Paragon Software Systems Inc. announced the Territory Optimizer solution, an optional planning module that enables transport planners to create territories with balanced workloads within distribution or service routes.

Using Territory Optimizer to pre-plan before running the routes and schedules through Paragon ensures compact delivery zones for efficient routing, which reduces transport costs, improves driver productivity and advances customer service levels.

Paragon Territory Optimizer provides advantages for two types of delivery: when customers need to be served by a regular driver or when a depot can deliver to different areas on different days.

When each driver needs to have a designated group of regular customers, the software allows planners to set up efficient delivery zones with appropriate and achievable trips for each driver. Each zone will contain enough work for the driver to cover within a given period. This information is uploaded to the Paragon routing and scheduling software to calculate optimized routes and schedules, with each customer allocated a number and each route handling a single zone.

If delivering to different customer areas on different days, the software can divide the delivery areas according to days of the week. This results in the desired number of zones with balanced workloads across the working week. The information is then input to the routing and scheduling system to optimize resources, routes and costs for each zone and day of the week.

This balanced zoning not only ensures a fair workload, but also helps to build strong customer relationships as clients get to know the drivers or engineers assigned to their particular territory. This is particularly important for companies that have customers who receive a visit once weekly or when making customer calls across a range of different times and days depending on service requirements.

Applications include home and wholesale deliveries, van sales, sanitation and facilities servicing, and field services.