Multiple stop route planning for deliveries

Multiple stop route planners for deliveries are highly dependent on the optimisation engine working with highly sophisticated mathematical algorithms. Not all route planning and optimisation software tools are the same nor do they solve the same problems.

When considering a routing and scheduling solution you should look for an optimisation tool that is designed to drive density, increase productivity and reduce miles, along with the number of vehicles, routes and deliveries that it can handle.

These are all the other factors you should also consider when choosing Route Optimisation Software:

• Sequencing - Multiple Stops

  Will the system automatically place the deliveries and stops in an order that minimises distance while considering customer requirements?

  The Descartes multiple stop route planner considers all previous orders and resources before offering the optimal and available delivery slots for any new orders.

  

• Swapping

  Can the solution easily move stops between routes, vehicles or days whilst still considering customer, vehicle and driver requirements?

  

• Pick-up and Drop-off

  When an order is associated with two locations (picking up a product from one location and delivering it to another), will the solution arrange the pick-ups and drop-offs with vehicle capacity, customer requirements and driver efficiency in mind?

  

• Best Day Selection

  Does the solution select the best day, route and sequence within the delivery schedule in order to create optimal route density while still considering customer, vehicle and driver requirements?

  

• Same Day Dispatch

  Can the routing solution cope with, and assign, new or emergency orders to routes that are already being executed and do so after considering what has already been completed of that route’s deliveries?

   

• Continuous Optimisation

  The Descartes optimisation engine continues to run from the moment it receives the first order to the last, this drives maximum efficiency and enables you to extend the cut-off time for new orders.

  Continuous optimisation can use all of these concepts and provides all the benefits listed above.

   

  INFOGRAPHIC: Continuous v. Batch optimisation

An optimal routing solution, such as Descartes, will leverage your customers’ business priorities and one or more of the concepts above to solve the simplest to the most complex routing scheduling problems, while driving efficiency that reduces cost, improves productivity and enhances the customer experience.

Ensuring that each route has adequate density of deliveries and optimising the route travelled is vitally important, this function is carried out by Descartes advanced Route Optimisation Engine.

A company’s ability to continuously create reliable routes using fewer trucks, miles and drivers makes them more flexible, able to cope with changes in demand and keep costs low.

Descartes multiple stop route planner software can help optimise deliveries and enable service providers to achieve the highest levels of customer service, while controlling and minimising their transportation costs as much as possible. This can transform their delivery service from a costly requirement into a customer service asset.

It takes industry knowledge, innovation, understanding of a customer’s challenges and great technology to deliver results. Descartes has been providing multiple stop route optimisation tools since 1985. We have been innovating and refining our routing capabilities to address a myriad of routing problems in diverse industries.

Our experience and attention to innovation has enabled us to provide solutions that address territory and strategic planning problems, dynamic route planning, same-day routing, multi-drop route planning as well as point-of-sale/appointment scheduling and much, much more.

• Example - Daily Route & Load Planning

  As each new order is placed so the Descartes routing solution re-optimises the possible routes and vehicles in real-time, allocating resources in order to maximise a company’s operating efficiencies. This continual optimisation, as orders are being taken, enables fleets to be fully utilised and only those delivery slots that are ideal for a delivery route and that can be fulfilled with current resources, are offered, thus maintaining overall customer service objectives. Any over commitment is identified early, enabling the company time to hire in additional resources or reallocate deliveries.

  Orders are visualised on a map within the software which considers the street level network and other parameters in order to build the delivery routes automatically. Dispatchers then still have full control to manage exceptions with easy drag and drop moves.

  Companies that have moved from 'manual route construction' to 'exception management' with a Descartes routing solution find that their route planning time can be often be reduced to just a fraction of the time previously taken.