|
|
|
|
On this page, we'll answer questions, and add formulas and industry standards we've found useful, and some that schedulers have used for so long we've forgotten that newer folks don't know them. Here are a few to start with. Question 1. How do I calculate Clock Headways, Vehicle Requirements, Round Trip Running Times? Answer: With two elements known, the third can be found with the formula: Vehicles Required = Total Round Trip Running Time/Desired Headway
Question 2. How do I determine the optimum size of the Extra Board? Answer: Recently, this question was posed by a medium size property. For a copy of our 2-page letter answering this question, follow This Link.
Question 3. How do I avoid leftover, unassigned pieces of work after rostering weekend and weekday work? Answer: Use a combination of ten-hour, four day assignments until the remaining weekend work (Saturday and Sunday Combined) is evenly divisible by 5. Then, each set of five weekend runs creates one weekday jumper run.
Question 4. Ten hour, four day assignments? We can't do that, it will require us to hire more drivers (even the TCRP Scheduling Manual says so) - Right? Answer: Wrong - or as Mr. Gershwin said - "T'aint necessarily so." It all depends on how you originally cut the work. If you take the position that all work should be cut as close to 8 hours as possible, (as the manual demonstrates,) you will need more drivers. On the other hand, consider the question - what does 40 hours equal - answer - 40 hours. In other words, if you cut work as close to 10 hours as possible, one driver working 4 - 10's is exactly equal to one driver working 5 - 8's. When you roster the runs, you'll find that you have a driver left over, who then works the resulting days off. See the demonstration below.
Question 6. How did you do the illustration in Question 5? Answer: It's a demonstration of the software I use for runcutting. It's basically a project management package, that I modified somewhat to work with hours and minutes rather than days, weeks, and months. The software is available commercially (I use FastTrack Scheduler from AEC Software cost is around $200.00), but it does require some customization. Once set up, it provides the best of both worlds - the scheduler can use his/her talents and skills, with the software making it quite simple to try different alternatives. If you're interested in this method, contact me . With purchase of the software, and my help in customizing it for your needs, you can take advantage of the system for a very modest investment.
Question 6. How do I convert hours and minutes to hours and hundredths? Answer: Divide the number of minutes by 60. Examples: 25 minutes: 25/60 = .42 59 minutes: 59/60 = .98
|
|
Access the Arthur N. Gaudet & Associates, Inc. Home Page at Runcutter.Com Send mail to runcutter@runcutter.com with questions or comments.
|
