Optimization Builds On Technology Base
Means different things in different applications.
JOHN BENDEL
TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
"Optimization'' has attained buzzword status in trucking technology. But like so many buzzwords before it, "optimization'' means different things in different applications.
Almost any technology can be considered "optimization'' of an earlier, perhaps manual system. But in most cases our new buzzword refers to further refinement of existing technology.
Routing Optimized
For example, ALK Technologies (www.alk.com) of Princeton, N.J., uses the term to describe FleetCommander, an application that runs in conjunction with — or "on top of'' — ALK's PC*MILER routing software.
PC*MILER routes trucks across the continent, mapping their way and producing turn-by-turn written directions. Companion product PC*MILER/Streets performs the same functions at the local street level. Both applications can be used with ALK's "optimization'' package, FleetCommander.
FleetCommander combines PC*MILER's routing and mapping data with real time position reports from a customer's mobile communications system and creates a live, on-screen display of truck positions on a map, thus "optimizing'' the original application. In other words, FleetCommander gathers existing data and creates a new working tool.
The resulting system's impacts range from operational efficiencies to customer service benefits. According to Craig Fiander, ALK's marketing director, FleetCommander can color code displayed trucks by dispatcher, help eliminate out-of-route mileage and automate arrival time projections.
Further benefits accrue from the ability to perform various analyses for fleet mileage, for mileage by particular vehicle and/or driver, said Fiander.
Both PC*Miler and FleetCommander run on a single or networked personal computer.
By The Suite
"Optimization" is being fashioned around many existing data sources. It's doubtful anyone has harnessed more such sources than trucking technology provider Logistics.com www.logistics.com). The Burlington, Mass., company has been optimizing under one corporate logo or another for more than a decade and many of its software products borrow the letters "opti'' for their own names.
Logistics.com products come in two broad categories, one for shippers and one for carriers. For shippers, Logistics.com offers two product suites, OptiManage and OptiBid, which help customers analyze and meet their freight transportation needs.
On the carrier side, Logistics.com offers a suite called OptiYield designed to improve truckload carrier operating efficiency in a number of areas, among them matching drivers with loads in an application aptly called Driver&Load.
"Most of the major truckload carriers use Driver&Load as their daily optimizer for matching fleets with their loads,'' said John Lanigan, president of Logistics.com.
Optimization Requires Good Data
But a carrier can't use an optimizing program like Driver&Load without underlying technology to provide essential data.
"Driver&Load needs to know the available shipments, origin, destination and the timing involved, when (the load) has to be picked up and when it has to be delivered,'' said Lanigan.
"Then it has to know the location of the vehicles and basic information around the driver/vehicle combination. On the driver side at a minimum the hours to run and the hours for the next couple of days depending on the length of the trip. Then, what kind of equipment? Is it a 48-footer? Is it a 53-footer? Is it a special tank?''
Lanigan said Driver&Load can use data from various sources.
"It's really not difficult to map data streams into that particular tool if they've got a good database. It can come out of any ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system like an Innovative, a McLeod or a TMW, or something like that.''
Lanigan noted that Driver&Load provides optimized advice that can be accepted or overridden by dispatchers. When a recommended load match is rejected, he said, Driver&Load adjusts other recommendations accordingly.
Optimization Catches On
With high-profile carriers benefiting from optimization tools, other fleets have taken note. As a result, customer interest in optimization tools is being felt at mainstream operations software companies whose software products generate much of the data that goes into optimization applications.
For instance, Tom McLeod of Tom McLeod Software, Birmingham, Ala., recently told HDT that his customers are asking for optimization in future releases of McLeod's trademark LoadMaster software.
"The things they want to see in the next product release have to do with analyzing costs and building in more decision support type applications,'' McLeod said. "You want to get to the point where you can tell the dispatcher whether or not to accept (a specific) load.''
Similarly, Maddocks Systems Inc., of Langley, British Columbia, Canada, will offer optimization in its TruckMate software.
"We're producing a low-cost optimization right now, which will have a release date at the end of the year. The product is going to use mathematical formulas to calculate the best allocation of resources using many different factors,'' said Maddocks Vice President Randall Burrell.
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The OptiYield Suite
