Paragon has already helped Hermes achieve significant efficiencies, with annual savings of£300,000.
With the routing and scheduling software, Hermes automates the planning of deliveries from 14 ofits 18 depots to final mile couriers throughout the UK mainland. This figure is expected toincrease following the use of Paragon at the remaining depots.
“Paragon has provided us with a range of tactical benefits already. It helps us with developingvery accurate routes and has already saved us about £300,000 annualised, thereby paying for itselfseveral times over. It is a good, easy to use, and fully functional solution for our operation. Thesoftware allows us to reduce our mileage – and this amounts to an average cost saving of £162 peryear for every mile we don’t drive on a daily basis,” said William Ellis, Network DevelopmentManager, Hermes UK.
Hermes uses Paragon Multi Depot to plan optimised set routes allowing for narrow deliverywindows of no more than 4 hours. Each delivery point where drivers drop parcels to couriers variesfrom urban to rural areas. Therefore, routing accuracy is essential to maintain maximum efficiencywithin delivery times, Paragon said in a statement.
The software also enables the network management team to optimise the use of the fleet, ensuringthat the most appropriate vehicles are used for each delivery.
“Paragon gives us a big picture view of our delivery network allowing us to maximise the use ofthe fleet and fit the right vehicle to each route. Because the delivery points vary, the softwarehelps us decide where we need to deploy 7.5 ton rigids and where we are better using or can onlyuse long wheelbase vans. It also helps us to identify where we are best using two vans rather thanone ‘7.5 tonner’ and vice versa,” Ellis added.
Hermes re-runs its delivery routes every 6 months to ensure that each depot is running at peakefficiency. This is important as couriers can change, leave the job or move areas, Paragonadded.
Paragon Software Systems is committed to providing optimisation solutions for routing andscheduling on a daily basis, resource management and transport execution. The company has anunparalleled track record of successful software implementations with over 1,500 systems installedin more than 33 countries worldwide. Paragon provides software solutions for operations rangingfrom 10 vehicles based at a single site to hundreds of vehicles running out of several sites. Thecompany’s clients include Tesco, Royal Mail Group, Harrods, Mastercare, CEVA Logistics, Wincanton,DHL Exel, Norbert Dentressangle, Pirelli, Greene King, John Lewis, Argos and Rank Hovis, amongothers.
