cost-effective method possible while meeting customer expectations. After evaluating the entire northern Minnesota region, Cross Country Courier made adjustments to five routes and was able to eliminate 12 hours of over- time and about 600 miles per week. its platform for routing and scheduling vehicles, has cost-based planning tools. "It shows the impact of every decision in terms of the hard dollar amount," says Newth Morris, president. If a user were bidding on a new account, he could pull in a set of orders to model a number of different scenarios to service the account — use the existing fl eet, add overtime or increase fl eet size. "Each scenario returns the total cost in order to make operations decisions," Morris says. Territory route planning is done periodically. For daily scheduling, planning and route execution, vendors have systems that capture order information from dispatch and enterprise resource planning systems. If routing software is deployed as a cloud-based or Software- as-a-Service model, order data from an ERP system is integrated directly using XML Web services. The technology has be- come highly visual for daily use by front-line managers. Digital map displays with drag-and-drop icons and menus enable users to under- stand and execute route plans with drivers quickly. As routes progress during the day, in- stant messages and alerts note any exceptions that occur. "Route planning and execution has become more consumerized," says Ken Wood, senior vice president of product strategy for Des- cartes Systems, which offers its Route Planner software in both premise and cloud- based versions. "It is not just for industrial engineers. It has been designed and detuned to work better in a dispatch and operational environment." Real-time compatibility To create optimal routes and schedules, routing software needs accurate distances, travel times, road restrictions, toll costs and other data at- tributes. Software companies use the latest versions of commercial map databases to obtain this information; they also update their own products continuously with geospatial data, logic and features to improve route performance. Appian Logistics has AFTER EVALUATING ITS NORTHERN MINNESOTA REGION, CROSS COUNTRY COURIER MADE ADJUSTMENTS TO FIVE ROUTES AND WAS ABLE TO ELIMINATE 12 HOURS OF OVERTIME AND ABOUT 600 MILES PER WEEK. 52 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | APRIL 2012 incorporated historical and real-time traffi c speed data into its Direct Route software. The company uses Google Maps with traffi c data that comes primarily from Inrix, a company that contracts with major cellular providers to obtain real-time position and speed information from more than 30 million commuters. Appian customers can use historical traffi c patterns in