Assign Routes is not (yet) a full-fledged truck routing system. The entrée system has no concept of what equipment is being used for a given route and so it has no way of knowing what weight or volume limits to use for a given route. For now we must leave it to the dispatcher to know the capacities of the trucks and to recognize when it is necessary to adjust the route assignments and stop sequencing to keep things within limits.

 

•Click on a Route node in the invoice grid and it will be highlighted.

•The summary and status information will be displayed in the truck image at the bottom of the screen.

•As you drag more invoices into the route the truck's route values will update.

•Only unique Stop #s and blank Stop #s are counted not the number of invoices, return authorizations, and backhauls.  

 

Deliveries Summary Area:

▪Weight  - Total weight for all invoices on the route.

▪Cubes  -  Total number of cubes which represent the volume on the route.

▪Pieces - total number of pieces for delivery.

▪Sales - total amount of sales on invoices.

▪COD - total amount of COD to collect.

▪Stops - total number of stops for deliveries.

▪NE Inv - Non-Extended (unprinted) invoices on the route.

Backhauls Summary Area:

▪Weight  - Total weight for all PO and R/A documents for the route.

▪Cubes  -  Backhaul cumulative cubes which represent the volume on the route/truck for pick-ups as you add  POs and R/As.

▪Pieces - total number of pieces for pick up.

▪Purch - total amount of purchases on POs.

▪R/A - total amount of return authorizations.

▪Stops - total number of stops for pick-ups.

▪R/A - total number of stops for return authorizations.

 

Weight / Cube Values

The "Weight" value, for both Deliveries and Backhauls, is the total weight of all documents in that category. The same is true of the "Cubes" value. The calculation of this value assumes all deliveries are on the truck when it leaves the dock. Which means that, for customers who are not doing backhauls, this value represents the maximum load on the truck. For customers who are doing backhauls then this may or may not represent the maximum load on the truck.

What about Drop Ships

"Drop Ship" invoices are explicitly excluded from the "Weight" and "Cubes" values since, by definition, a "Drop Ship" invoice does not exist in the distributor's inventory and therefore cannot be present on the truck when it leaves the distributor's dock. It is assumed that somewhere along the way there will be a backhaul entry which will provide the product for this delivery so, at whatever point in the route the "Drop Ship" invoice is delivered, the weight and volume are deducted from the truck.

 

Route Stats Area (black area below the truck)

Route - Route number selected in the grid.

Max Weight - Highest weight in pounds on the truck over the course of the route taking into account deliveries and backhauls and how they are sequenced.

Max Cubes - Highest volume in cubic feet on the truck taking into account deliveries and backhauls and how they are sequenced.

 

Max Values & Cumulative Values

Max Weight and Max Cubes values are calculated separately. So the maximum weight and the maximum volume may come at different points along the route. The "Cumulative Wgt" and "Cumulative Cubes" columns in the grid come into play as they show where in the sequence the weight or volume problem occurs which, in turn, can be used to decide how to address the problem.

 

 

Maybe it's just a matter of making one or two nearby delivery stops before picking up a backhaul or maybe they'll look at things and decide to just make the pickup at the end of the route. At any rate, this is an attempt to surface more information about the truck loading, both at departure and as it follows the route, so that the dispatcher can make informed choices.

 

For distributors who are not doing backhauls (or don't have any on a given route) the "Max Weight" and "Max Cubes" values will be the same as the "Weight" and "Cubes" values in the "Deliveries" section since the highest load will be when the truck leaves the dock and we'll just be deducting from that point forward.

 

About Route Totals

The calculation of route totals assumes that each route is being delivered separately on its own truck. If the distributor intends to put two separate routes on the same truck then things like "Cumulative Wgt" and "Max. Weight" will not take the shared truck assignment into account.

 

Consequently if someone intends to use our route totals to manage the load on their trucks then they must physically merge the routes they intend to place on that truck. The main problem here is in calculating the "Cumulative" and "Max" values which depend entirely on the exact stop sequence. If there are two or more routes on the same truck then Assign Routes has no way of knowing which one is first and so the exact sequencing of the stops becomes ambiguous and therefore "Cumulative" and "Max" cannot be reliably calculated.