Providing assistance as quickly as possible

12 December 2009, 8:32am

Karlsruhe, Germany, December 12, 2009. The International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3 aims to promote an understanding of disability issues. Persons with disabilities or illnesses who have difficulty in coping with everyday tasks, need support. Organisations, such as Malteser, provide help in the form of domestic emergency call and transport services for disabled persons or meals on wheels. Since Malteser wants to provide their services quicker and more efficiently, it now plans and optimises its routes with software by Koch Software Consulting GmbH and PTV AG. The new solution enables the relief agency to easily integrate ad-hoc orders into its transport optimisation processes.

Domestic emergency calls, transport services for disabled persons, meals on wheels - all these services are based on efficient route and vehicle planning aimed at helping disabled or ill persons quickly and reliably. To this end, Malteser has to store a lot of data.

In addition to address data, Malteser planners need to know who should be notified in the event of an emergency among other important information required for domestic emergency calls. When planning meals on wheels services it is important to consider the delivery times or whether customers asked for fresh or frozen food. Apart from address details, delivery time and number of persons, planners need information on specific vehicles or additional staff required for the transport of disabled persons to schools or sheltered workshops. The software platform therefore stores vehicle data, resources and all relevant information.

This data is then transferred from the software modules to the KFP:TourOpt component provided by Koch. The tool allows users to manage their master and vehicle fleet data, to issue quotes and create tender documents for the transport of pupils and persons with disabilities.

The integrated trip planning software PTV Intertour/Dispatch helps planners to precisely calculate mileage and time and to efficiently use and allocate their vehicles. Imported addresses are geocoded using PTV components so that they can be included in the route calculation and optimisation process and displayed on the digital map. Ad-hoc changes or new orders can now be integrated into the planning process. This means that the route will be automatically recalculated and the edited transport data will be sent to the driver's PDA during the delivery process.

Helmut Stumm, Sales Manager at Koch Software Consulting, says: "We want to intensify our cooperation with PTV AG regarding new software developments, such as Ambient Assisted Living, an assistance system for non-profit organisations that helps elderly people to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible.

Malteser has been using map&guide products for distance calculations for many years.

About PTV:Intertour/Dispatch

The software usually assists dispatchers in planning TL or LTL transportation with a focus on long-distance transports. It is the perfect tool for planning with any number of loading and unloading points, for automatic trip optimisation of A/B transport and scheduling with order splitting (e.g. into pre-run, main run and post-run). Route planning includes important parameters such as opening hours and depots, delivery conditions, vehicle capacities, service hours and vehicle properties. The software optimises the routes in terms of route length and time while evenly balancing vehicle capacities. It can also be used by relief organisations, such as Malteser, to improve their route and vehicle scheduling processes. For more information, please visit the link below.

PTV xServers

These powerful modules allow users to integrate geographical and logistical functions into existing IT structures, mobile solutions, web applications and other client-server architectures. For more information about the PTV xServers, visit the link below.

PTV:Intertour/Dispatch

PTV xServers

Geo: International