Effect of Routing and

Scheduling Choices on
Transport Mode

Lecture 9

00.05 1
Learning Objectives

• Outline the role of fleet management

• Understand the issues relating to
routing and scheduling
• Recognise different routing &
scheduling choices
• Identify data capture methods used in
routing and scheduling
• Assess transport resource requirements
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Need for planning
transport
• Balance between cost & customer service
• Maximise vehicle assets at minimum cost
• Meet customer service expectations
• Manage drivers safely & efficiently
• Vehicle maintenance & replacement
• Security of goods
• Track & trace

00.07 3
Role of fleet
management
Needed for long term reliability of vehicles
Consists of:
• Maintenance scheduling
• Fleet administration
• Maintenance records, licensing, insurance
etc
• Fleet costing
• Vehicle & driver cost analysis
Use data to manage fleet cost effectively
00.08 4
 Measurement of transport
efficiency
• Percentage of time away from base.

• Maximum use of driving hours.

• Minimum amount of empty running.

• Utilisation of carrying capacity.

• Efficient loading/off loading.

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Transport resource
requirements
Determined by:
• Weight or volume capacity of vehicles
• Total time available in a day
• Loading & unloading times
• Different vehicle speeds
• Traffic congestion
• Access restrictions
00.10 6
Transport resource
requirements
Determined by:
• Nature of the products
• Consignee location
• Method and efficiency of delivery at
these locations
• Security and handling
• Customer service requirements
00.11 7
Difference between routing
& scheduling
Scheduling method
• How loads are organised to meet customer
service expectations
Routing principle
• The principle used to match the scheduled
load to the geography
Trunking & stem mileage principles
• Combining different routing principles eg hub &
spoke
00.13 8
Routing & scheduling choices

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00.14
Routing principles

• ARC or CIRCUMFERAL routes, which link

customers in an arc shape at various distances
from the depot.
• AREA routes, which link customers in
concentrated areas.
• RADIAL routes, which link customers along
radial patterns to and from the depot.

00.16 10
Scheduling principles

• Simplified delivery system

• Consolidation in small geographical area
• The petal method
• Milk runs & set delivery days
• The savings method
• Deliver goods enroute

00.18 11
 Routing & scheduling
principles
SDS

Petal

Savings

00.19 12
Hub and spoke system
Goods destined
for anywhere
collected from Taken to central
local feeder hub and sorted
area geographically

Feeder Hub Same vehicle

returns to
feeder area

Delivers in
local delivery
area
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Trunking & stem mileage

Movement between sites

Distance runs to customers

Trunking to local re-distribution centres

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 Trunking principles
GLASGOW PRESTON LONDON
Trailer
Change
4½ Hours 4½ Hours

CENTRAL CHASSIS AWAITING

WAREHOUSE BODIES TO GO ON
LOCAL DELIVERIES
STANDING BODIES
AWAITING RETURN

DEPO
T
NIGHT

MULTI SERVICE
LOCAL TO LOCAL
WAITING CUSTOMERS
TRAILERS TRAILER
S

NIGHT LOCAL
DEPOT

00.20 15
Assessing transport
resources
Audit vehicle availability ensuring that:
• Identify location of available vehicles
• Identify location of available drivers based on
available hours and licence type
• Identify body type of available vehicle to allocate
qualified driver and loads safely
• Identify vehicles maximum payload both in weight
and volume to allocate loads appropriately

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16
Tools for assessing
transport resources
List drivers and vehicles using either:
• Traffic sheet or diary system
• A wall chart
• Can use magnetic pieces to represent vehicles
and drivers
• T-card or pin system
• Wall mounted racks with slots for cards or pins
• Database or bespoke traffic system
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00.22 17
Examples of transport
resource tools

00.25 18
Examples of transport
resource tools

19
Data that needs capturing

• Customer addresses (including

postcodes)
• Order details such as product and quantity
• Order size and weight
• Special requirements

Most of this information is found on a

delivery note
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20
Typical delivery note

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How delivery data is
captured
Sales staff take orders from customers and:
• Manually enter order onto pre-printed,
multi-sheet delivery notes
• Manually enter order into a computer
system that prints delivery notes
• Use a database system to select
customer’s delivery address and goods
ordered which produces a digital delivery
note
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Data capture methods

• Pen and paper

• Hand inputted by computer operators
• Scanned in using a bar code system
• Received by EDI or other digital format,
such as XML or email
• Entered directly by a customer through a
secure interactive web page
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Capturing routing and
scheduling data
Need to match:

• Vehicle and driver capacity available

with
• When and what deliveries need to be made

Can then successfully schedule & route loads

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 Vehicle scheduling &
routing
Objectives
• Maximise payload
• Maximise utilisation
• Minimise distance
• Minimise time
Constraints
• Meeting customer requirements
• Meeting legal requirements
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Requirements for
scheduling
List of loads to be delivered to include:
• Geographical address to the postcode level
• Any physical unloading restraints
• Loading bay is very low, small vehicles only
• Any customer service constraints
• Closed for lunch break, delivery day and time
• Vehicle resources available to load
• Routing method
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Traffic planning

• Traffic staff often use customers’ delivery

notes to organise loads and allocate to
available vehicles
• Routing & scheduling software
automatically organises loads
• Often computer organised loads need to
be ‘tweeked’ manually by experienced
traffic staff
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Types of Routing packages

• Telematics
• Maps and routes from A to B (Sat Nav devices,
traditional maps)
• Routing & scheduling
• Organise loads into routes and schedules, based on
vehicle & driver capacities, customer expectations
• Track and trace
• Where is consignment, when was it delivered
• Transactional
• Billing, invoicing, fleet & driver management

M31EKM Lecture 9 28