Computer Used to Cut Delivery Costs A N increase in
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efficiency of from 10 to -1-1 20 per cent is claimed from the use of a computer programme recently developed at the IBM Data Centre, •at 101 Wigmore Street, London, W.I. This programme analyses the position of depot delivery points and routes. It then shows the order of delivery with routes for each vehicle and indicates where depots could be resited for greater efficiency, and the optimum number of vehiclesrequired. Whilst the problem of scheduling a fleet of delivery vans over a number of routes with a large number of delivery points has been handled previously by computers for large organizations, it is claimed that by the employment of a standard programme the, advantages of this method of scheduling can now be offered to many more operators in the medium-size range at an economic fee. This standard programme is capable of handling a problem involving 3,000 delivery points in 100 shopping areas, or alternatively collection from numerous points—as, for example, in the case of a school bus service—for delivery to a central point.