areas of greatest route travel were between Laconia and Meredith, Laconia 

 and Belmont, and Meredith and Moultonboro. 



The grain delivery routes diagrammed in Figure 6 represent an estimated 

 weekly travel of 1,612 miles for the six dealers. By route rearrangements 

 this weekly mileage could be reduced to 1,312, a saving in travel distance of 

 18.6 percent. With the same territories, customers, and quantities delivered 

 being held constant for each dealer, percentage savings in travel distances 

 ranged from virtually none for two carlot distributors whose route business 

 was a minor factor to 37.1 percent for one dealer. Percentage savings in 

 travel distances for the other three dealers were 8.7, 13.7, and 20.0 percent, 

 respectively. 



The approach to savings in travel distance through route rearrangement 

 necessarily must be made on an individual dealer basis. For example, one 

 dealer with 21 delivery routes had 18 routes where the outgoing truckload 

 was 5 tons or over; another dealer with 8 delivery routes had only 1 route 

 where the outgoing truckload was 5 tons or over. Hence, in the latter in- 

 stance, route rearrangement must also concern itself with maximum out- 

 going truckloads. One dealer made local deliveries six days per week while 

 other dealers performed these deliveries once or twice per week. Here, 

 cutting down the number of routes became a primary concern. 



The requirements for studying route rearrangement are relatively few: 



1. Large scale maps with roads and farm dwellings. The N. H. High- 

 way Department can furnish county maps suitable for this purpose 

 at a nominal cost. 



2. Information on the location of each customer obtaining delivery 

 service and the average quantity purchased by each customer. Cus- 

 tomers can be located on the map by numbered pins or by pencil 

 coding. 



3. The precise directions taken on each delivery route. Each route 

 can be plotted on the map. 



4. A map measure or a piece of string for measuring revised route 

 mileage (and present route mileage in the absence of accurate 

 speedometer readings) . 



For dealers where present outgoing truckloads are relatively near truck 

 capacity, the problem is essentially one of shifting customers from one route 

 to another to find the combination which will minimize travel distances. 

 For dealers where present outgoing truckloads are less than truck capacity, 

 minimization of travel distances and maximization of truckloads should 

 both be achieved. This can be done through shifting customers, combining 

 two or more present routes, and/or instituting less frequent delivery. 



Following are three examples of route rearrangements which could be 

 made. The original data were taken from records of actual routes operated 

 by retail grain-feed dealers. 



Example A 



Route 1 serves 9 customers purchasing an average of 42 bags of grain 

 weekly. The round trip covers 53 miles. Roughly 80 pounds are delivered per 

 mile of travel. 



By initiating delivery every other week, the load can be increased to 

 84 bags per trip, or 160 pounds per mile of travel. One trip of 53 miles is 

 eliminated — saving 26.5 miles per week. 



26 



