TRANSPORTATION CONSOLIDATION

Transportation consolidation involves minimizing the number of trips that you have to take to accomplish a given number of tasks. If you must visit three different places, for example, you can take one trip rather than three separate ones. This takes planning, of course. You’ll need to identify the sequence that you will follow in going to these locations, giving preference to their geographical outlay and the time that they are open. The key is to identify the sequence that minimizes effort and maximizes efficiency and effectiveness.

If you ever have to question which location you want to visit, prioritize the sites and then select the best spatial sequence. Quite often, spatial sequence alone will set the priority, with the most immediate location having the highest importance.

The benefits for transportation consolidation are obvious: it saves time, money, and effort.

for Performing Transportation Consolidation

• Determine the final destination.
• Determine the intermediary steps to the final destination.
• On a sheet of paper or using computer software, draw a symbol at the top of the page representing the final destination.
• Draw symbols reflecting the intermediate stops.
• Connect the intermediate stops in a sequence that minimizes time and effort (e.g., delivery time, gas).
  • Note: You can experiment with different sequences.
• Record the approximate time of arrival, keeping in mind the time to arrive at the final destination.