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TWO ROUTES TO EFFICIENCY

Computerised route planning could make life easier for transport managers and drivers alike — but which system should you choose? We have put two through their paces.

• You are quoting for a steady contract between Grimsby and Hull so you get the maps out. Leave via the A16, on to the A18, turn right over the Humber Bridge, on to the A63 and into Hull. It looks like a simple 561on and a journey time of an hour but suppose the Humber Bridge is closed?

Your drivers would have to go all along the M180, north up the M18 to the M62 . . . that's more like 1321cm, taking nearly two hours. Is there a quicker way? Bombing along motorways is going to burn up derv_ Is there a cheaper way? You'd have to assess the speed on motorways against the speed on A-roads, then add so many seconds delay to look left then right at every road junction, scribbling calculations all over your desk pad.

Now, however, there are two computer programs designed to do the job for you: Autoroute from NextBase and Routefinder from SIA. They both run on IBM-style personal computers and Autoroute is being developed for the Atari.

They work like inkblots, spreading out from your set-off point, with the "ink" moving fastest along the optimum routes. When you type in Grimsby to Hull, they can't direct you as the crow flies because the River Humber gets in the way, so they travel at electronic speed along their mental maps, checking every alternative. It's the sort of chore that computers thrive on, and they can appear pretty smart — they seem to know that FIGVs are not happy on narrow B-roads and that a straight line through a town centre is slower than a circle round the bypass.

They are not faultless, however. Office machines have a memory of about 640K — about 20 pages of Commercial Motor. To ask them to hold details of every street, village and back double, would strain them too much. Then they have to analyse this data and present it on screen (screen pictures use memory too) and direct it to a printer — so it's a trade off between the amount of detail a trucker needs against the limitations of modern machines. So how do they perform?

Routefinder is professional enough to be used by Shell, Budget Rent-a-Car and the London Ambulance Service. It holds details of 76,540km of roads from the Department of Transport's Network Information System, the Scottish Development Department's Census Network and SIA, which added the network for Wales. So far the computerised network comprises, motorways, A-roads and B-roads except in urban areas.

The system costs 2750, rising to 2900 is you want 12,000 postcodes included and a twice-yearly update. For that you get six floppy disks and an unimpressive 22page typewritten manual that SIA plans to re-write.

FLOPPIES

It would be clumsy to keep swapping these floppies about in day-to-day use, so Routefinder has to be installed on your PC's hard disk. For this you need to know something about computing.

The manual suggests you use a program called INSTALL, but this puts Routefinder into the hard disk main directory, which isn't a good practice. Under test, INSTALL crashed, after failing to find one of its own files. An expert would find it simple to make a separate directory called, perhaps, ROADS, then to copy all the floppy disks into this. The commands would be MKDIR ROADS then COPY A: *.*. If SIA had written a better INSTALL program, this would be done for you.

When you call up Routefinder there is a 25-second delay while it absorbs its own data, then you see a workmanlike screen with a hint of colour. It gets details of

your route by asking FROM then TO.

Routefinder always wants to calculate times at car speeds, so you have to go to the next screen to tell it you are running trucks. This screen gives you a chance to list just one diversion the driver wants to make during the journey, and one place he wants to avoid, such as the Humber Bridge closure. After the first few letters, Routefinder makes a reasonable guess at the placename. If that isn't right, you scan through its list of names. Then you ask it to calculate the journey. This is fast — it takes only 25 seconds to plot a route from Land's End to John O'Groats — then a table of roads scrolls on screen. It works out an alternative route if asked, and another keystroke gives you the return journey.

It is also clever. Ask a normal computer for the quickest way between, say, Girton to the north of Cambridge and Trumpington to the south and you would be directed through the bicycle-clogged oneway streets of the town. Not Routefinder: it sends you the longer but smoother way round the M11. Only occasionally does it slip up. If you followed its directions from the Cavendish Hotel in London's Jermyn Street to the Stratford Court in Oxford Street you would get booked for obstruction, but that is a tough one for even a human driver. Routefinder is generally excellent in town.

In London, for instance, you can go from the Social Security offices at the Elephant & Castle (because it knows that) to Fleet Street (which it identifies by the EC4A postcode). Your only problem would be that you think of names like the Blackfriars Road while Routefinder hasn't enough memory to call that anything but the A201.

AUTOROUTE

Though cheaper, Autoroute is a lot prettier. For £149.50 you get a ring binder with a few pages of instructions and four floppy disks holding data for some 108,000km or Ordnance Survey roads.

Installation on hard disk is easy. The program senses the equipment you own and configures itself to suit your screen. It should detect your mouse (the handheld gadget that moves an arrow around the screen) but on test this didn't work.

When you call up Autoroute there is a seven-second delay, which indicates it is not bothering to memorise road details until later, then the screen asks you to type in your journey, You can make up to four detours and stop for as long as you like, and can avoid up to four bottlenecks. Autoroute also guesses a placename from the first few letters (though it thinks that Milton near Cambridge is the Milton near Inverness).

In our Land's End to John O'Groats race (see table) Autoroute was only 24 seconds slower than Routefinder. Then comes the trick that delights everyone . . . it draws a map. Your route is marked in flashing lights and you can zoom out to see the whole of Britain then zoom in to examine any part of it. It is impressive computer programming. If only computers had bigger memories — then you'd be able to see every house.

