Route planning is the process of deciding on routes for any number of transportation needs, from personal travel to commercial transportation. In fact, the routes chosen by businesses are typically a reflection of their specific needs and tastes.
Businesses will generally have a clear need for one type of transportation service, while another may be used only Occasionally. With regards to bulk delivery planning, a business will choose the best possible routes based on expected delivery times, proximity to main hubs, popularity, and environmental factors.
Route planning can also apply to personal travel, in which case the term is known as commutation. Commutation refers to the scheduling of trips between different destinations. Some forms of commutation include road trips, bicycle touring, air travel, and car driving. Phandroid outlines options you should consider when route planning for business.
In addition to these more usual forms of commutation, other routes that fall under the larger umbrella of commutation include multi-day deliveries, intermittent route scheduling, and seasonal routing. With regards to business enterprises, routes are also known as routes map or master routing.
A route map is a tool for making sure that employees and resources are correctly assigned to various jobs, projects, and/or duty rotas. In business, routes may include routes to major production hubs, shipping locations, and/or assembly lines. In some instances, routes may even include internal and external branches.
In other instances, routes may simply be the shortest distances between related points. Regarding transportation, routes are referred to as master routing. In this instance, routes are a set of “master” connections that an entity makes to allow for the mass transfer of goods between entities.
An example of a master routing would be the routes an employee takes to get to work. In other words, master scheduling is the process of making a schedule of when and where transportation services should be utilized. As previously mentioned, route planning is one of the major components that are involved in the entire process of bulk transport movements.
This is because it allows an entity to determine the most effective and efficient routes for both freight and passenger transportation needs. For the purposes of passenger transportation, an entity will implement bulk delivery planning through fleet scheduling.
In the case of freight movement, an entity may choose to implement bulk transportation planning through contract management. Regardless of how the entity implements bulk delivery planning, one of the main goals of doing so is to improve upon present methods of transportation.
How does an entity go about implementing bulk delivery planning? Once an entity has decided on a method for bulk movement (e.g. truck delivery), the entity must decide on what types of carriers or trucking companies will be used to implement and/or service the business.
In the case of trucking companies, the entity may elect to implement a consolidation center. As previously stated, consolidations centers are companies that will partner with a specific carrier in order to save time, money, and/or effort for the entity.
The cost savings gained by implementing a consolidation center, however, will be offset at the expense of overall efficiency. Once the entity has determined the best trucks and/or carriers to implement bulk transportation services, the next step involves determining the best and most efficient routes for the implementation of the services.
One of the primary steps involved in route planning is secondary routing. Secondary routing involves the creation and establishment of secondary routing plans for a business. These secondary routing plans are typically used when a vehicle is in need of service but cannot be sent directly to the bulk shipper or logistics company due to logistics, safety, or weather concerns.
The most efficient route can be determined when the proper number of secondary routes have been established. In essence, the correct number of secondary routes is determined by analyzing the amount of time that it will take for the truck to travel between various ports.
The majority of trucking businesses implement secondary routing in order to improve on their on-time percentages. In addition, secondary routing can be implemented for short trips where the number of vehicles is less than four, the distance between ports is less than a couple hundred miles, and there are no significant unloading times.
For example, if a company has a terminal located at one end of the country and the largest goods that they will send across the country consists of electronics, then they can establish secondary routes such as New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
This would allow the truckers to enter and leave the country with adequate time, avoid heavy congestion at various ports, reduce unloading times, and improve on their on-time percentages.
