Consignment

A consignment can be an order that collects together a number of shipments that are being transported together on a certain route, i.e. it is a way of streamlining the transport operations. A consignment may also gather together shipments belonging to a particular supplier or subcontractor, which should therefore be credited together. A consignment does not affect the order placed by the customer or the information provided to the customer.

Basic concepts

“Consignment order” and “consignment” are the same thing, but the “consignment” is also sometimes used to refer to a physical carrier of grouped (consigned) shipment goods. The consignment order can be thought of as a container for shipments with similar characteristics, and which can therefore be transported together, or as a “one-off route”.

Each order in Opter must have one or more shipments. A consignment order has at least one “consignment shipment” and several “original shipments” (or “grouped [consigned] shipments”). Original shipments have an original order placed by the customer.

Example

Courier Services has three orders (original orders) going via terminal B. Route B-C would be suitable for grouping into a consignment. This will be a consignment order (4). The consignment order has one consignment shipment and three original shipments.

Automatic creation of consignments

Shipments can be automatically grouped into shipments in two different ways. Either according to a number of criteria specified in the Consignment types window, or according to a number of predefined criteria. For more information, see Automatic creation of consignments.

Although it is called “automatic creation of consignments”, the consignment order must be created manually in the Consignments window (Order > Consignments). What is automatic is the choice of which shipments to group into a consignment.

Manual creation of consignments

A manual consignment means that there is complete freedom to choose which shipments are included in the consignment. Shipments can be grouped together to create consignments manually in dispatch, order reception and the Consignments window. For more information, see Manual creation of consignments.

Consignment statistics

The consignment statistics function makes it possible to enter indirect income and costs for a consignment from shipments that are not produced in that consignment. It does not affect any functions other than the indirect income and costs for the consignment.

The aim is to give an overall picture of the income and costs for transport operations involving one or more shipments in consignments.

To add a shipment to some consignment statistics, right-click on the shipment in order reception and select Connect to statistics consignment.

Status of consignment shipments and original shipments

How the statuses of the consignment shipment and the original shipments change in relation to each other can be controlled. For more information, see Status of consignment shipments and original shipments.

Consignments in the order reception

You can search for the consignment orders by selecting Consignments in the search panel and entering the search criteria.

You can also search for which original shipments are contained in a consignment order by selecting Shipments grouped in consignment and then entering the consignment order number. The original orders can be opened by clicking on the shipments in the search results.

Consignments in dispatch

In order to be able to work with consignments as smoothly as possible in dispatch, settings can be configured for dispatch. For example, you may want to see all the consignment shipments in a consignment order, and perhaps add an area in which selected orders can be dropped to create a consignment.

Click on Settings > Dispatch settings, click on the Tabs tab, and then on the Lists tab. Configure the settings in the Lists box. For more information about the checkboxes, see Dispatch settings (window).

Consignments on ferries

Consignments can be booked on ferries. For more information, see Using ferries in dispatch.

Consignments in Opter Driver

It can be chosen whether and how consignments are displayed in Opter Driver. For more information, see Consignments in Opter Driver for iOS. For examples of how consignments can look in Opter Driver, see Pages, tabs and menus in Opter Driver for iOS.

Consignments on the webs

If the consignment order number should be displayed on the web portals, mark the Consignment ID checkbox in the internet order settings.

As of Opter 2023.12-01.201, the Consignment ID column can also be displayed on the customer web, but the consignment order number is only displayed for the consignment orders that the currently logged-in customer is to pay.

Invoicing consignments

Choose whether to invoice the consignment order and/or the original orders. For more information, see Consignment types (window).

If the consignment order is not invoiced, it can be good to have a specific customer that is used on consignment orders, for example “Consignment customer”, so that those orders do not end up on a real customer in the statistics.

CO2 emissions for consignments

It is possible to select how the CO2 emissions calculated for the consignment order are to be distributed between the original shipments. For more information, see Climate impact of CO2 emissions in grams, pricing weight.