New and Improved: Quintiq not just for routing anymore

Over the last few months, Dot Transportation, Inc. (DTI) implemented new and improved features to our Quintiq routing software. Countless enhancements have resulted from this project, but here are some of the big-ticket items that drive the most significant results.

Metropolitan Road Speeds & Minimum Stop Times

We now have the functionality to identify specific regions where we know road speeds should be significantly reduced, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and other metro areas. Similarly, minimum stop time is now applied to all locations. This will prevent any instances of short stop times of less than an hour. In an environment where our brand means everything, these features will certainly boost our on-time percentage to our partners and further improve our brand.

Ready for Driver Assignment

We’ve started to introduce Quintiq as more than just a routing software, but an overall planning software for Dot Transportation, Inc. (DTI). This started with Dispatch and Routing working together to determine the best plan for purchase orders (PO), before any routing ever occurring, using Quintiq’s functionality. We have some driver supervisors assigning drivers during live routing before loads ever make it to AS400. Katelyn Harrison (TN) and Genevieve Parker (DE) have led the charge in being the first of the distribution centers (DC) to take advantage of this opportunity. During routing, the logistics planner will mark a load as “Ready for Driver Assignment,” which puts the load into their views to assign a driver. This eliminates the need for driver supervisors to provide dedicated driver availability because they do the assignments, and it helps speed up the overall process resulting in loads to the warehouse sooner.

Terminal Planning

Currently, Quintiq is the only system using hours of service (HOS) calculations, making it very important for load planning to be done correctly before exporting to other systems. We now have the functionality to put together loads that originate in a terminal location and have the appropriate HOS timing for a driver to be out and back from the terminal within their 14-hour clock.

Drop Trailer Functionality

We can now show whether an order or PO is planned as a drop trailer. The foundation is set up to get this information available to dispatch and, eventually, to the driver’s handheld device.

Central Storage of Information

Thinking from a lean aspect, oftentimes we’re wastefully hunting down outside sources to find information vital to the routing process such as a customer service rep (CSR) for a specific account or customer/supplier-specific notes. Quintiq is quickly becoming a one-stop-shop allowing us to focus more on planning and less on searching for more information needed.

Information Sharing

We’ve set up the foundation for future import to other systems that can be shared with dispatch and drivers. This includes notes fields on order and load levels, double-stack suppliers, dry van required suppliers, among many other opportunities.

—

The list of improvements can go on and on. We’re looking forward to continuing to grow this software as an overall planning tool for DTI.