Transport Planning (The work of a transport planner)                         

The company Visstick BV.

In this exercise, you will be working as a transport planner for the company 'Visstick BV' in Apeldoorn (NB: postcode 7314). The company Visstick BV is a wholesaler in frozen fish fingers. The products have to be delivered in refrigerated trucks. The hotter the weather, the more energy it takes to keep the products cold. The variable costs therefore go up when the outdoor temperature goes up. The customers of Visstick BV get their goods delivered in whole pallets. Visstick BV transports the products to the customers itself. They use a very large and modern fleet of delivery vehicles for this. They have 4 trucks that can carry up to 10 pallets and 2 trucks that can carry up to 6 pallets. The company has six full-time drivers, who can be assigned to work in the warehouse or the production department when they do not have to drive.  

Because business is going so well, Visstick BV has been granted an exemption under the regulations on driving times and rest periods for truck drivers by the National Vehicle and Driving Licence Registration Authority (RDW). As compensation for having to work longer hours, the drivers get 10 extra days’ holiday. Furthermore, the employer wants the trucks to be loaded at night time so they are ready to leave at 07.00 hours the following morning.

Although the trucks are very new, the trucks can only drive at an average speed of 60 km per hour. The costs of the trucks per km are variable (including diesel fuel, servicing, etc.). The fixed costs for a small truck are € 35 per work day and for a big truck € 50 per work day (including interest, depreciation, insurance, motor vehicle tax etc.). The drivers cost € 30 per hour, and the rest periods are paid. The drivers have to unload the cargo themselves, which takes on average 10 minutes per pallet. The company has asked the NHTV if some of its students can draw up a planning schedule.

For this exercise, we will use the figures for a day in September when the temperature is “13 oC”. The information provided by “Visstick” is included in the appendix.

Question 1: Make a planning schedule so that the journeys can be made to all the customers (listed in Appendix 1) at the lowest possible cost.

In connection with the complexity of the case, several factors have been ignored:  

• The mandatory rest periods a driver has to take in accordance with statutory regulations.
• Any delivery windows specified by the customers of “Visstick BV”.
• Any loading of goods during a journey can be calculated using the same time and cost for unloading. - Any higher or lower average speeds in different parts of the Netherlands, for example because of traffic congestion on the motorways, or due to more or less driving in urban areas.   

Please note: any ‘savings’ because the drivers do not have to drive so much can be included in the calculation! The wage costs of a driver are then not booked under ‘transport’, but under another cost item.

Tips:

• Read the instructions above carefully. Draw up a list of all the information you need for each journey. Study the appendix!
• The costs of a driver are very high for transport by truck. Take this into account. For example, if you use a truck with a load capacity of 5 pallets for two journeys, then it would be cheaper to combine these journeys into a single journey with a truck that has a load capacity of 10 pallets (because you only have to pay the labour costs once). However, make sure this is possible under the regulations on driving times and rest periods for truck drivers.

The variable costs are:

Outdoor temperature	Costs Small Truck	Costs Big Truck
0-5 oC	€ 0.60 per km	€ 0.70 per km
6-10 oC	€ 0.65 per km	€ 0.75 per km
11-15 oC	€ 0.70 per km	€ 0.80 per km
16-20 oC	€ 0.75 per km	€ 0.85 per km
21-25 oC	€ 0.80 per km	€ 0.90 per km

Appendix 1: Delivery details

Postcode	Place	Quantity (in pallets)
1447	Purmerend	2
2013	Haarlem	1
2724	Zoetermeer	1
3454	De Meern	2
3772	Barneveld	2
3882	Putten	2
4007	Tiel	1
5046	Tilburg	2
5152	Drunen	1
5341	Oss	1
5613	Eindhoven	3
5831	Boxmeer	1
6662	Elst (Gld)	2
6952	Dieren	1
7251	Vorden	1
7314	Apeldoorn	Begin and End
7412	Deventer	1
7609	Almelo	2
7742	Coevorden	2
7815	Emmen	1
8012	Zwolle	1
8171	Vaassen	1
8252	Dronten	1
8302	Emmeloord	1
9207	Drachten	2
9354	Zevenhuizen (Gr)	1