Autopilot: Automatic exception rules on orders and shipments

To streamline the creation of exceptions, Turvo allows Admin and Super admin users to create automatic exception rules within the Rules section of your Admin console.

Rather than manually adding exceptions on each individual order or shipment that is created or updated, you can define up-front rules to automatically trigger an exception once the criteria is met. Once created, these exceptions will surface on the Exceptions tab in Workbench to help make the organization and updating of exceptions easier.

This article covers:

Autopilot rule creation logic
How to create exception rules in Autopilot
Updating existing rules

For more information on creating, finding, and managing exceptions, see the following articles:

Note: Creating and sharing exceptions is not enabled by default. If your organization has exceptions enabled in your tenant, you’ll see the option to add an exception appear under the Fast Action Button on shipments. If you do not currently have exceptions or the ability to share exceptions enabled, reach out to your Turvo representative.

Autopilot rule creation logic

Autopilot uses When/If/And/Then statements to dictate the action that will take place. Try thinking of the scenario you need to create rules for by putting the criteria in sentence form.

When: The scenario that the rule is being created to address.
- Most When statements create exception rules, but others create accessorial acceptance/rejection rules or payable discrepancy rules, or billable rate application rules.

When [X] occurs…

If: The main criteria that must be true during the scenario that defines the rule.
- In some scenarios, you will be able to use a drop-down to choose which If statement is needed for the rule. In others, a particular If (Required) field will appear that must be configured.
- The If statement usually comes with additional fields, such as text fields, drop-downs, and Is/Is Not toggles where you will define the statement.

When [X] occurs, if [Y] is true…

And: Additional criteria that narrow the circumstances defining the rule.
- Most scenarios allow for multiple And statements to be added on using the +Add Criteria button.
- In some scenarios, an And (Required) field will be added automatically.

When [X] occurs, if [Y] and [Z] are true…

Then: The action taken by Turvo based on the criteria in the previous statements. This appears within the Action section of the modal, and is not explicitly marked as “Then” within the user interface.
- In some scenarios, the Action section will have a drop-down that allows you to change the action taken by Turvo.

When [X] occurs, if [Y] and [Z] are true, then take Action [A].

Protip: Check out our video, Automate workflows with Autopilot rules to see the logic behind setting up rules for your tenant in action. Autopilot also provides you with the ability to configure Payable discrepancy rules and Automatic accessorial acceptance/rejection rules.

Autopilot exceptions vs Business rule validations

Exceptions in Turvo are created either manually or via Autopilot rules, and can be applied to shipments, orders, or inventory. In the industry, exceptions are used to track and manage unforeseen events that happen along the route, issues within an order, and operational issues that can occur with inventory. Exceptions can include anything from a mistyped address on a shipment or expiring or obsolete inventory for a specific item, lot, or pallet.

The goal of the exception is to flag shipments, orders, or inventory that need to be viewed and corrected manually so that the shipment can be completed in Turvo. Turvo users can use the Workbench feature to view and resolve exceptions.

Alongside the Autopilot rule segments, the Admin console > Rules page is also used for configuring business rules. Business rules are used to validate changes to a shipment as they are made. When a rule is triggered by an attempted change made to the shipment, the change is prevented, an error message appears, and a Business rule validation is created on the shipment’s Timeline tab. Business rule validations are not considered to be exceptions and cannot be managed in Workbench.

Information on configuring business rules available in the Admin console can be found in the following articles:

How to create exception rules in Autopilot

Step 1:

Navigate to the Admin console by clicking on your profile icon in the top right corner of your dashboard and select Admin console from the drop-down menu.

Step 2:

Click the Rules card.

Step 3:

On the Rules page, click the Order or Shipment header in the column to the left, depending on the type of exception rule you need to create. Then, click the Autopilot section header to expand. Here, you’ll be able to create a rule, edit, and disable your exception rules.

Orders:

Shipments:

Step 4:

To create a new exception rule, click + Create rule and enter the appropriate information and criteria in the Create rule modal.

Note: There’s a limit of 50 exception rules per tenant.

Note: New exception rules will be applied to existing shipments or orders, but only when an update is made on the shipment or order after the rule is created.

Step 5:

Enter the necessary information for the rule in the Create rule modal. We’ve outlined the modal’s fields and their descriptions below. The available fields and exception criteria will depend on the Entity the exception is created for, either Shipment or Order.

Rule name: Enter in a descriptive name for your rule.
Entity: Automatically filled in with the type of entity the exception is for: Shipments or Orders.
When: Choose the scenario that will trigger the exception. The drop-down contains the following options:

Shipment exception rules:

