On a good day, what the customer wants is very simple: take one Shipment from point A to point B. But other times, things are a little more complicated — sometimes, a lot more difficult. Luckily, Tailwind’s design allows it to handle various approaches to moving cargo. So whether it’s a Customer who needs multiple Shipments delivered simultaneously, adding a last-minute Shipment to an existing Dispatch, swapping Carriers mid-route, or any dozens of other variations on the same, Tailwind can help you keep everything on track.

A common variation on the one-pick one-drop is the one-pick two-drop, the pick-drop-pick-drop, or the — well, you get the idea. Sometimes a single Order for a Customer involves more than one load or a load that needs to go to more than one place. In these cases, adding multiple Shipments to the same Order will help you keep things organized.

Setting up this kind of Order is similar to creating a basic Order. The only difference is that when you add a Shipment, you don’t stop after adding the first one. Clicking on the ‘Add Shipment’ button again will allow you to continue adding Shipments — as many as is required.

As a rule, every different pick-up and delivery pair should be represented by a separate Shipment. This is true even if you are picking up one large shipment of goods and then dropping it off in several different places: setting them up as three Shipments, each with the same pick-up Location but different delivery Locations, will allow you to build a proper route plan and track each delivery separately. The same is true of the opposite, where you pick up goods from several different places and deliver them to the same destination.

Orders are specific to Customers, but Dispatches are not. Sometimes, you may want to move two different Shipments (for two different Customers) on the same truck or Carrier — and therefore, the same Dispatch.

In this case, the easiest thing to do is to dispatch the first Shipment, and then, once that Dispatch has been created, add the second (or third or fourth) Shipment to that existing Dispatch. This can be done in one of two ways.

The easiest way will usually be to select the ‘Shipments’ tab from within your newly-created Dispatch. From there, you can click the ‘Add Shipment’ button. This will display a list of all the Shipments in Tailwind that are not currently assigned to a Dispatch. Next, click on the blue ‘+’ button next to the Shipment you want to add to your Dispatch. Once done, you will have the option to return to the Dispatch or add additional Shipments.

Alternatively, you can see the additional Shipments from their respective Orders. Navigate to the Order that contains the additional Shipment(s) and select the Shipments tab. You can then individually Dispatch the Shipments by clicking on the white dispatch button to the left of the shipment.

You will be prompted to choose either a ‘New’ or ‘Existing’ Dispatch — select the ‘Existing’ option when you do.

At this point, a list of your existing, active Dispatches will appear. Select the previously created Dispatch to add your Shipment.

Regardless of which method you use, you should check the Route Plan of the Dispatch once all the Shipments have been added: it may be necessary to re-arrange the new locations to ensure a sensible route. Once that is done, you can proceed with the Dispatch as usual.

Much as you may sometimes want to add Shipments from different Orders to a single Dispatch, there are also times when it will make sense to dispatch different Shipments from an Order to separate Dispatches. For example, if the original Order is to move more goods than can fit in a single truck, splitting it into two full load Shipments will make sense. Similarly, if you have two Shipments from the same pick-up that need to be delivered in tandem, instead of one after another, you would want to Dispatch each Shipment separately while keeping them grouped under a single Order.

To dispatch an individual Shipment from an Order, bring up the Order and navigate to the ‘Shipments’ tab. You can click on the white dispatch button to dispatch the Shipment.

Remember that Tailwind will keep track of whether or not an individual Shipment has been delivered. An Order will not be available to Invoice until all the Shipments attached to the Order have been delivered to their drop-off location. This is true whether the Shipments are sent out via one Dispatch or many.

For our LTL carriers out there or any transportation company that will be moving multiple orders for multiple customers on one dispatch, we have recently introduced our new and enhanced “Add Shipment” list screen.  When you want to join multiple orders together on one dispatch, start with a blank dispatch. Next, navigate to the dispatch screen list and choose “Create” at the top of the screen.  This will bring up a blank dispatch.  You can assign the truck or carrier moving the load at this time but to add shipments to this dispatch, follow these instructions:

Go to The Shipment area and click on “Add Shipment.”

