Solution Conforms to Requirements for Tracking Highway Contract Routes
WATERLOO, Ontario, Sept. 15, 2010 — Descartes Systems Group , a federated global network logistics solutions provider, announced that it has enhanced its Descartes Route Planner On-demand solution to enable carriers to comply with the United States Postal Service (USPS) requirement to track and report to the USPS the status of active highway contract routes.
The USPS has mandated that, by no later than December 1, 2010, all suppliers with USPS highway contract routes (HCRs) must have global positioning system (GPS) tracking and 30 minute reporting of all active routes to the USPS. HCRs typically involve the hauling of bulk mail in semi-trucks between regional and bulk mail facilities in the USPS network.
“Descartes Route Planner On-demand service is an ideal solution for the many carriers that provide highway contract route service to the USPS,” said Ken Wood, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy at Descartes. “This proven software-as-a-service solution’s scalability, ease-of-use and affordable cost provide a great value for both small and large carriers.”
Descartes Route Planner On-demand can be implemented in a very simple form, such as the basic GPS-phone-enabled tracking required by the USPS. It can also readily extend to an end-to-end solution that combines route optimization, dispatching, automated vehicle location (AVL) and GPS wireless mobile technology. As opposed to legacy AVL and routing solutions in the market, Descartes Route Planner On-demand solution was designed to be deployed with minimal technology infrastructure – only a web browser is required to access Descartes’ On-demand solutions and the wireless mobile devices come pre-integrated. The solution supports a wide array of GPS-enabled wireless mobile technology from simple Java™ phones to Windows™ Mobile enabled devices and in-vehicle mounted “black boxes”. Whether used in a small organization or across a large enterprise, Descartes Route Planner On-demand helps standardize operations, provides comprehensive operational visibility and addresses the costs and effort associated with maintaining locally deployed systems.
About Descartes
Descartes (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX) is making the world a better place by enabling global organizations with logistics-intensive businesses to save money by improving the productivity and performance of their operations. Underlying Descartes’ offerings is the Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN), one of the world’s most extensive multi-modal business application networks. Descartes’ regulatory & trade compliance, supply chain execution and mobile resource management solutions provide messaging services between logistics trading partners, shipment management services to help manage third party carriers, global customs filing and compliance services to meet regulatory requirements and private fleet management services for organizations of all sizes. The hosted, transactional and packaged solutions deliver repeatable, measurable results and fast time-to-value. Descartes has over 6,800 customers including ground carriers, airlines, ocean carriers, freight forwarders, third-party providers of logistics services customs house brokers, freight payment agencies, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, mobile services providers and regulatory agencies. The company has more than 650 employees and is based in Waterloo, Ontario, with operations in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Brussels, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Gent, Lier, Namestovo, Paris, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Madrid, Montreal, Miami, Washington DC, Silver Spring, Stockholm, Suzhou, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, and Zilina. For more information, visit www.descartes.com.
Do descartes exec. have gps in their vehicles…. be a leader and show how its done….start with all the top executives and take weekly drug tests too….
Some rural areas that I KNOW does not have cell phone service let alone some kind of stupid GPS tracking device!