Transit Times

Overview

Transvirtual lets you set up zones and specify the expected delivery and pickup timeframes to help manage delivery expectations.

Note: See the Notes section below for how separating Linehaul Routes and Transit Times allows the Add Transit List button to show.

Set Up Transit Times

Set up 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.
In Global Setup (Configuration > General > Global Setup), in the Zone Directory Mapping section, set the Transit Times Zone List to the zone list created.
In Transit Times (Configuration > General > Transit Times), you have two options: Add Route or Add Transit List.

Note: If you plan on having more than one set of transit times based on different service levels, select Add Transit List. For one set of transit times, select Add Route.
If adding multiple sets of Transit Times for different service levels after selecting Add Transit List, select the applicable service level from the drop-down, then click Create to add a new transit list.
Before creating or adding a route, select the service level first from the drop-down.

Create a New Route

After service selection, click Add Route. The Create a new route pop-up displays.
Select the From and To zone from the drop-downs, then click Save to create the route.
Once the route is created, click the newly added route. The route detail displays on the right of the screen.
On the route detail page, go to the Transit Time detail section.
In the Transit Time detail section, update the details:
- Time Period Name: update the name of the time period, if necessary.
The Transit Time detail has two sections, Forward and Reverse, which define the number of days expected for delivery:
- Days until delivery expected (Min./Max.): enter the number of days expected for delivery of the consignment.
- Days until first scan expected: enter the number of days within which the consignment is expected to be scanned after creation.
- Expected Delivery (By time): select the latest time by which the consignment should be delivered for the day.
A few more options are available on the transit time detail page:
- Transit Time Display Text: text displayed to users when creating consignments, giving additional information about the estimated time of arrival (ETA). For example, "3 Biz Days" tells the user the consignment is expected to be delivered within three business days.
- Field to base date from: select the applicable base date used to calculate delivery duration. A set of toggles lets you include or exclude specific days from ETA calculations based on this date:
  - Allow Saturdays/Sunday Service: enable if this zone services or performs deliveries on these days.
  - Do Not Service on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: enable if this zone does not service or perform deliveries on these days. For example, if you enable "Do Not Service" for Saturday on the Adelaide to Sydney zone and the delivery period is 3 days, an extra day is automatically added to the ETA calculation whenever Saturday falls within that period.
Once you have added or updated the fields, or enabled or disabled the toggles described above, click Update to save the changes.

Note: See the Notes section below for more on how the Forward and Reverse tabs work.

Important: Transit Time setup typically populates the Expected Delivery date on a consignment.

You may see circumstances where this field is not populated:

The consignment was created via a linked Transvirtual customer (another Transvirtual account that sends you consignments to deliver on their behalf). When this happens, the consignment in your account will not display an Expected Delivery date, because what you have set up may contradict what is set up in their account.
Displaying this date in your account could otherwise create confusion if the original customer has a login to both your account and the linked customer's account — they may wonder why the Expected Delivery dates differ. This is why the field will not display if the consignment in your account was created via a linked Transvirtual customer.

Import a Route Table

There is the ability to have unique Transit Times per service level, if required.

Navigate to Configuration > General > Transit Times. The route table page displays.
Select the service level from the drop-down. The routes for that service level display.
To add a route, select the applicable service level, then click Add Route. A pop-up for Create a new route displays.
Click Import Route Table List. A pop-up to select your route table file to import displays. Select or drag in your file, then click Next.

Note: When uploading a file, make sure it includes From Zone, To Zone, and Delivery date columns.
- At a minimum, the file needs three columns: From Zone, To Zone, and the number of Transit Days between those locations. You can add more columns if required.
- To set up a transit time range, the import file could look similar to the example below.
- You can specify a minimum and a maximum number of delivery days, mapped as shown below.
- A successful import displays a range as per your file.
After clicking Next, a screen displays for mapping your file.

Note: The Date column shows the column names in your upload file, and the Map to Field column lets you match your columns to the relevant fields in Transvirtual. It is advisable to use the Delivery Days Max field, since Transit Times are typically set up as the maximum number of allowable days between locations.
Once mapping is complete, click Next to import the file. The import completes.

Import Transit Zone List vs. Route Table

There is a difference between importing a Transit Times zone list and importing the route table.
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 lists the areas you move freight between.
This file contains Zone Name, Suburb, State, and Postcode.
A route table import comes after this and outlines the number of travel days between two locations. This file contains, at a minimum, three columns: Zone From, Zone To, and Transit Days.

Notes

Whether manually creating Transit Times or importing them, where the same route exists more than once, the number of Transit Days must be the same. Each route set up in your account has a forward and reverse Transit value assigned, as shown below.

In the example above, 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, which means a time for QLD > ACT has been assigned.

If you have a dedicated QLD > ACT route configured, the number of days listed needs to match the reverse route value shown above.

If the same route exists more than once with different Transit Day values, this causes unexpected and likely incorrect results for consignments using those routes. You may see the smaller of the two applicable times used, meaning customers may expect freight to arrive earlier than it will.

Reset Expected Delivery on First Scan or All Scanned

These settings are under Configuration > General > Global Setup, on the Consignment Related Rules tab.
These settings reset the expected delivery date of a consignment (the system recalculates based on the applicable transit route) when either the first scan is performed against the consignment or all items on the consignment have been scanned.
Useful if you want the ETA to reset based on when you start or finish scanning the freight, rather than the consignment date typically used as the default.