Customer Types and Shipment Service Types allow you to define categories of customers or shipments that can be used for the following purposes within Descartes Route Planner On-demand:
Calculating Service Times
Creating Vehicle Skill Sets (see Creating Vehicle Skill Sets)
Creating Driver Skill Sets (see Creating Driver Skill Sets)
Defining Visual Displays in Map View (see Configuring Customer Types)
Displaying Exceptions in Map View (see Configuring Exceptions)
Filtering Data in Map View (see Configuring and Applying Filters)
This functionality must be enabled by a Descartes Systems Group representative and is available to client_admin users. The configurations for Customer Types and Shipment Service Types are the same but differ in how they are referenced.
Customer Types are always referenced against the customer record and not the shipment being delivered to or picked up from the customer. For example, a customer may have a dock that will always require special equipment to service a shipment. The customer record will have a Customer Type field and will be populated with the values configured for the Customer Types.
Shipment Service Types are always referenced against the shipment, and a customer can have several different Shipment Service Types. For example, a customer may receive a shipment of shingles for roofing one day that requires a crane to deliver the shipment and the next day may receive a shipment of windows that does not require a crane. The shipment record will have a Shipment Service Type field and will be populated with the values configured for the Shipment Service Types.
Commodity Code Rules allow you to create rules to ensure that certain shipments or shipment items are not loaded together on a route/vehicle, especially shipments that are considered but not limited to hazardous material. For example, a shipment that has a delivery class of "1" should not be loaded on the same route with a shipment that has a delivery class of "2".
Adding a Customer Type or Shipment Service Type
The process for adding, editing, or deleting Customer Types and Shipment Service Types is the same. For this guide, you will work with Customer Types.
To add a Customer Type:
Select Configuration from the menu.
Go to Configuration > Customer Type Items. For Shipment Service Types, you would go to Configuration > Shipment Service Type Items.
Click the Add Customer Type Item button.
Enter a Description for the Customer Type (e.g., Dock). The value entered should exactly match the value provided and sent within the respective integration from the host system.
Enter the Service Time Slope. This value is the variable service time associated with the Customer Type. If the Customer Type is not used to calculate service time, then this value can be left blank.
Enter the Service Time Intercept. This value is the fixed service time associated with the Customer Type. If the Customer Type is not used to calculate service time, then this value can be left blank. The intercept, regardless of its use with Customer/Shipment Service Type Items, is always applied to the customer stop.
Check I have verified this information to be correct.
Click Add Customer Type Item button.
Editing a Customer Type or Shipment Service Type
Once a Customer Type or Shipment Service Type has been added, you can edit or delete them from the system.
To edit a Customer Type:
Go to Configuration > Customer Type Items.
Click the Edit button for one of the Customer Types.
Enter the changes within their respective fields.
Check I have verified this information to be correct and click Edit Customer Type Item button.
To delete the Customer Type, check I have verified this information to be correct, click Delete Customer Type Item. The Customer Type can also be deleted from the Configuration – View Customer Type Items window by checking the appropriate boxes from the list, checking I have verified this information to be correct and, clicking Delete customer type items. Deleting Customer Type Items does not delete the item from the application but marks the item as inactive instead.
To cancel the changes, click Cancel.
Adding a Commodity Code Rule
To add a Commodity Code rule:
From the main menu, select Configuration.
Click the Commodity Codes link.
From the Configuration - Configure Commodity Code Rules page, click Add to create new rule.
Select the appropriate Shipment Field Item from the dropdown.
Enter the Data Value of the Shipment Field Item, the value entered should exactly match the value provided and sent within the respective integration from the host system.
Select the Rule from the dropdown (Cannot be mixed).
Repeat steps 4 and 5 to enter the other part of the rule.
When the rule has been entered, check the box to verify that the information is correct and click the Add button.
To add more rules, click Add and repeat steps 3-7.
Editing a Commodity Code Rule
Once a Commodity Code rule has been added, you can edit or delete them from the system.
To edit a Commodity Code rule:
Go to Configuration > Commodity Codes.
Click Edit next to the Commodity Code rule you want to edit.
Select and/or enter the changes you want to make to the rule.
Click the box to verify the information and click Edit.
The Commodity Code Rule can be deleted from the Configuration > Configure Commodity Code Rules page by checking the appropriate boxes in the list, checking "I have verified this information to be correct," and clicking the Delete button. Deleting a Commodity Code Rule deletes the item from the application and cannot be restored and/or retrieved.
Starting in version 24.10, when creating a new rule, the Shipment Field Item fields will no longer autopopulate with the first available option. Additionally, validations have been added to ensure users select an option in the Shipment Field Item fields and input or select a value in the Data Value fields.