We are pleased to inform you that we have successfully launched a new version of our Control Tower, 4.21
New Features:
Dynamic handling units
Bundled transport document
Subcontractor
Mobile driver certificates
Rate zones with minimum based on handling units
New dangerous property
Invoice reference field
Customs
Rates based on shipping containers
Additional email contacts on material order
Feature Improvements:
Weighing workflow
Carrier onboarding
Index adjustment
Ocean Booking: additional use cases
Multi-Booking: out of sync error
Integration Updates:
Subcontractor in TO
Cost array in TO
Handling unit action in TO
VAT & Municipality in Location API
Cost details on outbound TO message
Add dangerous property in API
Add invoice field in TO API
New Features:
Dynamic Handling Units
The goal of this new feature is allow you more flexibility in the configuration and the data points handled on the orders, we have replaced the existing shipping types logic with handling units
In the Parts masterdata table you will now always be asked to select a shipping unit.
In the Material Order/Transport Order/Sales Order Forms, we have modified the material line table into shipping units table that contain all shipping units inside the order whether they are part, handling units or even services. The order details panel at the bottom of the data grid has also been modified in a similar way
In the Material Order/Transport Order/Sales Order Forms, we have also modified the Load details and overrides section to match the new possible handling units available. It allows you to override specific handling units defined in the parts masterdata.
Each handling unit category is represented by its own detail field to summarise all quantities in your order.
You may now override the quantity of each handling unit category independently.
You may also override the quantity of the handling unit items independently, you only need to expand the dropdown to see all the different handling unit items that belong to one category.
Consequently, we also modified how the rates may be based on handling units. Previously, a rate could be based on shipping types. Now, you can base your rate on handling units when you select By unit or By unit (combined)
By unit:
This rate/surcharge should only match if all the handling units mentioned on the transport order are available in the filter selection of the rate/surcharge:
if the transport order has more handling units than what is available on the rate/surcharge filter, the system will not consider the rate/surcharge
if the transport order has fewer handling units than what is available on the rate/surcharge filter, the system will consider the rate/surcharge
Shipping container vs. Handling units
When By unit rate is selected, you will be able to either select Multiple handling units or a single shipping container. The fields are mutually exclusive.
If a shipping container is selected, the rates will be based on the selected shipping container on the transport order form.
This configuration can be found in the rate zones masterdata
By unit (combined):
When the selected Rate/surcharge class = By unit (combined)
You can select one unique handling unit from the parts MD table
The system will filter out all records of shipping unit = Parts, services, and shipping container from this list
It will use the calculated or manual override values for each handling unit on the transport order as input for quantity
It finds a rate for each unique handling unit on the transport order to consider this rate class for rate calculation cheapest of any type.
If one of the handling units doesn’t find a rate of type By unit combined, any rates of rate type by unit combined cannot be used.
It will use the sum of all the combined freight costs of type By unit combined to compare against other rate class types.
It will add multiple cost lines of type freight for each unique handling unit for that billing leg(s).
Inside the transport order settings, we also reduced the number of options for rate calculation to have only Cheapest of any type in this version. It also uses new logic to compare all available rates and find the cheapest price.
Consequently, we also modified how the rate calculation logic is processed for:
TO Single
MO (MO origin-destination)
MO (TO origin-destination)
Grouped material orders
Bundled Transport Document
You can now generate Transport documents on demand when you press the download button. Transport Documents are live documents to represent the content of the transport order in real-time.
This configuration can be found in the Divisions masterdata
Subcontractor
You can now assign a carrier's subcontractor to a transport order.
As an admin, you can add subcontractor settings to the masterdata roles then your users can view subcontractors to a given carrier and assign them to a transport order. You can also validate subcontractors licences at assignment
Mobile Driver Certificates
As an admin, you can require the driver to validate that they have the required certifications to drive dangerous goods.
When this setting is enabled, the driver is asked to confirm in the Mobile Driver App they are allowed to transport dangerous materials. This confirmation is only asked when the TO contains at least one dangerous material. Without this information, the driver can't execute the transport order.
This configuration can be found in the transport order settings.
Rate zones with minimum based on handling units
Here we provide you with an additional way to configure your rate zones based on weight and automatically calculate minimums based on specific handling units in the order.
This configuration can be found in the rate zones masterdata
Step 1: If the user selects Rate class = By weight, then Minimum class field will appear as a configuration option. Inside, you will select amongst Fixed rate, By unit (Fixed rate is the default option selected).
Step 2: If the user selects By unit the system will provide 4 additional configuration fields:
a dropdown displayed as Min. shipping unit; inside you may select from the predefined list of shipping unit from the system (refer to Dynamic handling units)
a dropdown displayed as Min. handling unit; inside you may select from the list of existing Parts, Handling units or Services defined in the Parts Master Data table from the selected category above (refer to Dynamic handling units)
a value field displayed as Max. handling units: here, you should define the maximum units expected in the order, and that will be used to compute the minimum line automatically
a value field displayed as Guaranteed weight: here, you should define the maximum weight guaranteed to be paid to the carrier, and that will be used to compute the minimum line automatically
Step 3: The system then calculates the rate
based on the Rate Class from Lines as it does today;
and calculates the rate based on the minimum class from minimum in a similar way it does via Rate Class;
It then takes the maximum value resulting from the both the calculations above
And finally applies the Min. Charge & Max. Charge after that
Step 4: In the Lanes section, you may choose the type of lanes the rate will match to.
