Products
Prime Route
Navis™ SPARCS Prime Route
Automate and Optimize Tractor and Straddle Dispatch

In most terminal operations, it is a common practice for each straddle carrier or terminal tractor to service a dedicated quay crane in a simple first-come, first-served basis-traveling laden in one direction and returning empty in the other. This inefficient method results in unproductive driving, idling, crane delays and traffic congestion. 

The Navis™ SPARCS Prime Route solution minimizes these challenges by pooling of all types of equipment across cranes and optimizing work assignments based on yard and equipment constraints and operating rules. Available in Navis™ SPARCS and Navis™ SPARCS N4, SPARCS Prime Route lowers your capital investment as well as your variable costs for labor, fuel and maintenance by:

  • Dispatching vessel, rail, yard and road moves to the best available straddle and tractor
  • Using a global pooling strategy for the entire terminal
  • Creating, sequencing and dispatching work instructions for all moves, including  yard shifts, automatically
  • Performing the require work for the terminal using the minimum number of prime movers.

Product Highlights

The Navis SPARCS Prime Route is the only solution capable of truly optimizing straddle carrier and terminal tractor utilization.

1. Centralized Administration and Control

SPARCS Prime Route Equipment Control Console is an easy-to-use graphical control panel that provides detailed modeling of container handling equipment, enabling you to set various parameters and view productivity for each point of work from a convenient, central location.

2. Real-time Performance Monitoring and Reporting

SPARCS Prime Route provides the information you need to fully demonstrate your return on investment with detailed productivity and utilization reports. 

  • Equipment Control Status Report: This report displays detailed statistics about the productivity of the terminal (number of moves per hour, distance driven, and truck turn times) including summaries of individual CHE.
  • Grid View: This view shows the status of the truck and straddle exchange lanes.
  • Production View: This view displays work in progress at active points of work.  For each work shift, Navis SPARCS and Navis SPARCS N4 display the number of moves per 15-minute intervals, as well as overall productivity statistics.
3. Pooling to Multiple Points of Work (POWs)

SPARCS Prime Route balances the workload among road, vessel, yard and rail operations by assigning one pool to multiple points of work, thus minimizing the unlade drive distance; increased number of moves per hour; and reduced number of machines user per shift.
4. Job Steps and Dispatch Optimization

SPARCS Prime Route increases opportunities for optimization by dividing jobs into individual "job steps" in order to accurately predict, analyze, and optimize tractor and/or straddle carrier productivity. This information is combined with physical yard and equipment constraints, as well as the business rules of the operation, e.g., quay crane moves per hour, minimize empty movement, etc., to predict and evaluate the outcomes of potential work assignments. Based on these results, the Prime Route updates the remaining job completion time, thus improving optimization. The job step model also allows Navis Prime Route the options of job swapping or refining a container position to avoid delays.