FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS TRANSPORT

1.  Can Connected Planning optimise fleet allocation and routing high-level decisions? 

Combining demand forecasts with cost and utilisation models lets transport managers evaluate fleet mixes, shift patterns and depot consolidations from a financial and operational viewpoint.

2. How do you incorporate telematics and real-time vehicle data?

Telematics enrich planners with utilisation, idle time and lateness metrics; aggregated indicators feed capacity modelling while raw telemetry stays with operational systems.

3. Can Anaplan help reduce empty-miles and improve utilisation?

Yes — by modelling backhaul opportunities, consolidation thresholds and service constraints. Scenarios can show trade-offs between service levels and empty-mile reductions, and feed tactical instructions into TMS for execution.

4. How do we model regulatory constraints (drivers’ hours, cabotage) and emissions?

Include constraint dimensions and policy rules in the transport model with compliance checks. Transport-specific rules (HOS, route restrictions, emissions caps) can be represented as hard or soft constraints and factored into cost and service trade-offs.

5. What cost metrics should transport leaders monitor?

Cost per km/trip, cost per tonne or parcel, utilisation rate. Linking these metrics to financial forecasts helps identify unit economics levers and fleet optimisation opportunities to increase route profitability.

6. How does pricing & fuel volatility feature in planning?

Model FX and fuel price scenarios and run sensitivity analyses to assess margin exposure. Scenario libraries for fuel spikes, surcharge pass-throughs and hedging strategies help commercial and finance teams plan mitigations.

7. How should we plan and forecast CapEx, depreciation/amortisation and asset lifecycles for large transport assets?

Model asset classes, useful life and depreciation schedules, include IFRS/lease effects, and run scenario-based TCO and replacement-timing analyses to optimise capex, cashflow and residual-value outcomes.

8. What does a transport-focused Minimum Viable Model (MVM) include? 

Core demand, route lanes, fleet capacity, standard route/network profitability and reconciliation with TMS.