Fleet Route Planning and Scheduling with the PTV Route Optimiser Software

Many companies work with so-called “milk rounds” or “bus routes”: In these cases, drivers often have “their” regular daily or weekly routes and know “their” area. The customer base and order situation of these companies is relatively stable; schedules and routes have proven efficient and effective in everyday operations and hardly change.

Contrary to expectations, milk rounds and bus tours, too, can be optimised with routing and scheduling software. Why? Because external circumstances (e.g. infrastructure), customers and their requirements (e.g. changes in opening hours and delivery windows) and your own priorities and requirements (e.g. number of vehicles) may have changed since the routes were first introduced. Therefore, it’s crucial to evaluate existing routes and adapt them to changes regularly.

Optimisation of existing and regularly executed routes

Simply transfer your existing routes into PTV Route Optimiser via easy-to-use interfaces. The transport planning software analyses the routes and evaluates potential for improvement: Assigning a customer to a different driver, adding an additional stopover at a depot or simply changing the sequence of deliveries might already boost efficiency substantially.

Good input leads to good output: In order to calculate optimal routes and schedules with PTV Route Optimiser, you need to feed the software with data and information about your customers, your fleet and your drivers. To enable an efficient transfer of data, PTV Route Optimiser has interfaces for all common transport management, ERP, CRM, MMS and telematics systems. These interfaces reduce the time of configuration when integrating PTV Route Optimiser into your software system and prevent data transfer errors.

PTV Route Optimiser and your TMS: a perfect match

All your orders are most likely stored in a transport management system, together with additional information such as pick-up and delivery addresses. Transferring all this data to a route planning software manually would take a long time. What is worse, this process would inevitably lead to mistakes in the data set and hence to inaccurate and inefficient planning. Connecting your transport management system to PTV Route Optimiser is the solution. 

Many satisfied customers speak for themselves: Our interfaces facilitate a direct transmission of customer and delivery data. For your transport planners this results in substantial time savings. Additionally, you can be certain that you are planning with the most up-to-date and accurate data. By the way: You can also transmit data from PTV Route Optimiser to your transport management system.

Import customer data from ERP and CRM

• You can also connect PTV Route Optimiser to your ERP or CRM system. Why is this relevant? Probably not all information needed for delivery is stored in your transport management system. For example, restrictions such as opening hours or specific information about the loading and unloading points might be stored in a different system. By connecting PTV Route Optimiser to your ERP or CRM system, this information can also be transferred with just a few clicks.

Transfer routes to telematics and on-board computers

• Regardless of how optimal the routes and schedules are that your planners mapped out – the plan is only successful if it’s carried out accordingly. PTV Route Optimiser comes with interfaces that ease its connection to various telematics systems. This way, you can transfer planned routes directly to permanently installed or mobile on-board computers or telematics systems in the vehicles at the touch of a button. Are your vehicles not equipped with on-board computers or do you work with subcontractors? In this case, your drivers can simply use the free PTV Driver App on their smartphones.
• The integration of PTV Route Optimiser offers even more advantages. It allows you to determine the position of your vehicles in real-time and compare the planned with the actual status. You can intervene or inform the recipients of the expected time of arrival should delays occur.
• Customer requirements and regulatory restrictions continue to grow, making transport planning an ever more demanding task: Narrow delivery windows, access restrictions in urban areas and emission limits are just some examples of constraints that must be considered in planning routes and schedules for HGVs.
• PTV Route Optimiser turns the complexity of transport planning into efficiency: Transport planners can enter regulations, customer demands, depot information and vehicle specifications into PTV Route Optimiser via an interface with just a few clicks. When distributing orders to drivers and calculating routes, the software automatically takes all constraints into account and makes sure the suggested schedule meets them. Transport planning has never been this easy.

Restrictions in routing and scheduling 

Time limits and duration

• Customers often specify opening hours or narrow time windows during which you must deliver. Your drivers might stand in front of locked doors and face long waiting times should they not arrive in time. You might even have to pay a contractual penalty fee for late deliveries.
• Regulations, such as driving and rest periods, further complicate route planning and scheduling. With PTV Route Optimiser, you can be certain that all constraints are accounted for: Simply save restrictions, such as fixed appointments or opening times, in the system. It automatically considers them when calculating routes and schedules for your drivers.

• Vehicles

HGVs, electric vans, refrigerated trucks or trucks with forklifts – not every vehicle is suitable for every job. On top of that, environmental and legal aspects make the choice of the right means of transport increasingly relevant: While diesel engines may face bans in city centres, electric trucks and vans have a limited range. PTV Route Optimiser automatically selects the right transporter for each job taking all considerations into account.

Cargo, weight & volumeEnsure ideal loading and optimise the utilisation of your fleet’s capacity. In suggesting schedules and routes, PTV Route Optimiser considers maximum loading as well as available loading metres and specifies how many pallets or rolling containers can be accommodated in a truck or van. Furthermore, PTV Route Optimiser takes the cargo type into account and enables you to avoid roads not suitable for hazardous goods.

