Regional Planning Reduces Empty Running at ForFarmers

Planning with Paragon has helped leading animal feed manufacturer ForFarmers establish improved levels of truck utilization.

Using Paragon Integrated Fleets to plan its logistics operations at regional level has dramatically cut empty mileage – and transportation costs.

By routing and scheduling all the trucks within each region as an integrated resource, Paragon’s plans enable vehicles to interchange between feed mills, collecting and distributing loads in the most efficient way possible. This focus on maximizing efficiency means that, at ForFarmers, backhauling is second nature and empty running is significantly reduced. For a 100-truck operation distributing 150,000 tons of feed to over 7,000 destinations every month, the savings that result are substantial.

Saving money is just one way Paragon has made its presence felt at ForFarmers. Automatically coping with complex constraints around product incompatibility and truck access – without impacting on promised time windows – is another. The software won’t, for example, route conflicting feeds on the same truck at the same time. Similarly, it pre-empts problems by never sending unsuitable trucks to delivery locations with limited access.

“We are confident that our customers are getting the deliveries they request at the time that we promise them. This is a key customer service benefit that, combined with the cost and efficiency savings we are seeing, makes Paragon software an invaluable daily planning tool for our operation.” Paul Muxworthy, SAP Support Development Manager, ForFarmers