Best itinerary model for moves involving custom gate?

[mkdizon]

Hi,

We wish to get suggestions on how to model the following move in the itinerary object:

Warehouse --> Customs Gate --> Customer Location

Where:
* Warehouse - is the pickup location that is open 24x7
* Customer Location - is the destination / drop-off location that is also open 24x7
* Customs Gate - is an intermediate location that opens only on certain times of the day, e.g. 9:00am - 4:30pm. There's no pickup / drop activity to be performed in this location, only inspection / clearance.

How do you normally model this kind of move in OTM? Bearing in mind that the intermediate location has some opening / closing times that needs to be respected. We are considering the following options but we have not fully validated their feasibility:

a.] Multi-leg approach
Define 2 legs:
Warehouse --> Customs Gate
Customs Gate --> Customer Location
Potential Issues with this option: Multi-leg may not allow single shipment with all legs in TL mode

b.] Multi-stop approach
Define Warehouse and Customs Gate (based on geo proximity) within same logical region
Potential Issues with this option: Multi-stop may not allow a stop without any pick / drop activity.

c.] Single leg with Interim Stop
Define Customs Gate as an interim stop in a single leg itinerary
Issues with this option: Calendar (e.g. open hrs 09:00 - 16:30) defined in an interim location is not being considered during computation of service times. This is already a known issue with interim stops.

Would appreciate your views / comments regarding the above solutions. Would be glad also if you can suggest other alternative approaches aside from above.

Thanks and Best Regards

[bluesdude]

Re: Best itinerary model for moves involving custom gate?

Hi,

We wish to get suggestions on how to model the following move in the itinerary object:

Warehouse --> Customs Gate --> Customer Location

Where:
* Warehouse - is the pickup location that is open 24x7
* Customer Location - is the destination / drop-off location that is also open 24x7
* Customs Gate - is an intermediate location that opens only on certain times of the day, e.g. 9:00am - 4:30pm. There's no pickup / drop activity to be performed in this location, only inspection / clearance.

How do you normally model this kind of move in OTM? Bearing in mind that the intermediate location has some opening / closing times that needs to be respected. We are considering the following options but we have not fully validated their feasibility:

a.] Multi-leg approach
Define 2 legs:
Warehouse --> Customs Gate
Customs Gate --> Customer Location
Potential Issues with this option: Multi-leg may not allow single shipment with all legs in TL mode

b.] Multi-stop approach
Define Warehouse and Customs Gate (based on geo proximity) within same logical region
Potential Issues with this option: Multi-stop may not allow a stop without any pick / drop activity.

c.] Single leg with Interim Stop
Define Customs Gate as an interim stop in a single leg itinerary
Issues with this option: Calendar (e.g. open hrs 09:00 - 16:30) defined in an interim location is not being considered during computation of service times. This is already a known issue with interim stops.

Would appreciate your views / comments regarding the above solutions. Would be glad also if you can suggest other alternative approaches aside from above.

Thanks and Best Regards

Hello Mike,

What if you implement multi-leg (re-use equipment) on the 2nd leg and define the 1st leg as the Primary Leg? You will unfortunately be saddled with the activity called 'Delivery' on the Custom's location at the end of the 1st leg and then 'Pickup' at the Custom's location on the 2nd leg. While this may address timing constraints at the custom's location, the Planner / Dispatcher (Ops) will have to deal with two shipments, although they should rightfully be only one.

The Single leg model with an Interim stop maps more closely to your requirements, albeit not respecting calendar constraints. I believe the activity at the Interim Stop is 'O' (to denote Operational) and the trick I think is to find out which activity on the calendar relates to 'O'.

Have you also considered using VIA locations?

I'm not sure I'm of any help here, but please let us know how you get on with this issue.

Cheers,
Simon.

[mkdizon]

Re: Best itinerary model for moves involving custom gate?

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your recommendation. Yes, you are right. Using multi-leg approach will ensure that system respects the calendar of the custom location. I think this is the ideal approach to address the problem. The only disadvantage is that user will have to manage multiple shipments. Regarding multi-stop approach, it may not be possible because there won't be any pick/drop activity at the customs. Thus, the custom will still be best modelled as an interim stop that will yield to "O" (Operational) activity.

Anyway, what we have applied is still the "interim stop" approach since departure is always on same time, e.g. every 9:00 Am and service times from origin to customs that is defined already considering the closing times of the custom locations. With this, the planned arrival at customs will always fall during the available period.

Best Regards,

Michael