Vehicle routing and tracking systems rise to the challenge for Warburtons22 January 2014

Bread manufacturer Warburtons is getting real-time visibility of its 800-strong fleet, having extended its Paragon routing and scheduling system with a fleet control module and linked this to a Navman wireless GPS vehicle tracking system.

The manufacturer delivers 2.2 million loaves of bread each day to 20,000 retailer outlets across the UK, and can now see delivery data as it happens, instead of waiting 12 hours for drivers to report information.

Paragon's Fleet Controller links the Navman Wireless tracking system to its route planning software, giving live data for monitoring performance and optimising routes.

Jim Norton, Warburtons' distribution planning manager, says integrating the two systems is helping the business to improve customer service and making distribution more efficient.

"We use Paragon software for planning daily deliveries from our 25 sites and this involves managing a fleet of over 800 vehicles," explains Norton.

"When we ran Paragon's software together with the Navman Wireless system, the process was simple and fully integrated," he continues.

"The link between the systems is seamless and it gives us full visibility of what is actually happening on the road. We can see when a vehicle arrives at a delivery, how long the call took and when it left.

Norton explains that the Paragon software is installed at Warburtons' head office in Bolton. Orders are uploaded automatically into Paragon from Warburtons' SAP business system each night to generate routes and schedules.

The routes are sent directly to the in-vehicle terminals so that the drivers have all their deliveries available in sequential order on their terminals when they start their shift.

Author
Laura Cork

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