ALK Technologies has announced the anniversary release of PC*Miler 20 – the 20th annual upgrade of its industry-standard routing, mileage and mapping software solution. ALK also released PC*Miler|HazMat 20, the latest version of its routing, mileage and mapping software specifically designed for carriers and shippers of hazardous materials.
ALK says PC*Miler 20 offers new capabilities and updated data for all North American streets and highways, including Canada and Mexico. The latest version includes 15,000 more miles than the previous version for 771,000 total miles of truck-specific roadway and 350,000 miles of truck restrictions, including 80,000-pound weight, 13-foot 6-inch height, 102-inch width and 48- and 53-foot trailer length restrictions, according to the company.
Enhancements to PC*Miler 20, ALK says, include the ability to track types of roads traveled and summarize the distances traveled on particular road types – for example, interstates, four-lane divided or two-lane undivided roads. Also, a new feature of PC*Miler|Connect enables customers to reconcile latitude/longitude sightings generated by a mobile communications or onboard computing system with corresponding points from the PC*Miler database to generate actual driven routes for pinpoint accuracy in billing and settlement, according to the company.
A major recent challenge for hazmat transporters has been keeping up with the numerous changing hazardous materials transport regulations. ALK says it has included the results of its extensive year-long research and development project within its latest version of PC*Miler|HazMat 20. ALK has added routing for caustic and flammable categories, in addition to general, explosives, inhalants and radioactives. The category additions apply to bridges that allow some hazmat materials, but now specifically exclude caustics and flammables. The Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario – America’s busiest commercial border crossing – is one example.
PC*Miler 20 enables the combination of shortest or practical routing with toll-discouraged, 53-foot trailer, national network or hazardous materials routing; and in hub mode, PC*Miler 20 enables routing and mileage generation from one point to any number of destinations. ALK says PC*Miler also allows users to import customer or carrier/driver location information to eliminate manual trip entry; for example, a fleet could import a series of individual customer locations that then can be selected with a mouse click for easier mileage and route generation. Users also can optimize route planning by resequencing an unlimited number of stops and generate street-level driving directions that include clearance warnings and other truck restrictions.
“Today, more than 21,000 companies use PC*Miler routing and mileage solutions,” says Ed Siciliano, vice president of sales and marketing at ALK. “Accurate truck-specific mileage is at the core of most trucking and manufacturing companies’ information management systems. Our twentieth anniversary version embraces evolving customer needs with the latest available map data and new features. The new PC*Miler 20 product line more than upholds ALK’s tradition of quality data and profit-building functionality our customers expect and the industry relies on.”
PC*Miler runs on an off-the-shelf personal computer or server, in Windows, Unix, Linux and other operating systems; there also are versions for AS/400 midrange and mainframe platforms. ALK says PC*Miler interfaces with virtually all other transportation and supply chain management enterprise software products. For more information, go to www.alk.com.
