Distribution is usually a sizeable component of total marketing costs. Moreover, the costs of procuring and operating transportation are generally high, sometimes prohibitive as this is often a very scarce resource. It follows that if transport facilities can be managed efficiently this can have a dramatic effect upon total marketing costs and the effectiveness of the firm's marketing system.
In turn, the efficiency and effectiveness achieved with the logistics operations of an enterprise are greatly influenced by the routing and scheduling of the vehicles available. Slater16 defines the problem of optimising the performance of the transport function in terms of load planning as follows:
“Load planning is a method or technique used to match existing customer orders with vehicles and available manpower by the generation of routes or schedules for vehicles. The efficiency of these routes or schedules determines the operating cost for the transport fleet and the potential customer service level offered by the company.”