Proof of Delivery
Proof of Delivery EDI Import
In TransVirtual there is the ability to create EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Import rules that allow you to upload PODs and attach them to a consignment. This process would typically be used where an outside system is sending you PODs directly to your TransVirtual account.
An example could be where your agents send you PODs via email for any work they have performed for you. This article will run through how to setup an example of this.
The page used to create these POD Import rules can be found under Import/Export > Data Import > Proof of Delivery.
An example could be where your agents send you PODs via email for any work they have performed for you. This article will run through how to setup an example of this.
The page used to create these POD Import rules can be found under Import/Export > Data Import > Proof of Delivery.
1. This article will detail how to setup a common example; emailing an agent manifest to the agent once it has been created.
2. To see the consignment POD Import Settings page, go to Import/Export > Import > Proof of Delivery.
To Create/Add a New Rule
1. To create a new rule, go to the Consignments POD Import Settings page, where you will see a similar screen as shown below.
2. On Consignments POD Import Settings page, click on the Add Import Rule button as shown above, a pop up of Create a new import rule will display as shown below.
3. Manually enter the Rule Name and select the Import Framework with the help of Drop and Down button and then click on Create button as shown above.
4. Once rule is created then it will display on Export Rules tab and highlighted in orange color as shown below.
4. Once rule is created then it will display on Export Rules tab and highlighted in orange color as shown below.
The Orange color shows that this rule is not yet active.
To Update the Export Rule
1. To update the rule, double click on the new rule, detail of selected rule will appear on right side of the screen as shown below.
2. On rule detail tab, you can update the details as describe below.
A. Rule Name: This is simply the name of the EDI rule and should already be populated from when you created the rule. This can be changed if needed but the name should be reflective of what the rule does/is used for.
B. Import Framework: = This is how the Customer Service Tickets will be created. In this example, we are going to use TransVirtual Email Account which means that any emails sent to the email listed against this rule will generate a new Customer Service Ticket. To generate an email linked to this Import rule, click the Settings button next to this field:
C. Now, you will then see the View the Email settings for this Import Rule pop-up screen will come as shown below.
D. Click on the Generate Address button and then click the Update button to apply an email to this EDI Import rule as shown above.
E. Import File Type: This is the import file type that must be used to create Customer Service Tickets via this Import Rule. For this example, we are going to set as image Only.
F. Customer (Optional): If this POD Import rule is for a specific customer, you can limit to just that customer by setting their name against this EDI rule, in this field.
This is not required though however, as TransVirtual uses OCR software (Optical Character Recognition) that will match any consignment numbers found in a POD image, to any consignment numbers in your account. However, if needed, this setting could be used to ensure only PODs captured by this EDI rule are attached to consignments for the specified customer.
G. Agent/Supplier (Optional): Used to set an Agent/Supplier that will be the agent responsible for the PODs. If you specify an Agent/Supplier, when the POD attaches to the relevant consignment, the consignment will be automatically assigned to that Agent/Supplier, which will then generate an auto Agent price for Finance reasons. This field should only be used when the Agent/Supplier for any consignment PODs (for this EDI rule) will always be the same.
H. The remainder of the settings here are used to specify Date/Time Formats, if they are different to what has been setup in your account. Configure these if required, but this example will have these fields blank.
Ensure that the correct Timezone has been set!
I. Once the settings have been configured, you need to enable the EDI rule to activate it by clicking on Toggle button in Yes position and then click on the Update button at the top of the page.
J. You will then notice that your EDI rule is now white in the list, indicating that it is currently active.
Extra Information - What Next?
1. Once the POD Import rule has been setup, any PODs emailed to the linked TransVirtual Email address, will be attached to the relevant consignment in your account; provided the POD image is of a good quality.
2. POD images should be grayscale, 100-200 dpi and of a good quality; no shadows obstructing numbers and the image can't be too small or taken from too far away (the ideal method to generate these POD images would be to scan the paper PODs through a scanner/multi-function printer scanner).
3. The POD should also be an image type file (PNG, TIF etc). The image looks similar to the below it should work with no issues:
2. POD images should be grayscale, 100-200 dpi and of a good quality; no shadows obstructing numbers and the image can't be too small or taken from too far away (the ideal method to generate these POD images would be to scan the paper PODs through a scanner/multi-function printer scanner).
