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Earlier transport vehicles were used to transport goods from a centralized depot to the client site. In such cases the work of vehicle route scheduling was very easy and did not required any software for scheduling, as there was only one source point and one destination point. However, with the changing times and expanding businesses, now transport service providers have to deal with multi point transport, in which there are many source warehouses and several more client delivery sites. For optimizing profits, often a single truck is used to deliver goods to multiple clients falling on the same route. In these condition routing and scheduling vehicles, manually becomes very hectic. To simplify this software engineers have developed several vehicle routing and scheduling software which can optimally route and schedule the inventory vehicles. Such software can easily route the truck fares according to the priority of orders and can ensure that the transport vehicles are used in the most efficient manner to minimize the transportation costs. Use of sophisticated software has facilitated in better utilizing the vehicles available in the present multi point delivery systems, where the vehicles have to collect goods from more than one warehouses and deliver it to more than one client. Other than optimizing the schedule of the vehicles, advanced routing software also take into consideration the delays which are possible in on-road transportation. This is why they have time windows for good delivery and pick-up, so that any delay does not cause any need to reschedule. Such software also takes complete care of the driver shifts and their working hour limits. Also, the compatibility of vehicles to carry a particular container is also taken into account vehicle routing them efficiently. Advanced software also allow the user to make provisions that certain hazardous goods need to be transported only by highly skilled and experienced drivers. Moreover, as refilling empty vehicles usually have a lower priority than delivering the filled containers to the client's site, routing software usually prioritize delivery of loaded trucks over loading of unloaded ones. Advanced vehicle optimization softwares equipped with Global Positioning System or GPS can keep in track of all the pick-up vehicles on the road. This prevents the trucks driven by new drivers, from straying off the route and getting lost. Use of such advanced software help transport operators to make significant savings and achieve better customer satisfaction by efficiently utilizing all the available vehicles.
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vehicle optimization software, vehicle routing and scheduling,
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