Paragon Software Systems, Inc., a leader in vehicle routing and scheduling optimization solutions, announces that Carbon Minimizer functionality adds environmental factors to its routing and scheduling optimization software. Paragon’s Carbon Minimizer functionality helps users to further reduce carbon emissions and fuel consumption of their planned schedules, which reduces both their carbon footprint and transportation operating costs.
“The additional Carbon Minimizer functionality reflects our commitment to providing customers with software solutions that meet the needs of the ever changing logistics industry, including meeting government regulations,” says William Salter, CEO of Paragon Software Systems. “We have been helping improve environmental efficiency within the industry for over 25 years by building efficient route combinations that cut mileage and reduce fuel consumption. The Carbon Minimizer tool takes this a step further and enables transportation operators to look at the environmental impact of their vehicle routes as part of the planning process.”
Carbon Minimizer optimizes route efficiency in terms of fuel used and associated carbon emissions. “The Paragon algorithm has been extended to include vehicle weight and speed variations and the impact that these factors have on fuel consumption and carbon emissions,” says Richard Street, Paragon’s Software Development Director. “As a result users can review and monitor the carbon and fuel related KPIs of their operations, and can apply an additional optimization step to further reduce emissions and fuel used.”
The software estimates and reports the total CO2 and fuel content of all the routes and schedules, including distances, speeds, weight and vehicle fuel efficiency. Carbon Minimizer is then used as a final optimization step to adjust the schedules – changing stop sequences and swapping stops between routes – to further reduce total CO2 emissions and fuel usage.
The software takes into account slower city-based travel that utilizes more fuel and emits more carbon emissions than highway travel that is much faster. Similarly, heavily loaded vehicles use more fuel/CO2 per mile than empty ones. The Carbon Minimizer incorporates these factors to generate carbon-friendly schedules.
“Fuel consumption also depends on other factors, such as driving style, vehicle age, weather conditions and so on,” adds Richard Street. “But regardless of these, vehicles will use more fuel per mile if they are heavily laden or travelling at slow speeds – so by including these two key factors, Paragon is able to generate fuel-efficient and carbon-friendly routes and schedules.”
All Paragon users can benefit from explicit reporting of carbon and fuel factors. Companies using Paragon strategically to analyze distribution scenarios canmake decisions based on expected carbon footprint, as well as cost criteria. Equally, companies using Paragon every day to calculate dynamic routes and schedules can monitor their carbon KPIs, such as expected CO2 per scheduled stop or per ton. And in all cases, Carbon Minimizer can be applied to refine the calculated schedules and further reduce the carbon and fuel content.
“Carbon Minimizer is built on our established optimization technology which is proven to deliver benefits across a wide range of industry sectors,” adds William Salter. “In these times of increasing emphasis on both fuel costs and the environment we are very pleased to be providing additional functionality that helps users address both of these key issues.”
