The increasing expenses involved in the transportation of goods are becoming a real headache for those in the fresh produce industry. The latest extortionate fuel hikes are only going to make matters worse. In addition, increasing labour costs and accelerating government regulations mean that the knock-on effect on profitability will be significant.

Transport planners battle on a daily basis with the difficult task of optimising their available transport and personnel resources. When operating small fleet sizes, the task is manageable. However, consolidation within the transport sector means that the number and variety of vehicles in the average fleet has increased significantly in recent years.

The logistics involved in the planning process can be pretty daunting. The variables include the proposed trips, the available vehicles, loading and product mix considerations, dropping and pick-up restrictions, vehicle access rules and driver accreditation, availability and working preferences. This is manageable when everything that has been meticulously planned works out.

But this isn’t real life. Vehicles break down, drivers get sick and the invariable last minute “specials” have to be facilitated. These factors mean that replanning has to take place at short notice and under maximum pressure. In this scenario, errors occur and inefficiencies are likely to creep in. In meeting the demands of the revised requirements, the cost aspects have to take a back seat to getting the job done. The effect on company profitability can be serious.

Traffic planners use a variety of techniques to manage the logistics involved in planning the workload. These vary from paper-based systems, specialist planning tools and the ubiquitous spreadsheet. The latter is by far the most common, as it is cheap and easy to set up and update. However, its limitations quickly become evident as the fleet size increases. Errors in the model can creep in, while management reporting can be non-existent. However, these are now being replaced by easy-to-use software designed to cope with the complexities of the replanning process.

A logistics optimiser provides the transport planner with a tool to minimise working time or driving distance to achieve any set of collection and deliveries within a given set of resources. Such systems use evolutionary algorithms to minimise the total working time or total driver distance in order to plan trips efficiently. Companies that adopt such systems will invariably have a significant cost advantage over traditional planning methods, as well as improved customer service. This will enable them to compete more efficiently using dynamic information as a business aid.

David Hurley is managing director of Anglia Business Solutions.