Transportation Logistics Software for Shipment Consolidation

PART Transportation Logistics Software Analyzes National Carrier's Network for Shipment Consolidation

 

This study involves a major national carrier with over 40 years of service, having grown from one truck to a fleet of nearly 13,000 tractors and trailers. The carrier, family-owned and operated, is dedicated to providing superior service by anticipating it's customers' needs and responding to their expectations. This dedication to service has been the driving force behind the company's growth and continued success.

 

Background

While looking for transportation tools with different logistics software companies to include in a proposal, the carrier compiled shipment data for its network and posed the problem of shipment consolidation to software vendors as part of the selection process. Objective of the analysis was to look at the entire network of over 70 terminals and over 17,000 inbound and outbound shipments that moved through the terminals over a period of three months and evaluate consolidation opportunities.

 

Process

Analysis for this problem was conducted in Paradox Routing Tool (PART), a transportation logistics software in the following steps.

• Terminals, pickup, and delivery locations were mapped to get a geographic view of the shipment movements. 

• Outbound shipments were evaluated for the following modes upon consolidation

  -LTL

  -Multi-stop TL

  -TL

  -Private Fleet

• Outbound shipments were evaluated for the following modes upon consolidation

  -LTL

  -Private Fleet

 

Results

Results from the analysis included:

• Network maps (cluster and starburst) illustrating inefficient terminal assignments.

• Outbound Shipment Consolidation

  -81% of shipments (87% of total weight) were consolidated to straight TL

  -9% of shipments (5% of total weight) were consolidated to Multi-stop TL

  -Private fleet option was evaluated but discarded as it added over 200,000 miles to the solution

• Inbound Shipment Consolidation

  -38% of shipments (37% of total weight) were consolidated to multi-stop TL routes

 

Results and recommendations were provided to the carrier for further evaluation.