Spring 2009

A web-based vehicle routing optimisation service has been launched Postcode Anywhere, the specialist in address verification and matching. The company says that in trials by one unnamed haulage company, potential savings of £900,000 a year were identified for an outlay of 'a few hundred pounds'.

Like the company's main address-related services, the routing and scheduling is offered as a hosted web service, charged against a store of 'credits' bought by the user company.

This means a degree of integration with the user's system is desirable, but it is not essential. The company also offers a range of Excel spreadsheet templates through which users can process the information locally.

The system is designed to handle multiple drops, multiple depots and multi-day journeys, and can take account of typical user parameters such as the weight, height, width, length and maximum axle weight of vehicles, plus details of the loads. It is also said to handle multiple start and end points and variable delivery time windows.

 

In an entertaining disclaimer regarding the nature of scheduling algorithms in general, the company's web site points out that any software attempting to find an exact best route with 30 waypoints and five vehicles would take around 600 thousand billion billion years to compute the answer. It says most users prefer an optimal route, which it aims to provide.