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FAQS About INNORoute |
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Q. |
What is INNORoute? |
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A. |
INNORoute is a route panning tool similar to I2 Transportation Modeler or CAPS
Transpro that creates optimized shipping plans for retail, wholesale,
manufacturing, 3pl operations and supports aggregation, inbound, outbound,
multi-stop truckloads, pooling, continuous moves, and round trips as well as
fleet scheduling. INNORoute also has an embedded rating engine, INNORate, that
allows it to perform rating, mode and carrier selection using your rates as well
as route your loads by choosing among private fleet, contract, and common
carriers. |
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Q. |
How is INNORoute different from generic low-end "fleet routing" software? |
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A. |
INNORoute is more than just a simple fleet routing or vehicle routing
application. INNORoute considersall your
modes and carriers when determining the least-cost shipment plan. Cheaper
fleet-only software packages do not. Since many companies with a private fleet
also have a substantial FTL and LTL expense, optimizing a shipment across all
modes and carriers is the only way to ensure you are shipping the most efficient
way. So INNORoute optimizes all modes and provides fleet management and
scheduling as well, making it a much more cost effective tool that a generic
fleet routing system |
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Q. |
Can INNORoute assist in strategic planning? |
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A. |
Actually, INNORoute is the central tool in any transportation-related strategic
planning project be it a one-time evaluation of your current logistics network,
an ongoing continuous-improvement process or a wholesale top-down
reconfiguration. INNORoute's "Project" based design will support you and your
project team as you systematically address each of the following: Logistics
network design Service commitments Facility locations Resource allocation
Routing and scheduling Shipment planning Mode mix Carrier mix Fleet size and
profile Management review Plants, orders, suppliers, distribution centers,
customers, products The impact of new business, expanded service areas or new
facilities Potentially profitable new strategies such as pooling, cross-docking,
facility consolidation, expanded use of continuous moves or dedicated fleets can
be quickly validated for feasibility. |
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Q. |
Does INNORoute support Logistics Consulting, Supply Chain Consulting or
Transportation Consulting? |
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A. |
All three! INNORoute (and INNORate) allows consultants to quickly analyze at any
level of detail and for any time frame. So you can analyze a single day of
shipments, relocate a facility based on last years data, balance you fleet and
commercial resources or build next year's core carrier roster using RFQ data.
So INNORoute it the perfect tool for Logistics Consultants, Supply Chain
Consultants or Transportation Consultants. |
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Q. |
Can INNORoute assist in tactical/operational areas such as daily shipment
planning? |
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Absolutely. INNORoute can be run manually or called from your ERP to quickly
produce optimized shipping plans for next-day or next-week processing, based on
your rates and shipping rules and also manage/schedule private fleets. All
relevant data, tariff specifics, up-to-date rates, customer open times, vehicle
capacities, and federal hours-of-service rules are stored in the INNORoute and
INNORate databases. And when combined with order specifics such as due dates,
weight and volume, INNORoute quickly delivers the least-cost shipping solution
for the order set. |
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Q. |
Is INNORoute easy for my employees to use? |
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A. |
Yes. While it’s true that the internals of network optimization are like rocket
science, INNORoute’s easy-to-use interface makes it sheer simplicity. Obviously,
it helps to be familiar with terms such as "FTL", "LTL", "Rate-per-mile" and
"Minimums". But once your rates are loaded, daily planning and dispatch with
INNORoute is basically point and click. |
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Q. |
In addition to outbound, does INNORoute support Inbound, pooling and continuous
move as well? |
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A. |
Yes, INNORoute has powerful heuristic routing algorithms, rating formulas and
pipeline processes to support milk-run, pooling and continuous moves on an
outbound and inbound basis as well as complex real-world constraints |
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Q. |
Who is INNORoute’s "perfect user"? |
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A. |
Since INNORoute is very comprehensive logistics toolkit, it can be used not only
by suppliers shipping outbound, but also retailers optimizing inbound freight,
3PL providers coordinating inbound and outbound, and transportation consultants
evaluating the entire logistics network. |
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Is there anything specific about 3PL that INNORoute supports? |
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A. |
Yes. INNORoute rates and tariffs can be saved by client so you can actually run
client-specific plans or administer the client-specific tariffs that you inherit
when you take on new business.(detailed 3PL info) |
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Q. |
How does INNORate fit into the picture? |
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A. |
INNORate, our embeddable rating engine, is built into INNORoute to provide
administration of, and access to your vast rating data including fleet costs,
LTL tariffs, FTL fixed and FTL per-mile rates. LTL rates can access CZAR or your
own rate pony. FTL origins and destinations can be conveniently entered as USPS
codes. For example: you can quickly set up a 1.50 per mile rate with a 5%
surcharge from the USPS origin code "Atlanta, GA" to USPS destination code
"NY,MA,PA". Better yet, ask your carriers to send in spreadsheets and quickly
import the rates. |
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Q. |
How does INNORoute calculate mileages? |
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A. |
INNORoute uses your preferred mileage engine including PC Miler, ProMiles or
Rand McNally to generate practical "drive" miles during optimization. You can
also use "fly miles", if you choose |
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Q. |
Is INNORoute a complete Transportation Management System or TMS? |
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A. |
INNORoute is more of a "mini" TMS in that provides the most essential features
needed in a TMS (route optimization and tariff management) as either a tightly
embedded component or stand-alone application. This allows you to create your
own best-of breed TMS. For example, you can embed INNORoute into your current
logistics process and tool set or integrate INNORoute with other off-the-shelf
TMS components to create the perfect TMS for your needs. |
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