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Supertruck – fully loaded

Truck and trailers loaded with pallets of consumer products are the backbone of every country’s distribution system. Over the past twenty years the movement of palletised products by truck and trailer units has grown exponentially in many parts of the world. But it is only relatively recently that more sophisticated methods of optimising trailer load capacity have been developed.

There are two simple factors that limit the amount of product that can be loaded onto a trailer –

WEIGHT: the total weight of the product must not exceed the legal axle load

VOLUME: the total volume of the product must fit within the space available on the truck.

Orbit Systems Vehicle Load Builder software improves the economics of road transport by allocating palletised items to semi-trailers in a way that allows each trailer to both ‘cube out’ and ‘weight out’ at the same time.


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PRODUCT STUDY

PROBLEM

Different products have a different effect when they are loaded onto a trailer for shipment to a customer.

If your customers have ordered a consignment of beer, then delivering the consignment might weigh out the legal axle limit before the available space on the truck has been filled.

If the same customer has also ordered a consignment of bagels then the consignment may cube out the available space before the weight limit of the semi has been reached.

This way it is going to take at least three trailer loads to deliver the both consignments.

Normally you would not expect these products to be shipped together because the beer might damage the bagels especially if the beer is stacked on top.

In addition, because they are perishable the bagels need to be shipped out daily while the beer is lower priority for shipment.

SOLUTION

Different products have a different effect when they are loaded onto a trailer for shipment to a customer.

It will prioritise the perishable products and calculate the location for each pallet on the trailer to protect products that could be damaged. It also calcucates loading for the shape of the pallet initially and when other pallets are stacked on top.

RESULTS

In the case above, the beer and bagels would have been delivered in two trips, not three or four. When this is applied daily over multiple consignments from multiple locations the transport savings become significant.