Paragon Software Systems announces what it calls "a breakthrough in transportation planning" – Paragon Route Control. Transportation planners can now use a calendar to create routes that comply with time and day-related local, state and national regulations, and road closures resulting from major public events, Paragon said.
According to the company, Paragon Route Control cuts the time spent on manual planning, minimizes the impact of restrictions on routing and scheduling, and lowers the risk of incurring penalty fines.
“Our grocery store clients have asked for this capability to make their day-to-day job easier – and we have delivered with Paragon Route Control,” said William Salter, CEO and president. “Now with Paragon Route Control, our customers can create rules that automatically apply legitimate route deviations at specific times of the day, week or month by truck type to their transportation plans, reducing the level of manual intervention required by the planner. Drivers can better meet delivery schedules while adhering to road restrictions and regulations, ensuring on-time deliveries and improving customer satisfaction.”
When a driver deviates from the prescribed route, fleet monitoring systems flag that route as an exception, and the transport office has to manually check if it should be recorded as a breach or not. Using Paragon Route Control, users can specify alternate routes between two locations by vehicle type and identify when the alternate routes should be used. Paragon then applies these rules at the relevant time of day, week or month depending on vehicle type. Details of detours and events are created using a simple calendar which can be stored and re-used; algorithms within the software then calculate the best driver schedules every time.
According to the company, Route Control can be used to manage time-sensitive route restrictions including:
- Road closures or congestion caused by sporting or cultural events, e.g. the Boston Marathon or Super Bowl
- US Local Restrictions, e.g. Limited Truck Zones in New York, Manhattan and Staten Island
- Commercial construction zones where heavy goods vehicle (HGV) access may be restricted at certain times of the day, or days of the week
- Prioritizing the safest route over the quickest route, such as avoiding roads around schools during child drop-off and pick-up times.
“Transportation operations that ensure goods are delivered on time are complex,” Salter added. “Creating rules that allow for legitimate deviations from the normal fastest route at specific times of the day, week or month by vehicle type reduces the level of manual intervention required by the transportation planner, and ensures that the schedule reflects what is actually happening on the roads. After talking to transportation and logistics industry players about the challenges they face, our team of software developers has now built the functionality to help them ‘close the gap.’ We believe that Route Control is a game changer for transportation planners around the world.”
