Calculating route costs and monitoring drivers’ work in fireTMS

The accurate calculation of the costs of a cargo transport route at the planning stage is a major challenge for transport companies. Fortunately, there are tools that help you calculate them quickly and accurately and help you estimate the profitability of orders. Find out how to calculate costs in fireTMS when entering an order and compare them with the actual costs after the order is completed. You can also monitor the drivers’ work on an ongoing basis.

Calculation of estimated route costs and comparison with actual costs

How can you quickly calculate the expected costs of a route when entering an order into the system and compare them with the actual transport costs once the order is completed? With fireTMS, you can do this quickly, efficiently and accurately. The expected costs are automatically calculated by the system based on the loading and unloading points entered in the order and the rate per kilometre travelled by the vehicle. Here you can also specify the location of the vehicle assigned to this transport, so the system will also calculate the cost of travelling to the loading point.

In addition, you can select the optimal transport option and enter additional costs during route planning in the map tool and transfer this data to the order. The system automatically includes the calculated costs in the cost estimate.

Comparison of route plan with actual kilometres

Once you have created an order, you will find information about the expected costs in the order view in the Financial data tab, in the Details of order window. In this view, you will also find the actual number of kilometres driven after the completion of individual order points. This requires the integration of the fireTMS system with GPS telematics, which has an option to transfer the car’s odometer reading. On this basis, you can verify how accurate the estimates were and what impact this had on the commission. You can also use the fireTMS Driver app for this purpose, in which case it is based on the vehicle odometer data entered by the driver in the app.

Route planning in fireTMS: map functions

As mentioned above, fireTMS also allows you to plan a route quickly and precisely on the map. How does this work? After entering the loading and unloading points for a new order, select Route calculation. This will take you to a map where you can see the suggested routes between the selected points. In addition, they are labelled as follows: fastest, cheapest and shortest. You can also exclude toll sections from the route.

Additional route planning options in Here maps

In fireTMS, it is worth using Here maps, which is an advanced tool for transport planning. Thanks to the more detailed information provided by Here maps, it is possible to further optimise routes. This allows you to adapt the vehicle to the order in terms of country-specific tolls and tonnage restrictions and to exclude ferry crossings or countries with high tolls from the route.

What can you do with the maps in fireTMS?

• You can plan a route.
• You can select the criteria that are important to you, e.g. avoiding toll roads or ferry crossings.
• You can check different route options.
• You can choose the most favourable route for you (fastest, cheapest, shortest).

Route costs in fireTMS maps

The map module is integrated with the route cost calculation tool. This allows you to enter information such as:

• the cost of 1 litre of fuel,
• the vehicle’s fuel consumption (number of litres per 100 kilometres), 
• the vehicle’s fixed costs per day,
• the driver’s cost,
• other additional costs.

Based on the above data, our system will calculate the travel costs for each route option and also estimate the cost of travel on toll roads.

Once you have selected one of the route options, you can transfer the calculated costs to the order with a single click. The costs in the Financial data tab in the order view are then updated with the data entered in the maps. This makes it even easier and faster to calculate the profitability of orders.

Actual routes – monitoring drivers’ work

An equally important issue as planning routes is monitoring the driver’s execution of the order. In fireTMS, you can do this not only after the order is completed, but also during its execution. Actual routes is an option that allows you to check the status of the order on an ongoing basis. To do this, go to System configuration (Configuration >>> System configuration >>> Transport configuration) and set the width of the transport corridor, i.e. the maximum distance the driver can move away from the designated route. If the vehicle leaves the corridor, the dispatcher will receive a notification via email and the event will be recorded on the map in fireTMS and in the Incidents tab. This allows you to contact the driver quickly and clarify the situation.

What can you set up with Actual routes?

• The width of the transport corridor.
• You can save the transport routes in the system.
• You can detect when a vehicle leaves the corridor (also when approaching the first loading point).
• You can receive notifications when a vehicle leaves the corridor.

Actual routes are available in fireTMS in the Enterprise plan. To use this function, you must also integrate the system with GPS telematics or use the fireTMS Driver app. Want to see how fireTMS works? Sign up for a free 14-day trial.