Vehicle Routing Software - The Benefits
The Freight Transport Association showed recently that bulk diesel prices have increased by 27% since January 1999. Fuel costs currently account for 35% of the operating costs of a 40 tonne gtw articulated vehicle running 70,000 miles per year, compared to 25% in 1985. Yet a ten-fold diesel duty increase, from 4.9 pence per litre in 1976 to 48.8 ppl, has been matched within the same period consumer prices going up by only four-fold. Running costs are going to continue to increase disproportionately to the costs which may be passed on from hauliers and distributors to the customer.
One area growing in importance to those who run a vehicle fleet is the vehicle scheduling software (VRS) market. Optrak Distribution Software provides vehicle routing and scheduling software to the distribution industry. Each installation is fully customised and this is without a doubt the best method of ensuring that VRS provides the benefits demanded, both in terms of financial savings, reduced time spent on planning, and improved customer service levels.
Other Optrak clients report increases in efficiency and savings. Our customers in the oil and lubricants industries indicate savings of £750,000 in the first year of operation alone, and a 20% increase in the volume delivered. Optrak has also helped Shell Oils to maintain it's delivery promise and in most cases to exceed it. "Optrak has allowed us to achieve customer service targets that were simply not possible before" adds Martin McIver, Shell's Production Scheduling Co-ordinator, who estimated payback within the first year.
Recent exercises have illustrated the financial benefits enabled by Optrak. In a recent study involving home deliveries, Optrak reduced, in a single day, overall mileage driven by 23%. Driving hours were reduced by 14%, and the total cost by 15%. Optrak's findings established that the vehicle fleet had slack capacity and thus substantially more work could be done without increasing the core fleet or resorting to third party contractors.
On a larger scale, an investigation into the operation of a country-wide distributor of home improvements products determined that Optrak could accomplish the work using 12 fewer vehicles, reducing the running costs by 14%, mileage by 15% and drivers' hours by 13%.