Booking Exchange

PARIS provides a mini-booking screen to be used when taking late or next day bookings where the pre-planning is already largely complete. A short version of the booking is input and PARIS directs booking staff to make the customer appointment at a time that would 'best fit' the existing pre-planning to minimise the cost of taking on the new booking.

Booking exchange creates a quick and formal process for whether to accept next day bookings where it was previously difficult to determine the cost impact. Furthermore, this provides a value added service to customers where next day bookings can be accepted at a much later stage of the planning.

Centralised Planning

There are distinct advantages to having local offices when planning over a large region. Traditionally this has created inefficiencies due to each region performing their own planning.

PARIS plans and optimises over the entire region without introducing any partitions or boundaries: planning across countries, overnight reloads, multi-port matching, multi-terminal matching, via depot for equipment size/type changes, forecasting equipment and planning trains/barges several days in advance.

The flexible PARIS user interface allows users to focus on their area of the planning while the underlying virtual PARIS planner is optimising across the entire region. Companies can therefore keep the benefits of having local depot/region planning and knowledge while gaining efficiencies of centralised planning.

GPS Tracking

PARIS provides advanced warning of late arrival by linking to GPS software in the truck (where available). By combining this information with messages from port community systems to ascertain gate arrival and departure, a reasonably accurate status of the planning can be determined and used for proactive monitoring.

Partner Matching

PARIS includes a collaboration module allowing customers to make further savings by partnering with other like-minded companies to increase reload matching, commonly used for reloading merchant haulage with carrier haulage.

PARIS provides a secure web based solution to allow parties not using PARIS directly to agree reloads. The web site, like PARIS, includes many clever features such as automated messaging between parties, automatic calculation of distances, CO2 and cost savings.

What If?

The unique way in which PARIS is able to generate and cost an optimised and executable plan without human involvement, means that PARIS is able to process several weeks of historical data to answer what-if questions.

This allows customers to see the impact of a change to their business set-up. For example, introducing a new rail service, a new depot or adding a new business stream.

PARIS can quickly and relatively accurately calculate the cost impact, by comparing before and after scenarios, making the decision to change easier where previously these questions were difficult, costly and time-consuming to answer.

Sales Focus

As part of the extensive reporting, PARIS can be used to mine data from the completed transport plans, for example, to identify areas within a region that should be focused on by sales teams.

By adjusting the customer tariff in areas where the known cost per booking is reduced, due to, for example, PARIS being able to reload such bookings whenever they are booked in that area.

Using PARIS as a pricing tool for commercial sales further increases reloads and enables merchant haulage to revert back to line haulage. PARIS enables sales teams to always say 'Yes' because PARIS is able to re-plan last minute bookings.

Planner Inquisition

PARIS users can override the system and 'lock' bookings out of the optimisation at any stage of the planning. PARIS uniquely identifies to the planner the cost impact when making changes to the optimised planning.

In addition, planners can record reasons for the change which can be used as a learning tool to improve the optimisation, which reduces the need for planners to intervene with the PARIS plan.

By capturing planning rules and customer settings in PARIS, the reliance on knowledge held by skilled planners is reduced.

Port Community

Integration with port community systems gives users access to the status of the booking directly in PARIS, such as, container landed, customs clearance, export pre-advice, import released to operator and gate in and gate out messages.

This saves the planner time from needing to check other systems and avoids human error when they are not checked. PARIS displays warnings to users when the port community data is missing or inaccurate.

Vessel Planning

Vessel ETA/ETD can be sent to PARIS or if desired, the vessel co-ordinator can maintain vessel ETA/ETD directly in PARIS. PARIS uses the vessel information in the planning, for example, to determine when there is enough time for intermodal transport and to display the available/cut-off time on haulier instructions.

PARIS generates alerts when a delivery booking might arrive late to a customer based on the expected container available time after vessel arrival, similarly for collection bookings, when the container may arrive too late for the cut-off time for the planned vessel.

Cost Administration

PARIS automatically calculates the rate and relevant surcharges for bookings as they are planned based on agreed tariffs. Complicated rail, barge and road tariff structures, fuel, gas/oil, extra stops, overnight reloads, congestion and other surcharges are easily incorporated and maintained in PARIS.

PARIS uses the latest distance tables to accurately calculate the haulier costs and tolls. Calculated costs can be sent via EDI to the haulier, placing the onus on the haulier to validate the costs themselves. Self-bills generated from PARIS can be used by hauliers for reconciliation, thereby avoiding errors on their invoices.

PARIS uniquely provides cost reports at all pre and post planning stages. Automatic calculation of costs significantly reduces the required head-count for what is typically a very time-consuming process.