Written by Ingrid Zwiers
Route Planning | 6 mins read
In a previous blog post I explained how an MSaaS solution is the most suitable for a transportation and route planning solution, due to the flexible nature of the business. In this post, I want to elaborate a bit further on how SmartRouting addresses challenges in the market.
The transportation industry faces many challenges and uncertainties, and an extensive list of all possible challenges is virtually impossible to make, due to the fact that the industry is so diverse that any off-the-shelf SaaS product would be a compromise to profitability and usability. However, to illustrate the diverse range of challenges that SmartRouting solves, below three Use Cases are drawn up.
SmartRouting
Managed Software as a Service (Ab-Ovo To-Go) solution for route planning & optimizationAutomated planning
Already for a number of years the margins are thin. The most optimal route planning is crucial to ensure the company remains profitable. However, orders come in late or with incomplete details, more and more customers give very narrow time windows and there are limitations to which drivers can pick up dangerous goods. Instead of being able to make a truly optimal plan out of this manually, the planners are not able to do more than to just make it fit.
The focus on a KPI such as costs on a day to day basis is lost, because the problem is too complex to focus on anything else than ensure everything gets done on time.
With our SmartRouting solution, the planning is done automatically within minutes, which allows the planner to focus on special cases and find solutions for those manually. It takes the tedious job of planning, routing and sequencing shipments away from the planner, and instead the planner can use his vast knowledge and experience to solve exceptions.
![Visual SmartRouting](https://ab-ovo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Visual-SmartRouting.jpg)
Driver preferences
Driver shortage is a massive constraining factor in many regions. As a consequence companies are unable to grow, not because they cannot find customers, but because they cannot find sufficient drivers to operate the trucks. One of the most important factors to growth is now to have sufficient drivers. This makes it crucial to invest in a system that can incorporate driver preferences in the planning.
The SmartRouting solution is able to make trade-offs between driver preferences and actual costs, in order to keep driver satisfaction at a high level and increase the retention rates. Next to that, incorporating driver preferences gives you a healthier and happier workforce. It also makes you more attractive for new drivers to switch.
Multi-leg planning
Not every transport order is an assignment to transport goods from A to B, with one single truck. In many cases, a single customer order travels over a hub-and-spoke system of pre- and post transport as well as linehauls, ferries and train connections. It is often seen that this network is rigid, and basically given before any of the orders are known. As your order profile changes, the changes in the hub-and-spoke network usually only follow those changes weeks or months later.
With SmartRouting the planning becomes dynamic, given the timetabled connections (linehaul, ferry or train), the solution automatically selects whether the orders should travel via a linehaul or should go direct, given the other orders of that day. These choices can change each day, and they allow you to capture maximum margins on the transport.
SmartRouting
The SmartRouting solution is able to make trade-offs between driver preferences and actual costs, in order to keep driver satisfaction at a high level and increase the retention ratesChallenge us!
Of course, though the use cases above may reflect some of your business challenges, your business most likely faces additional challenges. We are sure our SmartRouting solution can address your challenge too, so we invite you to send us your challenge and we will get back to you!
What functionalities does the SmartRouting solution offer?
Our SmartRouting solution is a full suite to do route planning and optimization for your transportation puzzle, large or small, simple or complex. Automated planning, continuous optimization, suggestions to the planner are all included.
Instant updates and recalculation of the future plan comes out-of-the-box, to provide full transparency to the planners on their actions and driver updates, which in turn allows the planner to make better decisions.
It comes with a fully developed standard integration package to seamlessly connect to all other systems in your landscape, such as (but not limited to) a Transportation Management System, a payroll system, and on-board computers. In case your system landscape does not include on-board computers with the ability to sign-off deliveries and track your resources with GPS, our solution also includes a ready-made Mobile Driver App.
For the details of the functionalities of the SmartRouting solution, please have a look at our Solution Sheet.
For more information, contact us with any questions you may have.
Ingrid Zwiers is an experienced Advanced Planning and Scheduling consultant at Ab Ovo for over 5 years. With a background in Operations Research (MSc) and extensive business experience for over 10 years in the logistics sector, she wants to help companies get all the potential savings out of their planning challenges without compromising the competitive edge that each company has.