We are pleased to inform you that we have successfully launched a new version of our Control Tower, 2025 v7.
Notice: Terminology Update for Pre-Bill and Purchase Order Processes
This change is being made to improve clarity as we prepare to introduce a new, dedicated Purchase Order process.
What is Changing?
What is Changing?
To clearly distinguish between the existing process and the upcoming new feature, we are renaming all references currently associated with the Pre-Bill process.
Old Terminology | New Terminology |
"Purchase Order" (used for Pre-Bills) | "Pre-Bill" |
"Send Pre-Bill" (Context Menu Action) | "Send Pre-Bill Email" |
For example:
A column previously labeled "Purchase Order ID" might become "Pre-Bill ID".
When is this Happening?
The new terminology will be deployed on Monday, November 3rd, 2025 for staging. The change will be effective across all environments, including Production, by applying version 2025v7.
What You Need to Know
Excel Downloads and Exports: If your teams use Excel downloads or other data exports, please be aware that column names referencing "Purchase Order" will also be updated to "Pre-Bill." Please inform your teams accordingly to avoid confusion.
Integrations are Safe: Our API endpoints and data models remain unchanged. Your current integrations and workflows will continue to work exactly as they do today.
Location Master Data “Additional Emails”
Goal
To improve communication efficiency and flexibility when sharing shipment-related notifications (e.g. confirmation emails) with multiple recipients. This enhancement allows users to define and manage additional email recipients directly in the Location Master Data, ensuring that key stakeholders are automatically informed throughout the shipping process.
What’s New?
Previously, default emails could only be sent to a single primary contact associated with an order. This new feature introduces an “Additional Emails” field in the Location Master Data, allowing users to store multiple additional recipients per location.
The new field supports multiple entries, enabling broader visibility and collaboration without requiring manual email forwarding.
This is particularly useful for cases where multiple departments, external partners, or regional contacts need to receive the same communication.
How To Use
How To Use
You can now manage additional recipient emails directly within the Location Master Data.
Example
Before:
Only one email address associated with the location can be set up.Now:
A new field “Additional Emails” is available in Location Master Data.
This ensures that communication stays accurate and up to date, reflecting the right contact information tied to each shipment location.
Material Order Grid “Shipping Unit Columns”
Goal
To provide shippers with clearer visibility into the composition of each Material Order by displaying the total count of goods per handling unit/Shipping unit type directly in the Grid. This enhancement enables faster insights into packaging structure, improves shipment planning accuracy, and supports more transparent communication with logistics partners.
What’s New?
Previously, the Material Order Grid displayed only a limited set of handling unit types such as Pallet, Service, and Parts. With this update, the grid now includes dedicated columns for each handling unit type (e.g., Box, Cage, Barrel, Big Bag, Bin, Waste Bin, etc.), allowing users to see totals at a glance.
Each column reflects the total number of goods associated with that specific handling unit within the Material Order. This makes it easier to understand packaging quantities without opening detailed views or calculating manually.
How To Use
How To Use
You can now review handling unit counts directly in the Material Order Grid.
Example
Before:
The MO Grid only showed totals for Pallets, Services, and Parts. To find out how many Boxes or Cages were included, users had to open each order or item manually.Now (with new column selection):
New columns have been added for each specific handling unit type, including Box, Cage, Barrel, Big Bag, Bin, and Waste Bin.
Each column automatically displays the total count of goods per handling unit within the order.
Existing columns (Pallet, Service, Parts) remain unchanged and continue to function as before.
This gives users a complete overview of all handling units in one consolidated grid view, simplifying both operational review and reporting.
Transport Order “Finished (Forced)” Automation
Goal
To ensure Transport Orders can seamlessly progress into follow-up processes such as reporting and invoicing. Currently, transports sometimes remain open because carriers fail to provide the missing actual timestamps for final milestones. As a result, shippers must manually finish these transports in the Control Tower.
With this enhancement, the system can automatically finish transports based on predefined rules, significantly reducing manual effort and ensuring all relevant processes continue without delay.
What’s New?
A new “Finished (Forced)" Status setting is now available in the Transport Order configuration.
This allows shippers to automatically complete transports when the last milestone remains unset after a defined period of time.
Users can configure the number of days for the system to automatically close the transport. Once this time threshold is reached, the system sets the missing actual timestamps and updates the transports status to “Finished (Forced)”.
This ensures that Transport Orders are not blocked by missing milestone data, enabling consistent downstream reporting and timely invoicing.
How To Use
How To Use
You can configure automation in the Transport Order Settings using the new “Force Finished” option.
Time-Based Automation Scenario
You can define a rule that automatically finishes a Transport Order 2 days after the last scheduled date has passed. This helps ensure that transport does not remain open due to missing actual milestone timestamps.
The system logic works as follows:
The automation always checks the last available scheduled date within the Transport Order.
If multiple milestones or stops exist (e.g., Collection → Scheduled Routing → Deliver), the system will:
Look first for the last milestone (typically Deliver) with a scheduled date.
If no scheduled date is found there, it will look for the previous milestone (e.g., Scheduled Routing).
All milestones without an actual timestamp will receive the last available scheduled date as their actual time.
