Transit Times

Transit Times

Transit Times

In Transvirtual you are able to set up a listing of zones and expected delivery/pickup timeframes.
Please refer to the extra information section which explains how to separate the Linehaul Routes and Transit Times which allows the Add Transit List button to show.

Step by Step guide

1. Setup a zone listing separating your service area and potentially other areas into a series of zones to set time frames for transit of freight between these.
2. In Global Setup (Configuration > General > Global Setup) and in the Zone Directory Mapping section, set the Transit Times Zone List to the zone list created.
3. In Transit Times (Configuration > General > Transit Times) as below you have 2 options to Add Route or Add Transit List.
If you plan on having more than one set of transit times based on different service levels, you can select Add Transit List alternatively for one set of transit times select Add Route.

 

4. If adding multiple sets of Transit Times for different service levels after selecting Add Transit List, you can select applicable service level by clicking on the drop-down button and then click on Create button to add new transit list as shown below.

       
5. Before creating/adding a route, you can select service level first by clicking on the drop-down button and select applicable service level as shown below.

                                                                                        

To Create/Add a New Route

1. To create/add a new route, after service selection, click on Add Route button as shown above, Create a new route popup will display as shown below.

     

2. Select the From and To Zone with the help of drop-down button and then click on save button to create a new route.
3. Once route has been created, click on the newly added route, the route detail will appear on the right side of the screen.

 
4. On route detail page, go to Transit Time detail section as shown above.
5. On Transit Time detail section, you can update the details as follows.



      a. Time Period Name: If necessary, you can update the name of the time period.  
6. Transit time detail, there are two different sections i.e., Forward and Reverse these sections helps to define the number of days expected for this delivery as below.
      a. Days until delivery expected (Min./Max.): In this field, manually enter the number of days count expected for delivery of the consignment.
      b. Days until first scan expected: In this field, manually enter the number of days count, for which when the consignment is expected to be scanned after creation.  
      c. Expected Delivery (By time): In this field, select the latest time by which the consignment should be delivered for the day.
 7. On transit time detail page there are few more different options as describe below:
      a. Transit Time Display Text: This text is displayed to users when creating consignments. It's useful for providing additional information to users regarding the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of their consignment.
For Example: In the text if it is, "3 Biz Days," that means the user that the consignment is expected to be delivered within 3 business days. In this filed, manually enter the number of days that reminds users about service times/days.
Apart from above, there are few toggle buttons which helps to include or exclude the days from Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) calculations.  
      b. Field to base date from: Select the applicable base date to calculate delivery duration.
      c. Once you select the applicable field to base date, then there are different toggles which helps to include/exclude the days irrespective of servicing and calculate the days on the basis of base date as describe above.
            i. Allow Saturdays/Sunday Service: Enable this toggle, if this zone serviced/perform deliveries on this(these) particular days.
            ii. Do Not Service on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: Enable this(these) toggles, if this zone is not serviced/perform deliveries on this(these) particular day.
      For Example: If you enable the "Do not service" toggle for Saturday for the Adelaide to Sydney zone and the delivery date for this consignment will be 3 days. If Saturday falls within delivery period, an additional day will automatically add to the ETA calculations. 
8. Once you add/update the field(s) or enable or disable the toggle(s) as describe above, click on the Update button to save the changes.
To know about how Forward and Reverse tab, go to Extra Information section of this article.

Transit Times per Service Level

1. As mentioned above, it is possible to have different transit times per Service Level. To do this you will need to have a separate zone list for each Service Level.
2. Import or create the zone list and give it an appropriate name.
For Example: If you had service level of Express, your zone list might be called 'Express Service Transit Times'. The name of the zone list should be reflective of what the zone list will be used for.
The zone list file (if doing an import) will simply need to have zone name, suburb, state and postcode. You do not need to have the Transit days listed as that will be added from within the page in Transvirtual as per the above (manually via the web portal or via a route table import). 
Click here for further information on zone lists.
3. Once the zone lists have been created, you can assign each zone list to its respective Service Level, before this can be done however, you need to ensure that the below zone lists are different.

                                                                                                
You can see Zone Directory Mapping section under Configuration > General > Global Setup.
4. The reason that this is required is because the Route/Scan/Agent Zone List is what is used for Linehaul Routes and there is no ability to add different times per Service Level for Linehaul Routes - this does not make sense in the same way it does for Transit Times etc. These two zones' lists MUST be separate/different, otherwise you will not get the option to add a Transit Zone Master Override per Service Level (meaning you are unable to have different transit times per Service Level). 
Note: The zone list added to the Transit Times Zone List section should be your global default list.
5. Once this has been done, you can go to the Service Level list page under Configuration > Lists and Zones > Service Levels and select the relevant Service Level and apply the respective Transit Master Zone Override as shown below.           