Step 5: In the Lines section, you may define the actual unit rate and flat rate which will be used to compute the freight cost.
New Dangerous Property
We are giving you a clear way to categorize dangerous and hazardous materials inside an order.
There is a new property for parts & orders associated with a certain ADR category/UN number. The new property does not yet have feature parity with the previous property regarding filtering and linking to other settings. This is being considered at a later stage in the application. The flag's behavior is identical to the hazardous flag inside parts & orders.
The hazardous flag is unchanged to refer to parts & orders considered hazardous for the environment. All existing behavior linked to this property in the rest of the system has been kept.
This modification can be found in the Parts masterdata table, and in the content of the order forms this has also affected Carrier Portal and Mobile Driver App.
Invoice Reference Field
We provide a way for you to store a list of related carrier invoice identifiers inside an order. This is available through integration.
This feature can be found on the TO order form under the Transport Order Details Section.
Customs
This allows you to flag material and transport orders that are required for customs and offer a way to capture structured information related to the customs process on MO and TO level. The customs information should allow the shipper to have a better view on potential delays to containers related to the customs process.
As an admin you can enable rights for the customs section and events under rights management and CT roles.
As a user, Customs handling required flag must be enabled on one of the material orders in the right section.
Rates based on shipping containers
As admin you can configure rates and surcharges for ocean freight based on container type.
You can configure rates and surcharges based on a new shipping unit : Shipping Container. The shipping container is selectable in the container section on the transport order form which can be configured in the parts and rate zones masterdata tables.
Additional email contacts on material order
We have added a new field for you to capture additional email addresses for collection, delivery and requestor on the material order form. You can use this to send more than one email for collection, delivery and requestor on the material order form.
Feature Improvements
Weighing workflow
We have re-aligned the behavior for weighing workflow when required in Control Tower and other applications, so weight is only required for Parts and not for Handling units nor Services. Also, any location which has a managed weighbridge is not required to log in the weights.
Carrier onboarding
You can now onboard a carrier easier in Control Tower. If the carrier is not yet connected, you will see a screen with a check box to invite the carrier.
The initial admin email to invite a first user for that carrier inside the Carrier Portal is now mandatory.
The field will display a dropdown list of existing known users from Control Tower. If the input email is unknown in Control Tower, the dropdown will disappear to signal that you can input an email yourself.
Index adjustment
We have improved the index adjustment calculation rule in Control Tower. The index is now based on the transport order billing date. Also added are 2 other options where the idx variable is based on the deviation of the index in absolute value or in percentage.
Ocean Booking: Additional use cases
You can now copy a transport order with an ocean booking. The copied booking will inherit the follow details from the original booking:
Port of loading
Port of discharge
Booking type
Multi-Booking: Out of sync error
The system allows you to execute workflow asynchronously, which is a valuable feature but we have now provided a way of warning the user in case the ocean booking will get out of sync with one of the transport orders.
If you are doing an update on one TO which might cause other TO’s to go out of sync, the system will check whether all the linked TOs will be able to sync the most recent updates from the ocean booking. If not, a warning message on the TO that got out of sync will show.
Booking Type
Vessel departure schedule
Vessel arrival schedule
Integration Updates
Subcontractor in TO
As a user, to see the Subcontractor data structure in the APIs to manipulate Transport Orders.
when a Transport Order is sent via the public API, the value subcontractedCarrier must be returned
when a Transport Order is created or updated via Public API, the values subcontractedCarrier and subcontractedCarrierCode must be optional.
Cost array in TO
As a user, to send and receive the Unit and Quantity fields (costs array within the full outbound TO messages)
unit & unitQuantity to the outgoing TO messages
Handling unit action in TO
For external systems to send us, and receive from us the handling unit action for each material line on material order level
addition of the field handlingUnitAction inside the materialLines objects array to send and receive the handling unit action for each material line on material order level
VAT & Municipality in Location API
As a user, to store some additional information on location level
addition of VAT and Municipality on input/output validators on location level
Cost Details on outbound TO message
As a user, to receive cost details
addition of cost details to costs array for all status messages
Add dangerous property in API
As a user, to read and update the field dangerous in the Parts master data as well as the overrideDangerous in the material order lines.
Addition of a new field called danger inside the Part schema right below the hazard field
Inside the material order, right below the overrideWaste field inside the Part schema:
Addition of a new field called overrideHazard
Addition of a new field called overrideDanger
Add invoice field in TO API
As a user, to see a new carrier reference field in the Order form
Addition of a new field in the “Transport order Details” section called Invoice references right below the Warehouse Reference.