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.

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

See Status of consignment shipments and original shipments.

POD on co-loads

Proof of delivery registered on a consolidation order is also applied to all original orders included in the consolidation order.

Proofs of delivery registered on a consolidation order, if registered for example in Opter Driver or Opter Terminal, are also applied to the original orders having the same consignor/consignee as the consolidation order (depending on the address where the POD is registered).

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, and 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 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 portals

The resource webs

It is possible to show which shipments are included in consignment orders by including the Consignment ID column on the Columns in the lists and fields in the detail view tab of the internet order settings (1). The actual consignment shipments are also shown as regular shipments (2).

The customer web

It is possible to display the Consignment ID column on the customer web as well, but for technical reasons it always shows "0", so it has no function on the customer web.

Consignments on ferries

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

Invoicing co-loads

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

If you don't invoice the consolidation order, you may want to have a specific customer that you use on the consolidation orders, for example "Consolidation customer", so that those orders don't end up on a real customer in the statistics.

You can choose how co-loading orders and orders with assignments included in a co-loading order are posted, according to the co-loading order or the original order. You set the account assignment in Economy > Account coding priority order for each account assignment source. For example, if there are different customers on the consolidation order and the original order, and those customers have different account assignments, you can choose whether the account assignment of the consolidation order should be taken from the customer on the original order (tick Grouped in a consignment get value from original shipment’s orders) or the consolidation order (leave Grouped in a consignment get value from original shipment’s orders unticked).

Example

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  The consolidation order is posted according to the customer on the consolidation order.

  The original orders are posted according to the customer on the original orders.

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  The co-loading order is posted according to the customer on the original orders.

  The original orders are posted according to the customer on the original orders.

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  The consolidation order is posted according to the customer on the consolidation order.

  The original orders are posted according to the customer on the consolidation order.

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  The co-loading order is posted according to the customer on the original orders.

  The original orders are posted according to the customer on the co-loading order.

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 Inställningar för CO2-utsläppsberäkningar.

Road tolls for consignments

If you use or want to start using the toll calculation function in Opter, you can find information and instructions on how to handle tolls for co-loads in Managing road tolls.