Fixed Routes
Fixed Routes is a module within MTS that provides a mechanism to define a set of ‘template’ Trips that can be built from a pool of unscheduled orders. This functionality will typically be used to try and plan certain trips before sending the remaining unscheduled orders to an external scheduling tool or building them manually. Typically these Trips will be key routes that are repeated on a frequent basis.
Fixed Routes consists of two areas, configuration and execution. Two screens, Fixed Routes Maintenance (ROUTES_MAINT) and Fixed Routes Execution (ROUTES_EXEC) are used.
Fixed Route Configuration
A Fixed Route provides a method of defining a ‘template’ for a Trip. A Fixed Route is created for an owning depot and assigned with an appropriately descriptive name. Each Route can be specified for any or all days of the week. A Carrier, Trailer and Cost can also be assigned to the Route. If a Trailer Type is assigned it will be assigned to all Trip Stops on the created Trip, the Trailer will also be fixed (pegged) so that it cannot be overwritten by trip validation (see Trip Manipulation for further details of fixing Trailers). The maximum number of Trips that can be created for a Route for a Schedule can also be defined.
This defines the high level Trip, the Route Stops can then be added to control where Orders need to be loaded or unloaded (collected or delivered). A route stop can either be defined at a specific location or within a planning or postal region. If the Route Stop is defined at a region them the Fixed Routes processing will consider all locations in that region when identifying potential Orders.
For example, a simple Route may start at depot A where it collects goods for store B, travel to store B where it delivers the goods and then return to depot A.
Each Route Stop must be configured as Mandatory or Optional and time windows need to be configured. It is possible to ‘Fix’ the times on a Route Stop at a Location so that they don’t get recalculated as part of recalculate Distance and time. NOTE – it is not possible to fix times at Region stops as it is possible that MTS may identify a number of Orders within that region resulting in multiple Trips stops being created from single Route Stop. If a number of optional stops are entered they must be prioritised in order of importance, this way it is possible to define the order in which stops are considered within Fixed Routes allowing MTS to fill the important stops before considering the less important stops.
Fixed Routes also provides the mechanism to part built Trips if only some of the Orders are present and then re-build them at a later date when all the Orders are present. This stops Orders being sent to the Scheduling tool if it is likely that MTS will be able to plan them and is achieved by using the Semi Fixed trip status. If the Semi Fixed Trips have not been turned into complete Trips near to their planned departure point they can be disbanded and all the Orders returned to Unscheduled so that they can be sent to the Scheduling tool to be planned.
A Semi Fixed Trip will be created if either the highest priority optional stop or all stops have not been satisfied or if the fill factor or trailer capacity has not been met at each stop. These options are configurable within each database.
Fixed Routes Execution
Execution is performed for a Schedule and optionally for Depot. Access control is used to control which Depots a user can run Fixed Routes for. Upon execution it is possible to identify the day that Fixed Routes is being executed for. The process considers all Routes that are defined to run on the specified day (Note – if 7 day schedules are being used it is possible to select the days within that schedule that fixed routes should execute for) and attempts to match any Unscheduled Orders to the user defined Fixed Routes. Fixed Routes will check the number of Trips that have already been created on that schedule from that Route and will attempt to create trips until it reach the maximum number if sufficient demand exists. Fixed Routes will process all stops that have been defined on the Route on the following order: -
Mandatory Pickup – Mandatory Delivery Mandatory Pickup – Optional Delivery Mandatory Delivery – Optional Pickup Optional Pickup – Optional Delivery
If an order cannot be found to satisfy a mandatory stop the Trip will be immediately disbanded. Each time an order is added to a Fixed Route the Trip is validated to ensure that the resulting trip is still valid, if validation fails the Order will be removed and processing will continue. Once a Fixed Route has been built additional checks are performed to ensure that the required stops have been included and that the trailer of fill factor has been satisfied, if not the Trip will either be disbanded or set to SEMI_FIXED. A system parameter defines the measure that is used to calculate fill factor, this is either RPE, weight or volume. Finally the Trip is set to its final status, usually TENDERED or ACCEPTED. During this process a comprehensive Audit log is written and is visible from the Fixed Routes Execution screen. From this log it should be possible for users to identify the reason why a route has not built. In addition to the Audit Log the Fixed Routes Execution screen also allows a user to view the Trips that have been created via Fixed Routes and also the Orders that have been assigned to the Trips.
