ALK Technologies Inc. announced PC Miler Web Services 25, which features new time-based features and enhancements, including new real-time, predictive and historical traffic speed data designed provide a predictive calculation of route-specific time of day and time of week-based transit times to improve load planning and hours-of-service compliance. Traffic speed data is included free in PC Miler 25 until the release of PC Miler 26 in 2012.
Through a partnership with Inrix, a provider of traffic information and driving services, users can see real-time traffic maps and access traffic forecasts for more than 1 million miles of roads across the United States and Canada. Developed in Microsoft .NET and packaged as a Web Service, the product offers a standardized way to embed the truck-specific routes, mileage, maps, and reports of PC Miler with third-party Web Services, .NET or Web-based applications.
“We are pleased to include the valuable new traffic speed data and features at no charge to help our customers and partners improve their dispatch, customer service and logistics planning solutions,” says Craig Fiander, vice president of marketing, Enterprise Solutions, for ALK Technologies. “Recent destructive weather highlights the value of the real-time traffic features for alternate route planning and accurate ETA calculations.”
This SaaS application is designed to enable transportation and logistics companies, as well as third-party software developers, to deploy applications using PC Miler 25 routing, mileage and mapping. With unlimited access to PC Miler 25, users can generate routes and toll costs based on the time of day for heavy-duty trucks, light vehicles and automobiles.
PC Miler 25 also is designed to make it simple to define a departure or arrival date and time to calculate more realistic transit times. Users also can benefit from new map tools to create geofences; when a route crosses a geofence, PC Miler Web Services either displays a warning in the route itinerary or avoids the geofenced area altogether, depending on user preferences.
PC Miler Web Services 25 offers quarterly map, toll costs and routing updates. It also offers access to multiple version capabilities, supporting the unique needs of customers with various versions of PC Miler for contracts and billing. Previously announced PC Miler 25 map data features and enhancements include 220,000 new and updated truck restrictions and allowances in addition to more than 3.74 million road-specific attributes that affect truck travel.
PC Miler Web Services 25 is hosted in a tier-one data center to ensure stability and reliability. Integration tools provided allow users to interact with the PC Miler database through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). An ALK-designed and hosted graphical user interface (GUI) also is provided, helping to reduce the complexity of implementing an interface.
