When discussing optimization when planning routes, trips, or loads, the first thing that comes to mind is that the optimized end result reduces transportation costs by a significant amount. But there are other savings to be gained as well. The time needed to plan those routes, trips, or loads can take quite a long time every day.
Andrew explains how Strategic Movements is for optimizing product delivery routes. The video includes a discussion on what factors are used in the optimization process and a demo showing data uploading, changing jobs before assignment, the assignment process, and changing assignments before printing.
Walzik, Inc today announced the Strategic Movements QuickBooks Interface, a connection between QuickBooks Online and Strategic Movements, their web application for route planning, scheduling, and dispatching.
Now that we have set our clocks back to Standard Time and have some extra daylight in the morning, it is time to consider safety issues on these shorter days.
Although Strategic Movements may be used as a manual dispatching tool, or to maintain and dispatch master schedules of static routes, it provides the greatest savings when used for dynamic routing. Dynamic routing, also known as automated routing or autonomous routing is the technique where the work of a human route planner, load planner or trip planner is done by a computer process.
There are many ways to get information about trends and possible opportunities in almost all fields. This morning, I was reading the October, 2020 issue of Trains magazine and found an article on intermodal opportunities. While Strategic Movements does not handle intermodal shipments, the article cited some interesting statistics on motor freight in general.
Anyone that works in an organization with service technicians or delivery workers that drive to customer locations knows that there is always some planning that needs to be done each day to get the work done. In the simplest case, a load planner prints out work tickets from a business application and gives them to the worker who will be doing the driving.
Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) models require that someone decides how each service order or delivery ticket is assigned to the proper worker or vehicle for last mile delivery. There are three primary methods used for making those decisions: manual routes, static routes, and dynamic routes.
Not everyone buys their groceries at major chains like Kroger or Walmart. Throughout the country, many people shop at either independent grocers or stores that are part of small chains. And these stores are serviced by regional food wholesalers.
Now that the weather is getting warmer, many homeowners are seeing those small piles of wood shavings that indicate that either termites or ants are around. And this discovery inevitably leads to a call to a pest control provider. Good pest control is not just a one-time call to have someone come out to eliminate the pests, but an ongoing service that has recurring technician visits to review how well the abatement is working.