Loading and unloading points

A short ramp, a narrow gate, no forklift trucks - at some stops, delivery is a real challenge. Once information on stops is stored in PTV Route Optimiser, the tool selects the appropriate vehicle for each trip. Additionally, when loading and unloading addresses are unknown, you can enter coordinates instead of an address into the system.

A plan is only as good as its execution. Therefore, the planner's job does not end with a finalised schedule. In fact, your planners have to keep an eye on the progress of all vehicles as they are on the road. Will all deliveries arrive on time? Which driver could take on an additional order spontaneously? Does a route have to be changed due to a traffic jam? On top of that, the planners need to continuously check if routes and schedules could be optimised and evaluate strategic decisions such as buying additional vehicles.

• Turn the complexity of route planning and scheduling into efficiency with PTV Route Optimiser. The software helps your planners keep an overview of all facts and figures: They can create reports and analyse all processes of your supply chain, stay in control of all resources and identify problems and potentials.

Visualise schedules, routes and orders

• Visualising routes on a map gives your planners a quick overview of the status of all deliveries. Which routes are completed, in progress or planned? Is a vehicle close to an order that came in spontaneously? Does it have free capacities to accept it? The map helps your planners answer these questions and act quickly and adequately.

Compare plans with actual performance

• How accurate is your planning? With PTV Route Optimiser’s target/actual-comparison, you can compare plans with actual performance. Do delays occur regularly on a specific route? Do the same customers regularly receive their deliveries late? Discover potential for improvement and adjust your schedules if necessary.

Keep an overview of available resources

• Not all vehicles and drivers are available every day. And not every vehicle is suitable for every task. It’s difficult to keep an overview of all these restrictions. PTV Route Optimiser helps you with this complex task. Store vehicle-specific information as well as the working times and qualifications of your drivers in the system and use this information when planning routes and schedules.

Create reports and analyses

• How many kilometres has your fleet covered in the last days, weeks or months? How high was the fuel consumption and how high were the CO2 emissions? Which vehicles are most heavily loaded? Thorough analyses and precise reports of past performance help you optimise routes and schedules in the future.

Reduce planning time

• Route planning and schedule optimisation is like solving a complex puzzle: A puzzle that has more than one solution and whose pieces might change until the very end. Assembling the puzzle pieces manually takes hours - and the result may not be optimal in the end. PTV Route Optimiser reduces the complexity of routing and scheduling, saves your planners hours of planning and leads to optimised results.
• At the core of PTV Route Optimiser are its intelligent and high-performance algorithms. They calculate all possible routes and schedules and compare the different possibilities regarding travel times, distances and costs. This way, the software quickly determines the routes and schedules that are aligned with your goals. This frees up your planners for more important tasks such as taking care of your customers, supervising drivers and subcontractors or searching for return freight to avoid empty runs. 

More time for customers

• Thanks to PTV Route Optimiser, your planners have more time to attend to your customers’ and partners’ needs. For example, they can inform customers about delayed arrivals due to traffic jams and thereby boost customer satisfaction. Above that, short-term changes and special customer requests are no longer a problem: PTV Route Optimiser takes all restrictions and specifications into account and plans a new and optimised route within seconds.

Time for tactical/strategic optimisation

• Your planners know best where the bottlenecks in your transportation chain are. However, they hardly have enough time to think about and implement solutions. As PTV Route Optimiser takes over many of their time-consuming and tedious tasks, your planners are freed up to tackle tactical and strategic issues. For example, they can determine which routes should be outsourced or calculate whether it makes sense to invest in expanding your fleet.

Improve punctuality

• PTV Route Optimiser’s algorithms take all restrictions and requirements, such as the time needed to load or unload a pallet, into account. For you and your customers this means: more accurate plans and reliable delivery times. Moreover, you can easily inform your customers of delivery times by e-mail or text message, so they can prepare for delivery in advance.

Notify customers of delays

• Regardless of how well you plan – delays due to congestion or technical issues can always happen. PTV Route Optimiser alerts your planners in case of problems and thereby enables them to intervene and arrange for a replacement. In case of a delayed delivery time, the software calculates an adjusted ETA, which can you communicate to your customers.

Longer ordering times

• With PTV Route Optimiser, your planners distribute orders to vehicles with ease and create schedules for the next day within minutes. This means that orders you might have had to delay for a few days, can be accepted and executed right away. Prompt deliveries lead to satisfied customers.

Calculate carbon footprint

• With PTV Route Optimiser you consume fewer resources and reduce your company's carbon footprint. At the same time, you are one step ahead of your competitors. Why? Given the increase of public scrutiny with regards to pollution control and carbon emissions, you should expect more and more countries to implement mandatory emissions reporting and reduction programmes. Above that, customer demand and hence the market for CO2-neutral products in steadily growing. PTV Route Optimiser prepares you for this as it enables you to precisely calculate emissions for your entire logistics as well as for each customer with just a few clicks.

Do you have a question ?

• We are at your disposal to assist you.
• Contact us:https://www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ptv-route-optimiser/contact/

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Harald Ostermann