TruckStops Optimizes Deliveries for English OS/400 Shop

Published: July 11, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Do you ever wonder how retail outlets pick where to build the next store, where banks choose to install their next ATM, or how logistics companies route their trucks through cities and countryside? The short answer is: very carefully. As you might expect, there are some pretty sophisticated products available to help guide companies through these decisions. One provider of such technology, MapMechanics, last week revealed how it helped an English OS/400 shop optimize its delivery routes.

According to MapMechanics, use of the TruckStops routing and scheduling system cut in half the time that decorative timber supplier Richard Burbidge previously required to plan its daily routes, while at the same time boosting the capability to ensure that priority loads get delivered via its in-house fleet of 21 curtain-sided trucks.

"Prior to introducing TruckStops, we were using another routing and scheduling system, but it wasn't flexible enough to give precedence to our priority deliveries," says Ian Wetherill, a transport manager with Richard Burbidge. "We had to do what it told us instead of telling it what we wanted, which meant we had to spend hours every day adjusting its proposed schedules manually."

After implementing TruckStops and integrating it with their OS/400 server, the daily scheduling run was slashed from five hours to less than two hours. The company's J.D. Edwards World ERP software generates the orders, including priority and region codes, and TruckStops calculates the best way to schedule deliveries. The calculations include numerous variables, including priority orders, weight, and truck availability. Now Richard Burbidge can rest assured that the most important and the heaviest orders are given priority on its trucks, while the least important and lightest consignments are delivered using England's parcel service.

MapMechanics is the English distributor of TruckStops, which was developed by MicroAnalystics. For more information on TruckStops, see www.mapmechanics.com/routing/tsw_intropage.htm.