 From planning a distribution network and deciding on depot locations to setting up delivery routes, scheduling journeys from day to day and interacting with drivers out on the road – the whole spectrum of transport planning and execution now falls in the compass of MapMechanics, the specialist in transport and logistics applications and geographic solutions.
The company’s stand no.13 at the Logistics Link South exhibition, running at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey from 6 to 7 February, reflects the constantly-growing breadth and depth of the company’s resources for the logistics market, and illustrates new products and recent solutions for major customers.
Among innovations developed by MapMechanics is a system called StreetServicer, ideal for squeezing more efficiency from tightly-knit urban delivery operations. Unlike conventional vehicle routing and scheduling systems, which consider each call point separately before allocating them to a route, StreetServicer groups calls together and allocates them to street segments first. This saves unnecessary repeat visits to the same sections of road, and reduces problems posed by operations with many call points to much more manageable information and faster street-based calculations.
Another MapMechanics innovation is Frequency Scheduler, designed for advance planning of calls over an extended period. It uses genetic algorithms (learning by repeated iterations) to gain efficiency with use, and takes account of factors such as differing call cycles required for different customers or operations.
Frequency Scheduler exploits the capabilities of three of MapMechanics’ other key products, all of which will be on display. OptiSite, the network planning system, and GeoConcept, the geographic information system, work together to allocate drivers optimally to territories containing the required call points. Then Frequency Scheduler also offers the batch mode capability of TruckStops, the routing and scheduling system, to plan routes and schedules on an optimised basis, using a simple, friendly interface.
TruckStops itself features strongly on the MapMechanics stand, where it is shown in various roles – as a facilitator of centralised scheduling (Rhys Davies is a recent user), dynamic day-to-day scheduling (Lloyd Fraser) and intensive ad hoc scheduling of multiple journeys (as applied by Lowri Beck, a meter-reading specialist).
MapMechanics is also illustrating its ability to take on one-off project work on behalf of customers, with the option to use the combined power and flexible facilities of TruckStops, GeoConcept and OptiSite. The client has access to a wide range of mapping, business and demographic data to use in conjunction with their own information. Recent clients featured in this way include G Easton, a transport company involved in bulk milk collection and delivery – a market in which TruckStops has gained a particularly strong reputation.
For planning territories, depot distribution areas or franchise networks, MapMechanics is showing OptiSite for GeoConcept, whose latest version gains a range of improvements in flexibility, usability and presentational features. It can now interact more smoothly with users’ existing business and map data, and output data in modern formats such as HTML and XML. Among recent users is TNT Express.
GeoConcept, the leading computer mapping and geographic information system from MapMechanics, is featured at Logistics Link in its own right. In its latest form it gives users unprecedented flexibility and power to display and evaluate corporate data in ways that reflect their own needs and priorities. It also underpins products such as TruckStops and OptiSite, providing both geographical processing capabilities and attractive, configurable map displays, which now include features such as translucent overlays.
The final link between planning deliveries in advance and ensuring they are carried out when the time comes is MapMechanics Mobile, the company’s real-time information system, which has been taken from concept to practical product in the past 18 months, and is now in active use by operators. This too will be on display on the MapMechanics stand.
MapMechanics Mobile delivers information from TruckStops or other standard routing and scheduling software wirelessly in real time to drivers out on the road, guiding them to their destinations and reporting their progress back to base. It is fully integrated with leading navigation systems such as TomTom. Feedback from the system allows the schedule to be amended and re-optimised, and customers to be alerted of delays or other delivery issues.
MapMechanics also offers a steadily-growing range of UK, European and global digital mapping datasets, which are often used by suppliers of real-time vehicle tracking and location systems, in addition to supporting on-screen displays for TruckStops and similar applications. Products include the continually-expanding NAVTEQ range, which now includes street-level mapping for Australia, South Africa, the Middle East, the USA and Canada, as well as further-flung locations such as Russia, Taiwan, China, South Korea and Mexico.
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