As it is, neither program can handle street names, but then, nor can one page of an atlas. Next Base — which wrote Autoroute and SIA, the creators of Route

finder — are both thinking of dividing Britain into districts, to cut down an area and pack in more detail. They are also considering covering Europe, and nobody knows which project will take priority. So, what do you buy now?

Money for money, Autoroute is far better value, and you will love its pictures. SIA, though, is working hard to make Routemaster justify its cost. The packaging is going to be better and the company intends to increase its database.

To see which suits your operation, phone Next Base on (0372) 66356 and SIA on 01-730 5444. A major fuel supplier offers member i a discount on diesel and McHugh says anyone using 450 litres a week can save more than 2100 a year. A 5% saving is offered on Norwich Union insurance, and pensions are available through Sun Life. McHugh has even negotiated a 25% discount on BUPA private health schemes.

A 24-hour breakdown centre arranges discounts on repairs; and later this month, Owner Operators will launch a new-truck acquisition scheme. McHugh asks all members looking for new vehicles to tell him the cheapest deal they can find. If he can find a better price he asks for 25% of the operator's saving; if not there is no charge. McHugh is also negotiating with Rentco to arrange a trailer-hire scheme for his members.

"The idea behind the concessionary schemes is simple," says McHugh. "A firm offers my members a discount and I give him more trade. I feel like a cuckoo in another bird's nest at times because Owner Operators just uses other firms' facilities."

QUESTIONS

Discounts are not the only benefits offered by McHugh's organisation. Business and legal advice is also available. With an HGV, CPC, and a network of consultants, McHugh says: "I can answer any questions from any haulier. If I don't know the answer, I know a man who does."

He is offering his members advice on a French rebate scheme for road tolls. He is not allowed to negotiate a discount for "members, but can tell them how to go about getting one. McHugh recently won 27,000 for a member who claimed a company had underpaid him.

His latest campaign is against a major garage chain. An Owner Operators member suffered more than .21,000 of damage to his truck in a collision with the canopy of a garage which had no height restriction sign. McHugh is trying to win back some of his member's expenses.

"I cannot promise to get him back the whole 21,000 but I am trying my hardest," he says. This promise to try hard is part and parcel of Owner Operators UK. McHugh explains: "I am not offering hauliers the earth and I cannot promise to solve every hire-and-reward problem, but I am offering members a real deal with practical back-up.

"Too many hire-and-reward drivers do not keep a finger on everyday finance. They might feel pleased when they get 2400 for a 600km job, but if the running costs are more than 60p a kilometre that is not a lot of money. Running costs are getting too many drivers ripped off," he says. McHugh is working with Chartwell to develop an in-cab device to provide operators with costing information.

DECISIONS

Plans for an international recovery club for hauliers on the Continent are underway and McHugh promises to organise this before any other major organisations, including the Automobile Association and the Royal Automobile Club. "The organisation is only me, so if a decision needs making or action needs taking, it gets done straight away. I do not have to wait for a board meeting before I can do something," he says.

Though frustrated by the RHA as an owner-driver, McHugh has now enrolled Owner Operators as a member. He feels it is important to support the association as the spokesman of the industry — but he finds some aspects of the RHA incomprehensible.

"So many people have a bad image of the haulage industry and the RHA has never tried to cure it. If I was them I would have radio campaigns and adverts to dispell the image. The RHA asks the Government for things but does not contribute towards its demands. Why don't they lead by example? I am sure the Government would take more notice of them then," he says.

"The potential of the organisation is enormous," he adds. "It is made up of hire-and-reward operators and there are more than 28,000 with less than two vehicles in the UK alone. The RHA membership does not even touch that. If I can tap that rriarket, I will be bigger than the FTA and RHA together. if Owner Operators gets that big, I would like to think that hire-and-reward operators would be better protected because they would be fussier hauliers. That is all I want to do: make happy hauliers.

"One of the big problems Owner Oper ators has had to contend with during the past year, is the fact that it is not a new idea," explains McHugh. "Several operations have just faded away trying to do the same thing. Potential members, and firms which could offer discounts to my customers, tell me to wait another year. They want to see if I am still here in a year's time. I don't mind, because I know I will still be here."

Reaching operators is a major hurdle for McHugh. "Not as easy as it sounds," he laughs. So far he has sent out thousands of leaflets from lists of 0-licence applications. He has travelled around truckstops to put up posters, advertised in various magazines and even paid out 22,000 in sponsorship for a UK truck journey in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

INTEREST

All this advertising failed to attract the members McHugh expected, but it did generate a lot of interest and he gets an average of three phone calls a day enquiring about Owner Operators. "One person did ring up for a prospectus because his friend was inside," laughs McHugh.

He has just employed a telesales person and he expects a big increase in custom if several new schemes come through.

Despite the services he provides, McHugh stresses that Owner Operators is designed to be a profitable business: "I am not a philanthropist, I am in this for the money. As a result I give my members what they want," he says.

Nonetheless the first year of Owner Operators has not gone quite according to plan. A year ago, when the organisation was established, McHugh said he wanted 1,500 members by September 1988. To date he has just 60 registered members and will record a loss of around 215,000 at the end of his first year.

This 26-year-old is still confident about Owner Operators, however, and says the membership figure does not worry him. He admits it has taken far longer than he ever imagined but believes it is destined to succeed. The real test, he says, comes in three years' time when he can see if members are staying in for the long term. He is now hoping for a membership of 350 at the end of his second year of trading.

by Tanya Cordrey