Importantly, LoadOpt^tm can take into account your customer service requirements, giving preference to shipments that are already late or have been defined as "hot".  The output of the solver is then directed into your Transportation Management Software (TMS) for the preparation of Master Bills of Lading for each of the combined shipments it has recommended.  Alternatively, you can download the solver results into Excel spreadsheets or other standard data formats -- using your desktop Web browser.
 

• Handles multiple origins to multiple destinations - either inbound or outbound or a combination
• Supports planning "continuous moves" in which an outbound truck empties, then picks up inbound freight for a round trip
• Combines freight based on weight, cubic volume or trailer length utilization factors
• Provides for up to the best 5 pool distribution options at each destination and/or the best 5 pool consolidation services at each destination -- but there's no limit to the number of pool locations you can define
• Accepts your actual freight rates on each shipment or can store your freight rates in its own rate tables (default freight rates can be used for planning purposes)
• Stores TL rates based on any combination of State, 3-Digit Zip, and 5-Digit Zip (6 in Canada) for tremendous TL rating flexibility
• Can look up estimated LTL rates if you make use of nationally recognized LTL tariffs.  Also can store your custom LTL rate information.  Discounts can be assigned on a state-to-state or zip-to-zip basis as well.
• Provides geographic validation to insure correct city/state/zip information has been provided
• Has capacity for up to 1500 shipments in one solver run, up to 24 shipments per truckload.  Maximum allowable stops per load can be set from 1 to 24.
• Takes into account transit time impacts on motor carrier costs as it builds multi-stop loads
• Estimates freight costs for each shipment on the load (allowing accurate allocation of total freight charges across sales orders or purchase orders)
• Applies customer service standards the way you do: it accepts standards like "we try to deliver in two days, but we will go to 3 if we have to" and "we have to deliver in 1 day to our 'A' level customers, everyone else gets 2 day service".
• Can optimize both common carrier truckload shipments as well as private fleet deliveries
• Optionally will optimize use of a fleet of dedicated operations vehicles, sending the overflow to common carriers -- TL or LTL
• Highly configurable, with over 120 user-settable parameters that govern how solutions are developed
• Calculates truckload transit times segment-by-segment, taking into account Federal hours of service regulations, individual shipper and/or consignee dock hours, and volume-based estimates of loading and unloading time.
• Has its own consignee/shipper location database for dock hours, loading times, required service levels, geographic details, and much more so that your TMS or order entry system doesn't need to have that information (but it can use your information, if you have it).
• Requires no installation on your computers or complicated licensing of software.  All services are provided over the Internet and charged for at a modest per-order basis.

This is where the Genetic Algorithm can be used to sort through the nearly infinite number of possible solutions and arrive at a very good solution with astonishing speed, given the nature of the problem.  Using this technique, LoadOpt^tm can achieve a solution better than the best human transportation scheduler against that set of 350 shipments in less than 30 seconds, and produce a very, very good solution inside of 3 minutes.  "Not the best solution?" you ask.  No, in most cases, we can't even be certain that there is a single best solution out of the trillions of possible (mostly very bad) solutions.  What counts is that we come up with a very good solution that takes all the factors into account and is measurably better than that of a human planner and other computer-based solutions.  That we are a fraction of a percent away from the "perfect" solution, if there is one, isn't really very important if we have met this standard.

LoadOpt^tm output is provided by default in Microsoft Excel, DBF, CSV, and/or XML format.  Customized formats are available for modest cost.  Inputs also can be accepted in Microsoft Excel, DBF, CSV, and/or XML formats.  Technical documentation on input and output formats is available on request.  See our contacts page.

Alternatively, you can integrate LoadOpt^tm into your company's transportation management system (TMS) -- either a commercial package or your in-house developed tools.  A variety of mechanisms are provided to send data to and receive it from LoadOpt.  These include sending and receiving text files via FTP, and other Internet-based tools for communication.  In all instances, LoadOpt^tm is provided as an Application via the Internet.  It is run on our servers and accessed by your systems through Internet connections.  This frees you from the substantial investment in high-end analysis servers and all the related implementation and on-going maintenance costs.  Also, it ensures that you always have access to the very latest LoadOpt^tm technology.

See our Technology Partners page for links to the TMS software providers who currently support interfaces to LoadOpt^tm.