Paragon’s plan to cut fuel costs

Paragon has launched the “Carbon Minimiser” which will be added to its routeing and scheduling optimisation software with the aim of enabling users to reduce the carbon and fuel content of their planned schedules.
 
“The Paragon algorithm has been extended to include vehicle weight and speed variations and the impact that these factors have on fuel consumption and carbon emissions,” said Richard Street, Paragon’s software development director. “As a result users can review and monitor the carbon and fuel related KPIs of their operations, and can apply an additional optimisation step to further reduce emissions and fuel used.”
 
The software estimates and reports the total CO2 and fuel content of all the routes and schedules, including distances, speeds, weight and vehicle fuel efficiency. The Carbon Minimiser is then used as a final optimisation step to adjust the schedules – changing call sequences and swapping calls between routes – to further reduce the total CO2 and fuel figures.
 
The software takes account of slower urban journeys incurring more fuel/CO2 per mile than faster motorway journeys.  Similarly, heavily loaded vehicles use more fuel/CO2 per mile than empty ones.  The Carbon Minimiser incorporates these factors to generate carbon-friendly schedules.
 
“Fuel consumption also depends on other factors, such as driving style, vehicle age, weather conditions and so on,” adds Richard Street.  “But regardless of these, vehicles will use more fuel per mile if they are heavily laden or travelling at slow speeds – so by including these two key factors, Paragon is able to generate fuel-efficient and carbon-friendly routes and schedules.”