Logistics firm Parcelforce Worldwide has improved driver
productivity by 20% after rolling out route planning and scheduling
software.
Parcelforce also cut route planning time for its 2,000-vehicle
operation by 90% after replacing a system based on Excel with
software from Paragon.
The company, which delivers 150,000 parcels a day, uses the
software to allocate work to routes and calculate efficient route
sequences. This helps it plan driver start and finish times,
mileage, the number of drops and driver and van utilisation.
Eddie McBride, project manager at Parcelforce, said, "Improving
driver productivity by 20% has enabled us to reduce the number of
drivers and the number of vehicles we need to use to achieve the
same, if not higher, levels of service."
The software runs on Windows 2000 Server and holds details of
historical delivery patterns. It also contains information on
vehicle capacities, work standards and driver shifts.
Using digital mapping with scheduling tools, the software
calculates the most effective delivery sequences.
"One of the advantages of using this software is that, now the base
data is set up, it is straightforward to update volumes and
recalculate the routes accordingly," Parcelforce said.