Routing and transportation flows

  • 9 minutes

The basic routing terminology in Transportation management is as follows:

  • Transportation mode - Represents the form of transport that the carrier uses for freight deliveries, such as Less than truckload (LTL), Truckload (TL), or Parcel. A carrier can be associated with one or more transportation modes.
  • Transportation method - Represents the form of transport that the carrier uses for freight deliveries, such as air, ground, ocean, or rail. A carrier can be associated with an unlimited number of transportation methods.
  • Transportation constraint - Limitation to ship an item based on conditions that you configure. The constraints can be configured for items, shipments, or carriers, and each constraint can be set as a warning or a hard restriction.
  • Route plans - Contain route segments that provide information about the shipping carrier, carrier service, carrier group, origin and destination hubs, mode of transport, and other details pertaining to freight delivery. Route plans define the starting and stopping points for each variation of starting and stopping points that you will travel.
  • Routing guide - Combines one or more route segments together to create the definition of which equipment, customers, hubs, and limitations, such as weight or volume, apply within a given time frame for a specific route.

The six steps in the route setup process are:

  1. Create hub types, which are used to group hubs by type such as seaport, airport, and rail yard.
  2. Create hubs, which are physical locations.
  3. Create mileage and transit times, relying on information from mileage engines.
  4. Create route plans, which link hubs together.
  5. Create a routing guide, which links routing plans together.
  6. Validate the routing setup to make sure that it's configured properly.

Note

While you are planning the route setup, consider that hubs, route plans, and route guides are not mandatory to create a process where you can rate and ship loads. They are mainly used if you have specific routing criteria or static routes that you need to map out.

Hub types and hubs

Hub types categorize hubs. You can set up hub types to organize hubs into categories based on your selected criteria. A hub is a centralized location for shipments that is typically used for staging before the shipment moves to the end location or another hub. Hubs are typically used in a multimodal transportation model.

Multimodal transportation (which is sometimes referred to as combined transport) is the transportation of goods under a single contract but performed with at least two different modes of transport. The carrier is liable (in a legal sense) for the entire shipment, even though it is performed by several different modes of transport (by rail, sea, and road, for example).

Hubs are optional, and they can be set up from the Hub masters page in the Transportation management module. When you create new hubs, make sure that they are associated with accurate addresses because these will be used by the Rate/route workbench to evaluate the correct routing guide and transportation rates.

To set up a hub type, follow these steps:

  1. Open Transportation management > Setup > Routing > Hub types.
  2. Select New in the Action Pane.
  3. Enter a hub type and name in the respective fields.
  4. Close the page.

To create a hub, follow these steps:

  1. Open Transportation management > Setup > Routing > Hub masters.
  2. Select New.
  3. In the Hub field, enter an ID for the hub, which usually refers to a location.
  4. On the Codes FastTab, in the Hub type field, select identification for the hub type.
  5. Optional: In the Rate master field, select a rate master.
  6. Optional: On the Effective dates tab, provide information about periods where the hub rate applies.
  7. Optional: On the Address and Additional vendor contact information tabs, provide an address and additional vendor contact information.
  8. Close the page.

After setting up a hub, you can associate charges with the hub, including designating an accessorial master. You will also need to specify the hub for either pickup or delivery. You can complete this task in the Rating area of transportation management. Before you can set up accessorial charges for a hub, you will need to set up an accessorial master for the hub if one does not already exist.

To set up an accessorial master, follow these steps:

  1. Open Transportation management > Setup > Rating > Accessorial masters.
  2. Select New.
  3. Enter a title and name for the accessorial master.
  4. Select Hub in the Accessorial type field.
  5. Close the page.

To configure hub accessorial charges, follow these steps:

  1. Open Transportation management > Setup > Rating > Hub accessorial charges.
  2. Select New.
  3. In the Hub accessorial ID field, enter a name.
  4. In the Hub field, select the hub to which you will associate the charges.
  5. In the Hub position field, identify whether these are drop-off or pickup charges.
  6. In the Billing group ID field, select Freight or Fuel for the type of charges.
  7. In the Accessorial master field, select the accessorial master.
  8. Close the page.