It takes around 10-15 minutes for this field to appear after separating the global default zone lists, it will not happen straight-away!
6. Ensure once selected click on Update button at the top to save the changes.
7. Now, you have a different set of Transit times for that specific service level vs the global default list (located under Global Setup in Zone Mapping). When an Express Service Level consignment is created the transit time will be different to the transit time of a General Service Level type consignment - it will use the times listed in the zone attached to the Service Level. 
8. From here, the next step is to add the actual transit times as per the first section of this article; simply click add Transit List, select the relevant Service Level, then click Add Route and add in the transit days for each applicable route that belongs to that Service Level. Repeat this process until all Service Levels have the correct transit times listed against them.
You could instead do a Route Table import if preferred (see below section of this article) - this allows you to import a csv file specifying transit days for a Service Level. 
When you have separate zone lists for Route/Scan/Agent Zone List and Transit Times Zone List in the Global Setup settings page, your Transvirtual will split the below page into separate pages in Transvirtual:

  
 V/S
  

- This process may take around 15 minutes - it will not happen straight-away.
- Once the pages have been separated you then have the option to customize each Service Level as per the above and make unique.
Important to note:
Transit Time setup typically populates the Expected Delivery on a consignment, like so:



You may see circumstances however where this field is not populated as describe below:
1. One of the reasons for this could be that the consignment was created via a linked Transvirtual customer (another Transvirtual account that send you consignments to deliver on their behalf). When this happens, the consignment in your account WILL NOT display an Expected Delivery date - the simple reason for this is that what you have setup may contradict what is setup in their account.
2. Allowing this to display in your account could create issues if the original customer (linked customer's customer) has a login to both yours and your linked customer's Transvirtual accounts; they may wonder why the Expected Delivery dates are different, hence why this field WILL NOT display if the consignment in your account was created via a linked Transvirtual customer.

Importing a Route Table

Per the above, there is the ability to have unique Transit Times per service level if you require.
1. To navigate the Transit Times page, go to Configuration > General > Transit Times, the route table page will display as shown below.

             
2.  Select the service level with the help of drop-down button, the service level of that selected route(s) will display as shown below.

 
3. To add route, first select the applicable service level and then click on Add Route button as shown above, a popup for Create a new route will display as shown below.                                                  
 
4. Now, click on Import Route Table List button as shown above, a pop-up to Select your route table file to import will display, here select your file or drop-down the file and then click on Next button as shown below.
                                                                                                      

       
When uploading a file make sure that From Zone, To Zone and Delivery date will be present as shown above.
An example of what your import file could look like can be seen below.

      
1. At a minimum you must have 3 columns nominating From Zone, To Zone and the number of Transit Days between those locations. You can have more if you wish but at least 3 columns are required. 
2. If you wish to setup a transit time range, your import file could look something like the below:
 
3. You are able to nominate a minimum number for delivery days and a maximum number. The mapping would then be something like the below:

   
4. The successful import would then display a range as per your file.               
5. After click on Next button, a screen will appear where you will need to map your file as shown below.
                                                                              
   
6. Once mapped completed, click on Next button to import the file, the import has now been completed as shown below.                              
The Date column on the left shows you the column names in your upload file and the Map to Field column allows you to match your columns with the relevant fields in Transvirtual.
Note: There are many fields to choose from in terms of Transit Days. It is advisable to use the Delivery Days Max field as typically, when Transit Times are referred to, they are setup as being a number of maximum allowable days between locations.

Import Transit Zone List vs Import Route Table

1. There is a difference between importing a Transit Times zone list and importing the Route Table.
2. The first step when setting up Transit Times is to create a Transit times zone list. This is a zone list like any other that simply lists the areas you move freight between.
3. This file simply contains Zone Name, Suburb, State and Postcode.
4. A Route Table Import is subsequent to this and is simply a file that outlines the number of travel days between two locations. As per the above, this file simply contains (at a minimum) 3 columns: Zone From, Zone To and Transit Days.

Extra Information

1. Whether manually creating Transit Times or importing them, it is important to note that where the same route exists more than once, the number of Transit Days must be the same. Each Route setup in your account has a forward and reverse Transit value assigned, as shown below.                             
2. In the above example, there is a route for ACT > QLD and the forward direction has a Transit Time of 3 days set. There is also a reverse tab here which means a time for QLD > ACT has been assigned:
                                                                              
  
3. If you have a dedicated QLD > ACT route configured, the number of days listed would need to match the reverse route value seen in the above:
               
5. If there the same route exists more than once and the Transit Day values assigned differ, this will cause unexpected and likely incorrect results for consignments generated using those routes - you may see instances where the ETA/Transit time listed is using the smaller/lesser of the two applicable times meaning customers may expect freight to arrive earlier than it will. 

Resetting Expected Delivery on First Scan or All Scanned

1. If suitable, there are the below settings in your account under Configuration > General > Global Setup, click on Consignment Related Rules tab.

 
                                                                 
2. These settings will reset the expected delivery date of a consignment (system will re-calculate based on applicable transit route) when either the first scan has been performed against the consignment or all items on the consignment have been scanned.
3. Handy if you wish to have the ETA reset based off when you start/finish scanning the freight, rather than the consignment date that is typically used as the default.

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