Wagon blocking offers you a flexible way of building transport, decreasing costs, maximizing profit and increasing customer satisfaction.

The main cost variable is the cost of moving your wagons. To control this cost, you must decide whether to:

• Combine the wagons of various customers (usually orders are planned separately, but close to the day of operations you want to combine orders to optimize costs).

OR

• Use single wagonload services (single wagons for each of your various customers, assembled into trains).

Combining wagons can cause delays. Can you risk jeopardizing punctuality to reduce costs?

Here’s a typical situation:

50 empty wagons must be repositioned from point A to point B.

Today 10 wagons will be sent from A to B.

Tomorrow you can send an additional 20 wagons.

The remaining 20 wagons will go on the third day.

Transporting in separate shipments costs you more than dispatching it all together.

If you want to combine the shipments, you need to check whether it affects your punctuality – not only for this order, but also for any dependent orders.

You must check if you have enough waiting space in point B for the next two days. You need to add up the cost of yard parking and the costs of keeping the wagons empty for two days.

Do you have a system that offers a clear, informed answer, considering all these aspects?

The ability to explore and compare scenarios swiftly and effortlessly refines wagon planning. An optimization system shows you exactly which solution is the most profitable, considering the requirements of your business and your customers.

How do you plan your wagons intelligently? Tell us in your comment below or drop us a tweet @Quintiq.