Revolutionise Your Fleet Operations: The Synergy of Daily and Strategic Route Planning

In today's fast-paced business landscape, optimising your fleet's performance is key to staying ahead of the competition.

To unlock the full potential of your fleet, you need route planning software that seamlessly combines the power of live daily route planning and strategic route planning.

Before diving deep into how a comprehensive route planning software solution can level up your game, let’s break down, specifically, what we mean when we talk about the two:

• Daily route planning involves day-to-day scheduling of your fleet operations using route optimisation features.

• Strategic route planning focuses on optimising and unlocking the future potential of your fleet by testing various "what-if" situations. Here at Aptean, we call that functionality scenario modelling.

When discussing route planning software solutions, many vendors are only referring to the first of these two pivotal approaches—optimising your daily truck routes. However, to truly unlock the best results for your business, you need to be looking to the future as well as improving your today. For that, you need comprehensive route planning software that does both.

This is a perfect example of how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Imagine having a solution that could do both daily and strategic route planning. A solution that helps you focus on the day ahead and looks beyond today to inform your high-level route planning strategy.

The great news? You don’t have to imagine. Aptean Routing & Scheduling Paragon Edition, in fact, delivers on both.

In this blog post, we’ll delve into why this integrated approach is essential and how it empowers you to achieve peak performance for your fleet.

Advanced Daily Route Planning Streamlines Processes for Planners

Live daily route planning is the process of efficiently scheduling and optimising the day-to-day operations of your fleet. Compared to traditional manual methods, implementing a system that automates this process is essential for maximising efficiency and achieving better results.

At Aptean, our advanced and proprietary routing algorithms seamlessly combine skeleton/batch routes (daily plans) with emergency, off-day and late orders, ensuring comprehensive and dynamic route planning.

This approach empowers fleet managers and planners with significant benefits, like:

• Time savings for planners - By automating the route planning process, our system frees up valuable time for planners to focus on more important strategic tasks. They no longer need to spend hours manually scheduling routes and adjusting plans. Instead, managers and schedulers can dedicate their time to analysing data, optimising resource allocation and making informed decisions to improve overall fleet performance. In addition, knowing that your route planner tasks require less time empowers you to offer later order cut-off times if required to improve customer service.

• Cost savings on fuel consumption - Our route optimisation software optimises fuel usage by taking into account various factors such as traffic conditions, vehicle capacity and delivery time windows. Through advanced algorithms, it generates optimal routes that minimise fuel consumption while ensuring timely deliveries. This leads to substantial cost savings for your fleet operations and a positive impact on both profitability and sustainability goals.

• Less wear and tear on vehicles - Efficient route planning also minimises unnecessary mileage, reducing wear and tear on your fleet. Our advanced algorithms consider factors like road restrictions, vehicle types and driver availability to optimise routes. When unnecessary driving is minimised, your vehicles experience less strain and require fewer maintenance interventions. This results in extended vehicle lifespan, decreased maintenance expense and improved operational efficiency.

But don’t just take our word for it.

Al Khayyat Investments (AKI Group) faced significant challenges in managing its transport operations, processing thousands of orders and deliveries across the UAE's seven emirates. By implementing Aptean routing and scheduling software, the company increased productivity and reduced costs.

The AKI Group experienced annual transport cost savings of $1 million and reduced its fleet size by 38%. This advanced technology solution played a pivotal role in the organisation’s pursuit of operational excellence and transformed its distribution operation.

Strategic Route Planning that Empowers Data-Driven Decision-Making and Future Success

Aptean’s strategic route planning software uses our advanced algorithms to model "what if" scenarios, allowing you to visualise the potential outcomes and impacts of different decisions on your key performance indicators (KPIs).

The power of this scenario modelling functionality lies in its ability to empower:

• More informed decision-making - By simulating different scenarios, you gain a deeper understanding of the potential consequences of actions before you implement them. This empowers your decision-makers with comprehensive insights, enabling them to make strategic decisions based on data-driven analysis rather than guesswork. Informed decision-making can help to ensure that actions are aligned with organisational goals, reduce risk and increase the likelihood of achieving desired outcomes.

• Continuous improvement - Scenario modelling functionality facilitates a culture of continuous improvement by providing tools to evaluate different scenarios and identify areas for optimisation and refinement. By assessing projected outcomes based on certain parameters, you can identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and areas of improvement within operations. This iterative process allows for ongoing enhancements, enabling you to stay agile, competitive and responsive to changing market dynamics.

• Optimised resource allocation - Effective resource allocation is crucial for maximising operational efficiency and minimising costs. Strategic planning software allows you to simulate scenarios and evaluate resource requirements, such as trucks, drivers and depots. By optimising resource allocation, organisations can achieve better utilisation of their assets, minimise waste and improve overall productivity. This can help facilitate cost savings, increase efficiency and improve customer satisfaction.

By implementing Aptean routing and scheduling software, Greggs, the UK's leading bakery food-on-the-go retailer, achieved significant improvements in its strategic planning and distribution operations. With a fleet of 250 vehicles and growing customer expectations, Greggs needed advanced planning tools to optimise efficiency and maintain high service standards.

The software enabled the business to simplify its planning process, target efficiency savings and improve vehicle utilisation by over 30%, resulting in a highly efficient multi-drop route plan that better serves its retail network.

Harness the Power of a Comprehensive Strategic Route Planning Solution

By embracing a comprehensive route planning solution, like Aptean Routing & Scheduling Paragon Edition, you can unlock the full potential of your fleet. Seamlessly integrating daily and strategic route planning enables you to achieve immediate cost savings while positioning your business for long-term profitability.

At Aptean, we bring extensive industry experience to guide you through the implementation process and ensure a seamless transition to our market-leading software. As demonstrated by our recognition in The Software Report’s Power 500 Software Companies of 2023 rankings, we are committed to delivering a solution that meets and exceeds your expectations.

If you’re ready to learn more about Aptean’s comprehensive routing and scheduling solution and how it can help you unlock your peak performance, contact us. You can also request a personalised demo.