How Our Solutions Help the Environment

Introduction

At no other time in history has there been more concern about the future of the planet. Descartes has a wide range of solutions that improve supply chain and logistics productivity and performance and help customers reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other polluting activities. Significant positive environmental impact can come from taking technology-enabled actions like providing eco-friendly delivery options that minimize distance and fuel consumption, digitizing logistics processes that eliminate paper documents, and reducing wasteful vehicle congestion, idling and speeding. The opportunities go well beyond individual organizations and supply chains to multi-party collaboration that reduces deliveries to malls and shopping areas and “empty miles” due to inefficient matching of shipments to carriers. We’re focused on helping our customers improve their performance while helping the planet.

Solutions Overview

• Route optimization that helps to maximize fleet productivity, resulting in less fuel consumed, fewer vehicles used, and lower vehicle maintenance.
• Route orchestration to better coordinate multiple resources during delivery execution to reduce fuel consumed and the number of vehicles deployed and maintained.
• AI and machine learning that improves route planning accuracy and addresses route execution exceptions to make delivery fleets more productive, reduce fuel consumed, and decrease the number of vehicles deployed and maintained.
• Advanced road network modeling to ensure compliance with state and local government restrictions in congested areas to reduce traffic and related pollution.
• Mobile applications that eliminate paper-based delivery documentation.
• IoT-based telematics that minimize excessive idle time and help contain aggressive driving traits that consume additional fuel and increase vehicle maintenance.
• GPS-based fleet tracking that reduces vehicle turnaround and idle time at distribution centers and depots.
• Dynamic delivery appointment scheduling that increases delivery density, resulting in lower distance per delivery and less fuel consumed.
• Eco-friendly delivery options that allow consumers to choose delivery options that minimize environmental impact.
• Customer delivery notifications that help to decrease the number of failed deliveries and the need to reschedule them.

Environmental Impact

Our solutions can reduce fuel consumption by over 5% and help eliminate paper-based delivery documents.

Here Are 22 Ways that Descartes Solutions Help the Environment:

With Routing, Mobile & Telematics:

1. Consolidate shipments to reduce the distance and fuel required to deliver them.
2. Select transportation modes to use more efficient shipping options, resulting in less fuel consumed.
3. Backhaul shipment planning to reduce “empty” distance driven, creating greater carrier productivity and less wasted fuel.
4. Dock appointment scheduling and yard management that reduces dock congestion as well as time and fuel used by carriers waiting to have their vehicles unloaded or loaded.
5. Real-time truck visibility to better organize the loading and unloading of vehicles to reduce dwell time, idle time, and fuel consumed at distribution centers.
6. AI- and network-based transportation capacity matching to further reduce empty legs for carriers and wasted fuel.
7. Pool distribution that aggregates deliveries across multiple retailers to the same locations, improving delivery productivity and reducing delivery distance, number of vehicles needed, and fuel consumed.
8. Electronic shipping documentation that eliminates paper-based manifests.

With Commercial & Logistics Messaging: 9. Manage and process documents electronically, eliminating paper-based processes. 10. Coordinate information across multiple parties to streamline global shipping operations for improved efficiency and reduced handling and demurrage, which results in reduced fuel consumption. 11. Automate filing processes, eliminating traditional regulatory paperwork. 12. Filing validation and real-time electronic communication with regulatory agencies that helps reduce border crossing time, idling, and fuel consumption.

References

Infographic calculations were made using the paper calculator from Environmental Paper Network, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Independent Statistics and Analysis, fuel economy data from The U.S. Department of Energy, and idling emissions data from Dieselnet and Frost & Sullivan.

Contact Us

For more information about how Descartes’ solutions help the environment, please reach out to us.