Transport professionals vote for improved route planning to keep costs down

At this year’s Microlise Transport Conference over 60% of the transport professionals in attendance said better route planning and optimisation is more likely to improve efficiency and reduce costs than other management solutions such as driver performance, safety and anti-fuel theft.

During the open debate over 1000 representatives from the transport and logistics industry were asked which aspects of fleet management have the biggest impact on cost reduction. The overwhelming majority were in no doubt that a modern approach to vehicle route planning saves time, reduces road miles, cuts harmful emissions and takes out significant operational cost.

In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, consumer habits have changed and the demand for faster delivery models looks very much like it’s here to stay.

Moreover, with post-pandemic Europe experiencing an unprecedented inflation crisis, driver shortages and rocketing fuel prices, delegates at the conference heard of the importance of ensuring that every resource available to transport managers is fully utilised.

Microlise Product Director, Stephen Watson says:

“The pandemic signaled the need for a step-change in the way many businesses organise their supply chains and general logistics models. Manual planning is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, because the sheer human effort involved in marrying up jobs with resources and organising them into workable routes is a tremendous cost burden and riddled with potential inefficiencies.”

Conversely, says Microlise, an automated transport planning and optimisation solution will provide fleet managers with the capacity to dramatically reduce the time taken to create a plan whilst considerably improving load monitoring and maximising asset utilisation.

Stephen adds:

“The right planning and optimisation system, allows transport managers to take their list of jobs, allocate them to available resources and continually plot them into routes until the most efficient routes are fed into the plan. This ensures optimum use of assets while allowing managers to set meaningful KPIs.”

Delegates at the Microlise Transport Conference were also able to review a wide range of end-to-end route planning and telematics solutions, from planning & optimisation through to schedule execution and proof of delivery.

Stephen Watson adds:

“We listen carefully to feedback from the logistics industry and work closely with operators to develop the right tools for them to keep in tune with their transport needs.”

Source: UK Haulier - Transport professionals vote for improved route planning to keep costs down