Today, for a delivery fleet manager, July 4th doesn’t just mean a hot dog, a few beers and time with the family; it means one of the busiest and most challenging times of the year. But with a little help from smart routing and scheduling software, you can be well-prepared.
According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, 80% of this great nation’s population will attend a barbecue, picnic or cookout next Wednesday, and 76% will get together with family. That means plenty of quality time with loved ones, but also jam-packed roads that can delay deliveries. Last year, a local paper predicted almost a million cars would travel through a single exit on one of the major highways in Greater New York.
Routing and scheduling software allows users to conduct route planning operations while taking into account predictable traffic snarls and design a route plan that avoids them. Or, if that’s not an option, you can factor in the extra time for inevitable delays to the schedule. Paragon’s Route Control function allows you to feed specific information into the route planning software about places or routes to avoid on particular days. Each customer can use it to build up a more accurate and useful picture over time – an investment in time that will pay dividends, especially on exceptional days such as July 4th.
Then there’s the spike in demand, as the nation readies itself for the July 4th celebration, which creates its own fulfillment crunch. Consumers buy 2.5 million – yes million – pounds of chicken in the week leading up to Independence Day, as well as stocking up for the 150 million estimated hot dogs eaten on the day. That means there’s pressure to deliver extra supplies to grocery stores, delis and food retailers ahead of the big day. Routing and scheduling software gives huge flexibility to route planning, in terms of responding to different patterns of delivery demand.
With the software, you can run all sorts of route planning what-if scenarios. What if customer X increases its orders by 50% on this day? You might need to bring on extra drivers. If you’re going to need to run 10 extra routes on a given day, do you have enough equipment, or are you already stretched to the limit? You might need to plan a second shift or rent some extra trucks. What if a customer’s business is closed on July 4th or they will have reduced staff, affecting their ability to receive deliveries? You might want to flex so that you double up on deliveries the day before or after.
Routing and scheduling software’s capabilities reach far beyond arranging deliveries. The ability to ask what-if questions means you can quickly and easily adjust your route planning to account for changes in order, staffing, and everything else involved in deliveries. The software helps plan at the deeper level of resource planning. It allows you to test the impact of decisions BEFORE you spend a dime on trucks, drivers, etc.
Generally, the challenges of keeping delivery performance high during a national holiday are relatively predictable. You can access the history of upswings in demand from your order management system, then use the what-if and routing control parameters in routing and scheduling software to anticipate exactly the resources you will need for an effective, efficient route plan. Over time, route planning software will build up data about exactly how you handled July 4th, Thanksgiving, and a host of other out-of-the-ordinary days, ready to help you make the best decisions in the future, too.
Then you can relax with family and watch the fireworks, confident you’ve taken care of one of the most challenging days of the year.
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