Cost savings, quality improvement and better working conditions for dispatchers and drivers. If you want to achieve this, you cannot do without software-supported route optimisation. Intelligent algorithms independently create tours from transport orders and vehicle resources, taking into account all relevant logistics specifications. Intelligently used route optimisation is suitable both for daily business with strongly fluctuating transport volumes and for fixed delivery areas with predefined framework routes.
Planning tours is one of the most complex tasks in logistics and the demands are constantly increasing. The dispatcher has to observe more and more and at the same time stricter restrictions (e.g. narrow delivery time windows, drivers' working hours, environmental zones, vehicle restrictions, etc.). At the same time, he is forced by the high cost pressure to ensure maximum utilisation of the resource driver and vehicle.
Since he can only roughly estimate the driving time between the stops and the expected standing time at the customer's site, intuitive (wrong) decisions are often made. Especially when a multitude of boundary conditions must also be observed, which a human being cannot possibly keep in mind. An algorithm that works on the basis of practical driving and stopping times and takes all restrictions into account will make better planning decisions in most cases.
This means shorter overall operating times for the entire vehicle fleet and a reduction in total kilometres. With a larger fleet, consistent route optimisation can even lead to permanent vehicle savings.
In the above example, 21 stops are handled in the same delivery area. In the left-hand diagram, the dispatcher had planned this manually with 3 vehicles. The figure on the right shows the same stops after revision with a route optimisation algorithm. One vehicle could be saved. Due to the omission of the arrival and departure of the saved vehicle, the total deployment time and the total distance travelled are reduced.
If the order quantities are almost constant and the starting points are constant, "fixed" tours are often used (e.g. for weekly beverage deliveries). These tours have proven themselves in everyday life, the driver knows the stopping points and the planning time for the dispatcher is low.
However, as soon as a new stop is added, a scheduled stop is dropped or the transport quantities change significantly, the planning should be reviewed. If a vehicle breaks down, a rescheduling is necessary anyway. In all these cases, route optimisation software can help by generating a reliable plan in just a few minutes.
„With cadis® you have a powerful tool for efficient route planning. Our consultants also support you in the implementation. In this way, you can permanently leverage the full potential of route optimisation.“
Oliver Hamp (Head of Sales)
KRATZER AUTOMATION