Clicking on “Add Shipment” will bring up a Shipment list screen that will display all the shipments in your database that are not presently moving on a dispatch, and you can switch the toggle on the left-hand side to green for all shipments you want to be added to this dispatch.

Once all shipments are chosen, click on the “Add Shipment” button in the top right-hand corner. The software will give you a pop-up confirming the shipment numbers added and allow you to go “Back to the dispatch,” Once you go back to the dispatch, you will see all shipments added into the route plan and the shipment area of the dispatch record.

In some cases, whether in response to some change of plan or for other logistical reasons, more than one Dispatch is required to get a Shipment to its final delivery location. For example, maybe there is a breakdown, and you need to get a second tractor (and driver) to pick up the stalled load. Or perhaps you are going to use one carrier to get a Shipment to a border cross-dock, where it will hang out for a few days before another carrier picks it up and takes it the rest of the way. Tailwind allows you to Switch and Drop shipments from a Dispatch for situations like these.

Switches and Drops are both performed from the Dispatch Route Plan. In both cases, you must Switch or Drop from a specific Location — the point at which the load is being transferred. In most cases, you will need to add this Location to the Dispatch first — and if it doesn’t exist in your database, you might have to create the Location before you can add it.

A ‘Switch’ is any case where a Shipment is being moved from one Dispatch to another immediately. When you Switch a Shipment, Tailwind does two things: it removes all the subsequent Locations from the Route Plan for the existing Dispatch, then creates a new Dispatch for the Shipment, beginning from the switch Location continuing through the rest of the Route Plan from the original dispatch.

Put: A Switch splits the Route Plan in two at the switch Location.

When you perform a Switch, Tailwind will immediately display the new Dispatch it has created — the ‘second half of the original route. But the old Dispatch is still there, with the switch Location as its final point (marked as completed.) This preserves any related bills (such as driver or carrier pay) along with the general Dispatch information for your records.

The new Dispatch is now active. Like with any newly-created Dispatch, you will need to select a Carrier or Company Truck/Driver. You may also want to add Expenses and double-check the route plan to ensure that everything is in order.

A drop is similar to a Switch, except that it does not create a new Dispatch right away — it simply truncates the current Dispatch at the drop Location and sets a flag on the Shipment to indicate that it is available to add to later Dispatches. A drop is appropriate when a load needs to be left somewhere — a warehouse, for example — but you are unsure when it will be picked up again.

A dropped Shipment will still appear in its associated Order and can be dispatched from there; it will also appear on the list of Shipments when you ‘Add Shipment.’ In each case, the Shipment will remember where it was dropped — the Route Plan for the new Dispatch will begin from the drop Location and end at the Shipment’s delivery point.

As an enhancement and for notification to customers, you can have the customer notified when an “Arrived” or “Departed” flag is set on a dispatch allowing you to easily let your customer know when a load has been picked up or delivered.  To activate this, you need to make a configuration setting so let’s head to the Gear Icon in the top right-hand corner and choose “Configuration”  Once the configuration menu opens across the top of the screen for you, go to “Operations” and click on “Dispatch”  There you will see the ability to set email notifications.

You will have three choices:

Sometimes you find yourself regularly creating very similar sets of Orders. For example, maybe you have a Customer who always wants the same shipment delivered, or there are a dozen shipments all starting from the same pick-up point but going to different destinations. In any case, you don’t want to have to enter the same information repeatedly when most of it is going to be the same.

To help with these situations, Tailwind allows you to Copy an existing Order. Navigate to the Order you want to copy and click the ‘Copy Order’ button at the top of the form. You will be asked to specify the number of copies you want to make — enter the number you want and click ‘Create.’

The new copies will now appear in the Order list, each with its Order number. You can then make any changes or customizations necessary by editing the Orders individually.

Related Articles

Before getting into the fancy stuff, you may want to brush up on basic Dispatching and creating an Order.