Route plans

Route plans can include information about the origin and destination hubs, shipping carrier, carrier service, carrier group, mode of transport, and other details relating to freight delivery. Route plans define the starting and stopping points for each variation of starting and stopping points that will be traveled.

To define a route plan with hubs, follow these steps:

  1. Open Transportation management > Setup > Routing > Route plans.
  2. Select New to create a new route plan.
  3. Enter a unique identifier and a name for the route plan.
  4. On the Details FastTab, select New to create line details for the route plan.
  5. In the Sequence field, enter the order in which the route segments in the route plan are used.
  6. Enter a name for the route segment.
  7. In the Origin hub and Destination hub fields, select the starting and ending hubs for the route segment.
  8. Optional: In the Person in charge for payment field, select the party that is responsible for paying for the freight services.
  9. Optional: Select the vendor and the invoice account details for the vendor who will transport the freight.
  10. Optional: Select Create spot rates to create spot rates for route segments.
  11. To update the route hub configurations, select Edit hubs to open the Route hub configuration page.
  12. Close the page.

Route guide

A route guide combines one or more route plans or segments together to create the definition of which equipment, customers, hubs, and limitations, such as weight or volume, apply within a given time frame for a specific route. For example, you can specify an origin hub and a destination hub, limits for the container volume or weight, and a shipping carrier, service, or group.

To configure a route guide with a hub, follow these steps:

  1. Open Transportation management > Setup > Routing > Route guides.
  2. Select New to create a new route guide.
  3. Enter a unique identifier and a name for the routing guide.
  4. On the Information FastTab, in the Direction field, select the direction for loads.
  5. Select the Active slider to enable the routing guide.
  6. Optionally, you can select equipment, whether the location is residential, accounts for the customer and the customer invoice, and transportation limits.
    • Optional: In the Equipment field, select the equipment that you want to use for the load.
    • Optional: Select the Residential check box to determine the surcharge rate for remote deliveries.
    • Optional: On the Accounts FastTab, select the customer and the account number for the customer invoice.
    • Optional: On the Limits FastTab, enter the limits for the container volume, the container weight, and the number of containers.
  7. Optional: In the Effective start date and time and Effective end date and time fields, select the effective start date and time and end date and time for the route plan.
  8. Optional: On the Origin and Destination FastTabs, select the settings for origin and destination hubs.
  9. On the Result FastTab, select unique IDs for the shipping carrier, carrier service, and carrier group.
  10. In the Route plan field, select a route plan for the routing guide.

Route guides are available on the Rate route workbench, where loads can be matched to routes either manually or automatically.

Use the route plans that you have just created to look at the results in the Rate route workbench. Reviewing these results helps you ensure that the route plans and guide that you set up are configured correctly. If they are correct, they will be picked up in the Rate route workbench for the origin/destination combination.

To view the route results for route plans, follow these steps:

  1. Open Transportation management > Planning > Rate route workbench.
  2. In the From and To columns, select the information for the hubs that were created in the route plan.
  3. In the Data column, select the configurations that were set up in previous courses.
  4. In the Warehouse column, select the configurations that were set up in previous courses.
  5. In the Rate shop data column, select the configurations that were set up in previous courses.
  6. In the Route results FastTab, view the route plan.

Watch this video to see a demonstration of Route plans and Route guides.

Constraints

Constraints can apply to items, shipments, or shipping carriers. Examples of constraints could be hazardous chemicals as an item, a carrier that will not allow fragile items to be shipped, or carriers that do not have refrigerated areas so they cannot ship certain food items.

You might also have carriers who will not be allowed to go to certain customers or pick up from certain vendors. On the Constraints page in the Transportation management module, all of these constraints can be entered and then considered when you are creating shipments.

One of the constraints that you can set up is a filter code. By setting up filter codes on an item group, you can make the codes required for products in the item group.

You can specify filter codes for released products. For example, you can use filter codes to group products that must be located in a storage zone with a specific temperature.

You can make specific inventory items available only for customers or vendors, or for both customers and vendors. For any item that you set up as generally available, customer filters and vendor filters do not apply.

For more information about filters, see Configure warehouse management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Work with warehouse management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.