Follow on Google News News By Tag * UK delivery service * Routesmart * Delivery Software Solution * Final Mile Delivery * Royal Mail * More Tags... Industry News News By Place Country(s) Industry News
Follow on Google News | Why TNT Post Implemented RouteSmart for planning of postal routes in “end-to-end” deliveryBy: NorCal Press The company is realising its long held ambition to launch a national final mile delivery service within the UK. According to Nick Wells, CEO TNT Post: “TNT Post has built an excellent reputation for quality, innovation and providing choice for its clients. We are now taking those qualities and applying them to our own end-to-end delivery service. We are making a significant investment in technology, infrastructure and creating thousands of jobs.” Realising this ambition would provide Royal Mail with competition on the final mile for the first time in its more than 370 years of service. TNT Post has created in excess of 1,000 jobs in London since April 2012 and has plans to create 20,000 jobs across the UK in the next five years. The company has also invested tens of thousands of pounds in new technology. One key element of the technology investment relates to the creation of new postal rounds and for this TNT chose RouteSmart for ArcGIS. Tiemen van Bruggen, Head of Central Operations at TNT Post, notes: “At the very beginning of the end-to-end (E2E) project the team identified the need for a planning tool to create routes for the postal operatives.” According to Ben Schooling, Rounds & Mapping Manager at TNT Post, “RouteSmart has been instrumental in the set-up of the E2E project at TNT Post and has helped facilitate the creation of postal delivery rounds with specific service targets.” This was especially important as one of the key objectives was to offer the ‘posties’ two hour rounds which could be ‘flexed’ to meet service demand, allow the posties to ‘double-up’ Ben continues: “We chose RouteSmart over others as it combined GIS technology with postal service specific algorithms that were proven to deliver the most efficient routes. We planned to use PAF/Ordnance Survey as the base data files so needed software that was compatible and we wanted to be able to sequence the items to household level using the sortation machines which RouteSmart can do. The ability to incorporate OS updates whilst maintain the sequence of the original round was a challenge and required further development. The improvements to the Insert solver has now facilitated this.” “We chose RouteSmart over others as it combined GIS technology with postal service specific algorithms that were proven to deliver the most efficient routes. “RouteSmart has been instrumental in the set-up of the E2E project at TNT Post and has helped facilitate the creation of postal delivery rounds with specific service targets.” ISL have been very supportive in assisting with the formulas, scripts and calculations in order to ensure accurate targets were produced. When asked what the top three reasons for procuring a software system Tiemen replied: “We didn’t have the detailed knowledge of the geographic areas so needed a GIS based tool to assist the planners. We also required automated support since the number of rounds were large and the ability to create rounds based on varying mail volume”. Approximately 2370 rounds to date have been created using the software. The RouteSmart software is hosted externally at specialist secure centres in the UK with users connecting from their desktops in TNT Post HQ in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. One piece of functionality within RouteSmart that has made a significant difference to operations at TNT according to Tiemen is “… the clarity of the maps which gives a lot of visibility of the round to new starters”. Ben adds: “The ability to customize the delivery instruction booklets in Crystal reporting is beneficial and has allowed us to tailor the booklets accordingly.” RouteSmart has provided TNT with additional benefits that were originally unforeseen such as finding the right locations for delivery units through the postcode sector polygon layer. TNT are looking to expand the use of RouteSmart to assist in defining new areas as further roll-outs occur. The RouteSmart software was introduced by Integrated Skills Limited (ISL, www.ukisl.com) According to James “As the TNT planning team became more conversant with the RouteSmart software the time taken to produce routes from scratch was reduced dramatically but at the same time the integrity and quality of the routes remained high.” James continues “… the project team at TNT were incredibly quick at learning the core concepts of the GIS technology that underpins RouteSmart.” Ben Schooling notes: “The team at ISL are dedicated in their pursuit of tailoring the software to the needs of our business and to solving technical issues that arise and have been very supportive in assisting with the set up and ongoing development of the software.” As an example he cites “the service time input factors from the business case model were incorporated into RouteSmart and ISL have been very supportive in assisting with the formulas, scripts and calculations in order to ensure accurate targets were produced.” Ben adds that “…ISL are currently proposing a Centralised Database solution for storing and managing the source data which should give us the ability to scale up and extract and upload data much more effectively.” Postal industry leaders depend on RouteSmart software solution for achieving maximum efficiency through route optimisation. Global and national operations such as Swiss Post, Australia Post, Itella, Luxembourg Post, Isle of Man Post Office, FedEx Home Delivery and the United States Postal Service know that every minute and every mile counts. That’s why these organisations rely upon RouteSmart (http://www.ukisl.com/ http://www.ukisl.com/ Media Contact: Bell House 32 Bell Street Romsey Hampshire SO51 8GW T: +44 (0)2380 737 983 E: info@integrated- End
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Account Phone Number