With new vehicle type and time of day functionality, the latest release of TruckStops vehicle routing and scheduling software enables fleet operators to make more efficient use of resources and to more accurately plan arrival times to suit tight delivery time windows.
The new version 4.1 of TruckStops UK, which is supplied and supported by MapMechanics, also calculates routes more quickly, offers faster display of more detailed maps, and includes new RouteRefresher technology for fixed route management.
The option to produce selective schedules for different vehicle types and times of day takes advantage of various up-coming technologies. First, the core TruckStops application has been enhanced to allow speeds to be set up for different vehicle types (light vans or heavy trucks, for instance), each with its own user-configured speed parameters.
As a result, TruckStops will now not only take into account requirements of specific deliveries and collections (such as size or temperature of goods), but will also simultaneously consider the difference in speed for each vehicle type, when allocating calls to each resource.
This means that fleet managers will benefit from reduced running costs, since call points are allocated to the most suitable vehicles. Visits in rural Wales, for instance, are more likely to be allocated automatically to vans that are suited to navigating narrower roads, and can reach the destination within the standard working day.
In support of the new features in TruckStops, MapMechanics can supply various datasets that reflect real-world travel times between nodes (points on roads). Best-established is ITIS data, which incorporates speeds taken from millions of GPS-tracked vehicles in daily use, divided into peak, off-peak and optionally other times of day. A new alternative, NAVTEQ Travel Patterns, records average speeds on each road link at quarter-hour intervals throughout the day.
“These innovations take TruckStops a significant stride forward, and mark the start of an important new phase in its development,” explains Mary Short, director and founder of MapMechanics. “Although previously we have been able to apply different speeds for the whole journey, this new functionality more closely reflects the real world by allocating, for example, slower speeds for the rush hour and faster travel for the off-peak part of any particular journey.”
In addition, the new version of TruckStops produces schedules more quickly by making use of parallel developments in GeoConcept, the digital mapping and geographic information system that is also supplied by MapMechanics. The two software systems have been used in conjunction for some years, and now TruckStops takes advantage of GeoConcept’s new Smart Routing capability.
Smart Routing makes it possible to perform scheduling optimisation using detailed street-level mapping, whilst avoiding excess computing time. It does this by making more intelligent use of the digital mapping that underlies the optimisation process.
TruckStops 4.1 also displays maps of calculated routes more quickly, streamlining the scheduling task for operators. The new version uses Fast Compressed Map (FCM), which is highly compact, and therefore redraws very quickly on screen, so that the improved performance of the software is reflected in a snappier, more responsive user interface.
Another new resource for TruckStops users is RouteRefresher functionality, which has been developed by MapMechanics for operators who use TruckStops to calculate fixed, recurring routes. This enables them to produce routes which include only the customers they need to deliver to, and to put them in the best order. It also enables users to keep their fixed routes up to date by deleting visits that are no longer required (for instance, to remove former customers), without having to run a full TruckStops optimisation process again.
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