Susan was strolling toward her farm in her tractor on a Thursday afternoon when she saw what appeared to be a delivery truck parked on the narrow, dusty road. This isn’t good, she thought. Passing would be a problem. As she approached the truck she saw two uniform-clad men shouting and swearing at each other. Susan parked her tractor and went to enquire the men about their truck. “We are stuck because of this guy, Andy”, Jo, the other trucker explained. “That is not true! I knew there was a shortcut from here. Didn’t you see the traffic on the main highway? We would have never made that delivery in time!”, Andy protested. “Well, yes right, and now we will reach before time, and the client will appreciate us, thanks!”, shouted Jo in frustration.
“Calm down you two, relax and tell me where you want to go, I’m a local and I’ll tell you the road”, Susan comforted Jo and Andy. Susan checked the address, thought for a moment, and sent the two delivery guys to the right road that would take them to their destination. Susan now has a story to tell, and Jo and Andy have an experience to not repeat.
Although the incident earned everybody something, it could have been avoided if Jo and Andy’s employer used Maplytics, the popular geo-mapping app, that integrates Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM with Map. You say how? Come, let’s have a quick look.
Truck Routing
To start using the Truck route, Maplytics Team needs to be contacted at crm@inogic.com. Once done the user will be provided with a Maplytics license with Truck routing enabled into it.
Steps to Update the license: Maplytics App > Settings > License registration > Click on Activate
Once the license has been updated configuration needs to be done within the configuration tab. The Asset data will be configured to the users’ Dynamics CRM.
Assets data configuration will create some sample records for Trucks which users can select while using the feature of Truck routing. Users can click on the ‘New’ button to create new records of Assets. They can also edit and save changes to the configured Assets.
After the sample records for trucks have been configured, users can enable truck routing with the following steps-
Maplytics App > Settings > Maplytics Configuration Details > Default Configuration Detail record (with no user) > Advanced Settings > Enable Truck Route
Users can choose the truck icon on the Direction card to plot the route for a truck. On the selection of the truck icon, a window will pop up to enter the Asset details.
Within the Asset Details, users can either select one of the sample truck types or select the custom option to enter their details and then click on ‘Go’ to plot the route.
Optimization of the route with the Shortest Distance will not be available when the Truck is selected as the mode of transport.
The Asset Details seen will be as follows:
1. Asset type: The asset for which the route has to be plotted. It can be selected from the following list of configured sample records. Users can also select ‘custom’ to enter their details.
- Trailer 1
- Trailer 2
- Trailer 3
- Trailer 4
- Trailer 5
- Trailer 6
- Custom
2. Axles: The number of axles.
3. Dimension Unit: The unit of measurement of width, height, and length. Can be one of the following values:
- Meter
- Feet
4. Height: The height of the vehicle in the specified dimension units.
5. Length: The length of the vehicle in the specified dimension units.
6. Width: The width of the vehicle in the specified dimension units.
7. Weight Unit: The unit of measurement of weight. Can be one of the following values.
8. Weight: The weight of the vehicle in the specified weight units.
9. Hazardous Materials: List of one or more hazardous materials for which the vehicle is transporting. Possible values are:
Combustible, Corrosive, Explosive, Flammable, Flammable Solid, Gas, Goods Harmful to Water, Organic, Other, Poison, Poisonous Inhalation, Radioactive, None.
Benefits of Truck Routing-
- Truck Routing can be used by Sales Managers, Sales Executives for planning the routes for delivery, inventory, etc. trucks. The delivery reps could save time using these routes. Sales heads could have an overall look at the planning, and optimization.
- Trucks delivering perishable goods or raw materials for medical use could ensure timely deliveries with plotted routes
- Truckers could be saved from backtracking, traffic, accident-prone roads, areas with bad climatic conditions, etc.
- There would be an overall increase in productivity.
Maplytics is equipped with many outstanding features and a proper trial will help you to see the potential within! You can write to us at crm@inogic.com for your mapping queries, a free trial of 15 days, or a personalized demo within Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM / Dataverse.
To learn more about Maplytics, its applications across industries, and another multitude of features, do visit our Website or the Microsoft AppSource. For further details, you can hop on to our Blogs, Client Testimonials, and Video Library.
Until then,
Keep Routing!
