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 consolidation order can be thought of as a container for orders with similar characteristics, and which can therefore be transported together, or as a 'one-way' route.

Each order in Opter must have one or more shipments. A consolidation order has at least one 'consolidation order' and several 'original orders' (or 'consolidated orders'). Original shipments have an original order placed by the customer.

Example

The courier company 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

You can control how the status of the co-loading order and the original orders should change in relation to each other. For more information, see Status of consignment shipments and original shipments.

Co-loads in order reception

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

You can also search for the original orders contained in a consolidation order by selecting Shipments grouped in consignment and then entering the consolidation order number. You can open the original orders by clicking on the orders in the search results.

Co-loading in traffic management

In order to work with co-loads as smoothly as possible in the traffic management, you can make settings for the traffic management. For example, you may want to see all the groupage orders, and perhaps add an area where you can drop selected orders to create a groupage.

Click on Settings > Dispatch settings, click on the tab Tabs, and then on the tab Lists. Make your settings in the box Lists. More information on the tick boxes can be found at Dispatch settings (window).

Consignments on ferries

You can book carpooling on ferries. For more information, see Using ferries in dispatch.

Co-loads in Opter Driver

You can choose whether and how the co-loads are displayed in Opter Driver. For more information, see Consignments in Opter Driver for iOS. For examples of how co-loads can look like in Opter Driver, see Pages, tabs and menus in Opter Driver for iOS.

Co-loading on the webs

If you want the co-load order number to be displayed on the web portals, tick the Consignment ID checkbox in the internet order settings.

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

Invoicing co-loads

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

If you are not factoring the co-load order, you may want to have a specific customer that you use on the co-load orders, for example "Co-load customer", so that those orders do not end up on a real customer in the statistics.

CO2 emissions for co-loads

You can choose how to distribute the estimated CO2 emissions of the co-loading order between the original orders. For more information, see Climate impact of CO2 emissions in grams, pricing weight.