The rule applies only to Transport Orders that are already in “In Transit” status, ensuring that automation is triggered only for active, ongoing shipments.
If a user later removes the last actual milestone from a “Finished (Forced)” transport, the system will automatically move the transport back to “In Transit”, and during the next scheduled check, it will again set the transport to “Finished (Forced)” if the same rule conditions are met.
Recalculate Order Settings – Now Possible in “Ready for Pickup”
Goal
To make it easier for shippers to keep their order data accurate and aligned with the latest configuration settings — even after activation.
Previously, when planners manually updated orders after activation — for example, changing the service level or switching between LTL/FTL/LCL/FCL — these updates did not trigger a recalculation of the default settings defined in the order form configuration. As a result, users had to manually adjust related fields to ensure consistency for further processing such as carrier selection, routing, or rate calculations.
With this enhancement, shippers can now recalculate settings automatically and by manual usage until “In Transit” status, ensuring that last-minute changes are always correctly reflected in the system.
How to Use
How to Use
Go to e.g. Transport Order in Status "Ready for Pickup"
Either open the edit form which triggers to check for all settings again or
Using the Batch function (or context menu) for multiple orders at once
The Batch in general will be applied to all currently filtered values
For example by decreasing the amount of changes it can be filtered by carriers, locations, status etc.
As usual the Batch History will be show in Batch Tasks
Customer → Partner: Harmonizing Customer and Supplier Usage
Goal
To simplify and harmonize how shippers and their business partners work within the platform.
Previously, users had to distinguish between Customers and Suppliers, as well as between Inbound and Outbound processes. With this release, we are introducing a unified concept called “Partner.”
This change creates a consistent way to manage all business relationships — whether inbound or outbound — and prepares the platform for future use of the Partner Portal. It enables shippers to work with any partner company under a single, flexible setup, improving usability and reducing confusion.
What’s New
What’s New
Unified Partner Concept
The term “Customer” is replaced by “Partner.”
The system no longer differentiates between Supplier and Customer when creating or managing orders.
Inbound and Outbound processes now share the same partner structure, eliminating the need for direction-based partner logic.
Simplified UI & Logic
The tight coupling between order direction (Inbound/Outbound) and partner type has been removed.
Any Partner can now be used for any direction.
The Inbound/Outbound field remains available to indicate the order’s direction, but it no longer restricts partner selection.
UI components have been updated to reflect this flexibility — both “Customer” and “Supplier” inputs are visible simultaneously.
Input fields have been reordered for clarity, showing Customer (Partner) before Supplier (Partner).
What Stays the Same
Existing Customer/Supplier data continues to function without disruption.
Master Data --> Suppliers stays for existing usage
All integrations and automation processes remain valid.
Only UI labels, input logic, and naming have been updated for harmonization.
Configurable Pause and Rest Time for Drive Time Calculation
Goal
As a shipper, you want regulation-compliant calculated drive times for your carriers.
Until now, the system’s calculations were based only on pure driving distances, without considering mandatory driver pauses or rest periods.
With this release, you can now define Pause and Rest time rules directly in the Routing Settings.
These rules ensure calculated drive times automatically include required breaks and rest periods, resulting in accurate delivery schedules and more reliable planning.
What’s New
What’s New
New Settings Section: Drive Time – Pause and Rest Time
Here you can define:
Pause Time
Pause After (Drive Time):
Duration after which a short pause is required
(e.g. 4h 30m)Pause Duration:
Length of the short pause
(e.g. 45m)Becomes mandatory when “Pause After” is set
Rest Time
Rest After (Drive Time):
Duration after which a longer rest is required
(e.g. 11h)Rest Duration:
Length of the longer rest period
(e.g. 9h)Becomes mandatory when “Rest After” is set
How to Use
How to Use
Open the Routing Settings
Go to Admin → Settings → Routing Settings.Set your Pause and Rest Rules
Enter your preferred thresholds for “Pause After” and “Rest After.”
Define the corresponding durations.
Example:
Pause after 4h 30m → duration 45m
Rest after 11h → duration 9h
Save your Settings
Once saved, these rules will automatically apply to all newly calculated routes.Trigger a New Calculation
When a Transport Order route is created or updated, the system will automatically include the required pauses and rest times in the Calculated Drive Time.
If a route is changed, the system automatically recalculates with the new parameters.
Check the Results
The Calculated Drive Time and Scheduled Time fields in the Transport Order will reflect the total time including pauses and rest.
You’ll now see longer—but more realistic—transit times in your planning view.
Example
Settings:
Pause after 4h 30m → 45m pause
Rest after 11h → 9h rest
Route: 1,915 km
Pure drive time: 20h 45m
Expected behavior:
Driving 4h 30m Pause 45m Driving 4h 30m Pause 45m Driving 2h Rest 9h Driving 4h 30m Pause 45m Driving 4h 30m Pause 45m Driving 45m
✅ Calculated total drive time: 32h 45m
(time including all pauses and rest periods)
Smaller Improvements
Download all files - A new button to "Download All" is available
New Air columns are added:
Airport Origin (schedule)(local)
Airport Origin (actual)(local)
Airport Destination (schedule)(local)
Airport Destination (actual)(local)
New Cost Approval grid columns are added:
Company Code
Organization