Home FleetWatch 2015 DPS South Africa reaches for the ‘CLOUD’ as an independent business.

DPS South Africa reaches for the ‘CLOUD’ as an independent business.

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Paul Palmer, founder and CEO of DPS International (left) and Charel Schickerling, MD of DPS South Africa...optimizing fleet operations.

DPS International has split away from Cargo Carriers after a 10-year long association and is now operating as an independent business. The company, which has its head office in the UK is a leading developer of route optimization software and has received numerous awards for its RouteOptimizer Cloud system.

Charel Schickerling, new Managing Director of the South African operation states “the decision to split away from Cargo Carriers was a positive one as it has opened door to other logistics service providers. We were previously perceived as a risk in terms of dealing with the opposition and sharing sensitive customer and operational information. Now as an independent this risk is removed.

The RouteOptimizer Cloud system was started in the UK in 2006 and DPS has a solid advantage above most opposition products that have a much more limited experience base. This early vision ensured that DPS founder Paul Palmer, current founder and chairman of DPS International was the recipient in 2013 of the UK Award ‘Digital Entrepreneur of the Year’.

As a result of improvements in internet speeds and bandwidth in South Africa, the web-based solutions need only an Internet connection and can give even the smallest operator affordable access to functionality and features that were available only at a very high price. Says Schickerling ‘Our smallest customer is a little import/export company in the centre of Johannesburg with one sales person and one delivery vehicle. Using the RouteOptimizer Cloud the owner plans his deliveries and the salespersons calls – he only needs to save 200 km a month for the system to pay for itself.

The RouteOptimizer operates on three levels to improve operations – namely:
• Distance – economical routes. Using time, distance and street level maps
• Capacity – optimizing loading capacity in terms of load unit which could be combinations of

In a competitive operating environment with increasing fuel prices, the need for load optimization and tight time schedules the benefits of using this system could typically be seen in a reduction of overall distances travelled, reduction in fleet sizes, lower overtime expenses, reducing 3rd party rentals, improved turn-around times and customer service levels. Case studies have shown savings of 10 – 15% but sometimes as much as 25%.

Says Schickerling ‘The days of leaving it up to the driver as to what route he will take and the sequence of deliveries are no longer cost effective. A typical response may be ‘we have tracking systems so can see where vehicles are day and night’ – but the big question is ‘Do you know where the vehicle was supposed to be?’