Paragon Software Systems, a niche software company focused on vehicle routing and scheduling, announced that Texas horticultural specialist Weatherford Farms has installed its transportation routing product. The third-generation family-owned business uses the transportation management solution to dynamically route daily deliveries to grocery stores, interior plantscapers, garden centers and local florists throughout the Houston area.
“Manual planning was demanding, and we were relying on the knowledge and experience of the drivers,” says Bridget Weatherford, co-owner. “It was clear to me that we could improve efficiencies significantly by using logistics software. For an operation of our size, Paragon provides an ideal solution that is both flexible and cost-effective. Other solutions were too complicated and expensive, or they lacked the sophistication we needed to include delivery time constraints and the various sizes and shapes of the plants.”
Weatherford Farms says the software replaces hours of complex manual planning and produces the routes and schedules in minutes, saving time and maximizing vehicle loading across its fleet. The company employs 50 people and has a fleet of delivery vehicles that service a 150-mile radius of Houston. The demand for foliage and flowering plants doubles during the holiday season, but this is no problem for Paragon Single Depot software, says Bridget Weatherford, who currently manages the planning system.
“We are very happy with the product and the support we get from the company,” she says. “Paragon is very easy to use, and it does not take long to master it. The procedure is simple and quick. It just requires me to import the daily order spreadsheet into the software to create the routes. The software produces accurate routes that allow for the variation in orders and delivery times, even during the very busy holiday season when we have double the number of orders. We also know that the fleet is running at full capacity so that we are making best use of the vehicles and driver resource.”
