Hazardous waste management company Enviroco Limited is implementing a hi-tech computerised route optimisation solution from Paragon Software Systems. The transport planning software simplifies complex route planning and helps Enviroco meet exacting service requirements across the company’s UK-wide customer base.
The route optimisation solution incorporates specially calculated average road speed data to give greater journey accuracy for mixed long haul and city driving. The Paragon software has reduced planning time from four days to a few hours. It also allows Enviroco’s transport management team to adjust the plan to include urgent call-outs and last-minute changes requested by the customer.
“We collect packaged waste from customers across the UK – including Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight. Collections vary in frequency from site to site, plus we have to deal with ad hoc requests and emergencies. Paragon’s route optimisation solution brings new levels of accuracy to our transport planning and it removes laborious manual processes. Our staff now have more time for customer service and to manage and improve our efficiencies,” says Howard Jonas, Enviroco Operations Director.
“Importantly, with Paragon we start with efficient and accurate collection route plans and, whatever changes we have to make along the way, we know that the software will re-optimise the routes. It also allows us to run ‘what-if’ scenarios – for example, changing collection times to certain sites to see whether we can improve service further. The software shows exactly what is possible if we make these changes,” he adds.
The software has also highlighted some extra capacity so that Enviroco can add further collections to the plan.
“Paragon’s route optimisation solution has helped us to identify slack time and we use this to do more work. The calculations are complicated as there are so many variables to account for in meeting customers varied service requirements. With Paragon, however, we can see the loads on each vehicle and sequence in additional collections where possible. This means we can use our fleet and driver resources to the full,” says Howard Jonas.
Enviroco is now also looking at Paragon Route Execution for tracking real-time vehicle activity against the plan. This additional software module will also alert customers of updated delivery times when the vehicle is an agreed number of minutes away.
