Topspeed Couriers cuts planning time by 80% with Maxoptra scheduling

Topspeed Couriers has reduced the time taken to plan the daily work programme by up to 80%, following the introduction of the Maxoptra dynamic routing and scheduling system.

The company provides same-day and next-day courier services across the UK, specialising in the transport of biological samples, radioactive material, criminal evidence and other restricted or prohibited materials, and operates a nationwide fleet of more than 90 Mercedes Benz vans from its headquarters in Knutsford, Cheshire.

A centralised operations team allocates more than 200 jobs per day, balancing demand against capacity whilst taking into account locations, collection times, daily driving limits and other compliance and service level issues. 

Topspeed is a provider of courier services under the Crown Commercial Services Framework and is using the Maxoptra platform to improve the management of key Government contracts. Using Maxoptra, Topspeed can automatically produce optimised daily schedules and driver routes that in turn contribute to an improvement in customer service and a reduction in operational costs.

Phil Mason, operations manager at Topspeed Couriers, said: “Prior to the introduction of Maxoptra, the time taken to plan the next day’s schedule was around five hours, with one of the biggest bottlenecks being the gap between our sales order processing software and our fleet tracking system.

“Using Maxoptra, we have been able to bridge this gap, which is contributing to a saving in operational planning of up to four hours every day – equivalent to nearly 1,000 man hours per annum.”

Maxoptra allows for the export of data from Topspeed’s back office AME software, the production of optimised routes and integration with the company’s fleet management platform from TomTom. Maxoptra gives full visibility of the daily schedule in real time, allowing the operations team to proactively manage potential issues such as on site delays or traffic jams.

Given the sensitivity of many of Topspeed’s consignments, Maxoptra also provides service accountability with performance monitoring, customer service management, KPI reporting and historical evidence for the identification of service improvements.