3. The POD should also be an image type file (PNG, TIF etc). The image looks similar to the below it should work with no issues:
4. When ready to email these PODs, the POD images should be sent as attachments with the email. Multiple PODs can be sent in the one email, however, if doing so, there MUST only be one POD per image file.
This process will not work if an image attachment contains more than one page of PODs.
5. PODs must be single-page, single-image files for this process to work as expected. The email for this example could look something like the below:
6. The email is being sent to the email that was generated for this EDI Import rule.
7. The attached image file only has one POD image in the file, and it is grayscale. The image is a good quality.
8. Once emailed to the linked TransVirtual email, the POD will attach itself to the corresponding consignment in your account; the status will change to Delivered if required.
If the import fails, what happens?
1. If for some reason the import is unsuccessful, the POD will be added to an open image batch under Transport > Administration > Upload PODs/Images > click the Global Batch List tab.
2. Looking at the Import History page in the below example, you can see Failed POD imports as shown below.
2. Looking at the Import History page in the below example, you can see Failed POD imports as shown below.
3. As a result of these having failed to import, they have now been added to an Open Image batch - the reason for this is that if the POD fails to import (maybe due to poor image quality, etc), a staff member should then go through and manually assign the POD to the relevant consignment (if applicable).
4. This would ensure that all applicable PODs are assigned to their relevant consignments, and none are missed.
5. The 1 failed POD import can be seen here.
5. The 1 failed POD import can be seen here.
6. Double-click on the batch and you will then be prompted to action the batch and assign each image to the relevant consignment.
Further information on how to process an image batch can be found here.
Things to Note
POD Filename Usage
1. The filename of a POD file can come into play and assist with matching PODs to consignments in the event that the image quality in the file is poor/unusable.
For example, the file in the below is named simply per the consignment it should attach along with file format as shown below.
The .png seen here in the filename is added automatically based on the file type - the file is a .png so the extension is added.
2. If you want to open the image, double click on any of the column, the import data page will open as shown below.
3. When opened, you can see that the image quality of this POD is poor and the barcode/consignment number is not readable, but you would expect that as a result of this poor image quality the POD would therefore not match to any consignments, but as per the above, this POD was successfully attached to the correct consignment because the filename used was simply the consignment number as shown below.
4. This same functionality does not work with email type imports unfortunately. It will only work if the import type is set to FTP (Remote FTP also) as shown below.
5. The simple reason for this is due to the way in which the files are received via FTP vs Email. FTP delivers the file 'more directly', whereas email type POD imports send an email to TransVirtual where TransVirtual has to then extract the image from the email received.
Date Time listed on POD
1. Another thing to note is that the POD, if imported into your account and attached to a consignment after the expected delivery date/time, will list the expected delivery date/time as the POD time. For example:
2. In the above you can see that the POD completion time is listed as 16/10/2023 at 2:08 PM Eastern Australian time.
3. In the admin tab of the consignment, you can see the expected delivery date/time as shown below.
3. In the admin tab of the consignment, you can see the expected delivery date/time as shown below.
The expected delivery date is based on your setup Transit Times.
4. The system (for this example consignment) has no information to tell it otherwise, it has used the expected delivery date for the time and date of POD completion. The reason that TransVirtual works in this manner for this functionality is that the system will not always be able to read handwriting on a POD image that specifies when a delivery was completed. By defaulting to expected delivery date/time. It also compensates for situations such as where an agent may complete a delivery for you and they complete it on time, but they may take a week or two to email the POD across to you.
5. If the POD arrives and attaches to a consignment before the expected delivery date/time then the POD completion time listed will be when the POD was imported as shown below.
6. The time listed here is when the import was completed, which is before the expected delivery date/time:
ImageOnlyManualProcess
1. If you create an import rule and set the import File Type to ImageOnlyManualProcess as shown below.
2. Any file that uploaded via this rule will list the import as completed as shown below.
The POD image will then appear in the open image batch as per further up in this article.
The reason for this is that this setting allows you to import the POD images but then have them all be placed in the open image batch so that a staff member can then go through and manually process them when required.
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