Paragon Software Systems Discusses the Balancing Act of Fleet Management

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Aug 13, 2013) - Paragon Software Systems, Inc., a leader in vehicle routing and scheduling optimization solutions, understands the balancing act faced by fleet managers. On one-hand businesses want optimized routes and fully loaded trucks of products to minimize costs. On the other hand they want to meet all their customer demands for narrow time windows and more, smaller deliveries, which means less efficient routes and higher costs. But by overlaying transport optimization these businesses can minimize the extra cost and put more weight on customer service.

With Paragon's advanced transportation planning software, companies of all types and sizes can use the routing and scheduling solution to develop a single optimized transportation plan for trucks and drivers. The software maintains information about customer locations and delivery requirements, and fleet characteristics and driver information. Using optimization algorithms and incorporating up-to-date digital mapping, it automatically creates truck routes and schedules that meet all the delivery requirements.

For a growing number of customers these capabilities are addressing two challenges in particular. More and more Paragon customers are reporting increased demand for tighter delivery time windows and more frequent deliveries, for example larger deliveries being split into smaller volume drops. Another major challenge, especially for food distributors, is pre- and post weekend delivery peaks, caused by the need to replenish fresh food supplies. Distributors, in turn, need to spread delivery workloads evenly across the week and address demand peaks before and after the weekend.

Paragon software helps maximize truck utilization. It schedules drivers and vehicles as separate entities, enabling driver workloads to be planned within legal work hours, and supports weekly scheduling of the whole fleet so geographically feasible delivery assignments can be assigned to give vehicles similar workloads each day. This ensures schedules meet promised arrival time windows while also minimizing mileage.

"Paragon's software is highly configurable and capable of handling the wide range of transportation constraints that arise in logistics operations," said William Salter, Paragon's president and CEO. "Our advanced vehicle routing and scheduling solution is enabling companies to make better use of vehicles and drivers and meet customer service requirements."

About Paragon Software Systems:

Paragon Software Systems, Inc. based in Dallas, Texas, is a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based Paragon Software Systems plc. With over 2,300 systems installed in more than 750 client sites in 45 countries worldwide, Paragon is a leading developer of commercial vehicle routing and software and systems. Focusing on short, medium and long term customer requirements, Paragon provides leading companies from the retail, manufacturing, wholesale, service, home delivery and 3rd party logistics sectors with solutions that reduce transportation costs, improve customer service, reduce delivery lead times and enhance operational efficiency and productivity. Clients include George's Chicken, AgReliant Genetics, Dufresne, Linde, McLane Logistics, National Food Corp., and others. For more information, visit: http://www.paragonrouting.com.