Hello and welcome to the eleventh edition of InTransit eq, the newsletter that will be “ e ”-mailed you on a “ q ”-uarterly basis. We try to include articles that appeal to our clients and/or our prospects and other friends in the industry. If there is something you'd like to read in future editions please provide feedback. Of course if you are not interested in being included in our circulation list, please unsubscribe where indicated right at the bottom of this email.

Nicola Williams
Managing Director

It seems like the ever-increasing fuel prices are encouraging companies to finally get around to route optimisation. As such, our business is booming and we need new staff!

Would you, or anyone you know, like to join the Transit team? We are currently looking for a Client Support Assistant, a Logistics Analyst and a Business Development Executive who have the skills to become an expert Transit user and whose values are aligned with ours.

The Client Support Assistant will join Scott, Samantha and Thuy on the Client Support team. The main responsibilities will be Help Desk support, installations and upgrades, and testing of new releases of Odyssey.

The Logistics Analyst will report directly to me. The main responsibilities will be to use Odyssey to conduct fixed route reviews, estimate costs for tenders, conduct “what-if” scenario modelling and model the potential savings from moving to optimised scheduling. This will involve liaison with the client to define data requirements, helping the client with the data gathering process, manipulating the data within Excel, conducting the scheduling and analysing and compiling the results.

The Business Development Executive will also report directly to me. The main responsibilities will include winning new accounts, growing existing accounts, raising awareness of Odyssey, keeping abreast of current affairs and trends within the industry and building relationships. This position will ideally be offered on a part-time arrangement until we have enough people trained to do the extra work won!

If any of these positions sound suitable to you, please click on the links underlined above to find out more. Please note that we won’t accept applications from our clients unless they get approval from their managers!

Nicola Williams
Managing Director

Managing transport industry challenges with routing and scheduling software.

The Australian transport industry changes on a daily basis, with contract moves, new legislation and customer demands providing difficult challenges to even the largest players.

Today is no different, with issues such as high fuel prices, driver shortages, council curfews, industry consolidation, customer demands and community environmental concerns dominating transport headlines. So how can we manage these changes and maintain a healthy bottom line? With routing and scheduling software.

Routing and scheduling systems provide benefits in three areas: cost savings, management control and customer service.

Savings can be made on the road: from fewer vehicles kilometres and fewer resources; in despatch: from reduced scheduling time; and in the warehouse: from the pick being organised by load and in delivery sequence.

Transport managers get greater control through the power of “planned versus actual” figures and key performance indicator (KPI) reporting. Customer service is improved from reduced turnaround times and on-time deliveries.

If you want to read more of the article I recently wrote for Business Strategy Australasia, click here.

Scott Dowell
Operations Manager

We often get asked if there’s a way in Odyssey to set a minimum shift length so that each vehicle is forced to work a certain number of hours. The short answer is no…

…However, the way to encourage the optimising engine to balance the shift lengths between all vehicles is to reduce the Shift length metro and Shift length country parameters in the Depot Editor. This then forces the schedule to become tighter, and will also spread out the work evenly over the available vehicles.

Reduce the shift by 30 minutes at each decrement, and compare the results to see which shift length works best to achieve your aim.

If you feel this is an option you may benefit from, please contact Client Support for more information.

What Are Transit's Vision, Purpose & Values?

Vision & Purpose

Our vision is to be the optimised routing and scheduling solution provider of choice throughout Australasia.

Our purpose is to help transport and distribution management run their operations more efficiently and profitably. This is achieved through the use of our routing and scheduling system, either by the client on-site, or via our consulting services where we use the system ourselves on behalf of the client.

Values

The values embraced by the team at Transit stem from a 30-year family tradition. As a company with a strong value base, our principles are the key to maintaining successful and mutually beneficial partnerships.

Relationships: We are dedicated to ensuring that our clients are completely satisfied with our system and our services, now and into the future. As a result, we foster long-term relationships with all our clients, from management to operational staff, to encourage open communication.

Integrity: We are passionate about delivering on our promises. We do what we say we’ll do, when we say we’ll do it. We really care about meeting our clients’ expectations and wherever possible exceeding them.

Efficiencies: We are focussed on providing solutions that deliver efficiencies in our clients’ operations and we carry this focus over into the way we do business. Our staff have a ‘can do’ attitude and strive to operate in an efficient and organised manner that delivers maximum benefit to our clients.