An appointment is scheduled after requested date: The pickup/delivery appointment on the shipment is scheduled after the start or end of the customer’s requested date on their order.
An appointment is scheduled after planned date: The pickup/delivery appointment is scheduled after the start or end of the planned date on the shipment.
Protip: For more information on requested dates, planned dates and arrival/departure updates, see our Understanding dates and times on a route article.
A required appointment has not been scheduled: When a shipment is set to arrive on a specific date/time, but the carrier hasn’t scheduled an appointment for pickup or delivery before an appointment’s required start or end time.
An appointment is missed: When a driver arrives at a pickup or delivery after the scheduled appointment time has passed.
An arrival update is missing: The timestamp marking the driver at the pickup or delivery location of the shipment is missing. This would correspond to the At pickup or At delivery updates.
A departure update is missing: The timestamp marking the driver leaving a pickup or delivery location is missing from a shipment. This would correspond with the Picked up or Delivered updates.
A shipment is running late: The shipment is approaching its scheduled pickup/delivery time, but ETAs indicate the shipment won’t arrive on time.
A location update is missing: A location update (the most recent/current location of the shipment) hasn’t been received on a shipment for a set amount of time.
A payable threshold is breached: A cost added to the shipment has exceeded a set threshold.
- Note: See our article, Autopilot: Payable discrepancy rules, to learn more about creating and utilizing payable discrepancy rules.
Carrier adds an Accessorial cost: The carrier has added an accessorial cost to the shipment. This is used to configure automatic acceptance or rejection of accessorials under certain conditions.
- Note: See our article, Autopilot: Automatic accessorial acceptance/rejection rules, to learn more about creating and utilizing accessorial rules.
A shipment is created: This option is used to create billable rate application rules for automatically applying a global rate or contract to customer costs upon shipment creation. Failure of this automatic application will create a Rating issue exception.
- Note: See our article, Autopilot: Automatically apply your customer’s billable rates to shipments, to learn more about creating and utilizing billable rate application rules.
Assigned customer changed: The customer assigned to the shipment has changed.
Pickup location changed: The pickup location associated with the shipment has changed.
Drop location changed: The drop location associated with the shipment has changed.
Pickup date changed: The date the shipment was to be picked up has changed.
Drop date changed: The date the shipment was to be dropped as changed.
Item changed: An item associated with the shipment has changed.
No matching routing guide is found: The Automate with routing guide toggle is enabled, but there is no matching routing guide.
Routing guide is rejected: The routing guide was rejected by the carrier(s).
Routing guide is dropped off: The routing guide was applied, but dropped off due to a user manually interrupting the routing guide or shipment.
A shipment is updated: The shipment has been updated.
Shipment arrived late: The shipment arrived late.

Order exception rules:

An appointment is scheduled after requested date: The pickup/delivery appointment on the shipment is scheduled after the customer’s requested date on their order.
A required appointment has not been scheduled: When a shipment is requested to pickup or deliver on a specific date/time, but the carrier hasn’t scheduled an appointment.
An appointment is missed: (Only applies to Transportation orders) An order progresses to the Ship phase after the scheduled appointment date/time.
Actual quantity is greater than Ordered quantity*: There is an overage in the actual quantity of items included in the order.
- *Note: A WMS integration is required to receive Actual quantity.
Actual quantity is less than Ordered quantity*: There is a shortage of items in the actual quantity of the order.
- *Note: A WMS integration is required to receive Actual quantity.
Order UOM does not match base UOM: The unit of measurement used for the order does not match the base unit of measurement for the item.
Assigned customer change: The assigned customer has changed.
Origin location change: The location of the order has changed.
Destination location change: The destination location of the order has changed.
Ship date changed: The ship date of the order has changed.
Delivery date changed: The delivery date of the order has changed.
Item details changed: The item details of the order has changed.
A visibility group is missing: No group is associated with the order.
An origin location is missing: No origin is associated with the order.
A destination location is missing: No destination location is associated with the order.
A carrier is missing: No carrier is associated with the order.
A pickup date is missing: No pickup date is associated with the order.
A delivery date is missing: No delivery date is associated with the order.
Pickup and delivery dates are missing: No pickup or delivery is associated with the order.
Charges are missing: No charges are associated with the order.
An item’s net weight is <= 0: The net weight of an item in the order is less than or equal to 0.
An Item’s gross weight is <= 0: The gross weight of an item in the order is less than or equal to 0.
An item’s net weight is missing: An item associated with the order is missing the net weight.
An item’s gross weight is missing: An item associated with the order is missing the gross weight.
An item’s net weight UOM is missing: An item associated with the order is missing the net weight UOM.
An item’s gross weight UOM is missing: An item associated with the order is missing the gross weight UOM.
An item’s quantity is set to zero: An item associated with the order has no quantity.
An origin location is invalid: The origin location associated with the order is not a valid location.
A destination location is invalid: The destination location associated with the order is not a valid location.
An order is updated: The order has been updated and needs to be re-rated.

Depending on the scenario selected, you may see an If (required) field appear within the modal.

Fill in the required information to create an exception at the exact time you’d like to be alerted. For example, the above rule is configured to create an exception when an arrival update is missing 20 minutes after the start of the appointment.

Auto resolution of Autopilot exceptions

Autopilot exceptions can be auto-resolved if a new or updated appointment is scheduled for the shipment and the exception no longer applies. For example, if a shipment is flagged with a Missing arrival exception, but the appointment time is changed so the expected arrival time is now further in the future and not yet considered “missing”, the exception will automatically change to an “Invalid” status and be auto-resolved. For more information on resolving exceptions, see our Managing exceptions in Workbench article.

Shipment exception rules

Threshold: Enter the number of minutes, hours, or days that must elapse for the rule to trigger.
- Note: This field is dependent on how you configure the following fields.
Units: Select Hours, Minutes or Days from the drop-down, depending on your desired unit of time.
Before/After: Indicate whether the threshold should apply before or after the requested, planned, or appointment date, depending on the scenario.
- Note: This field will only appear for some When events.
Appointment Start/End: Indicate whether the threshold should apply at the start of the appointment or the end of the appointment.
- Note: Some scenarios will automatically populate Start or End in this field.

Order exception rules

Order type: Select the type of order that will trigger the rule.
- Note: Default order type is Transportation order - Warehouse and Customer orders must be configured for your tenant in order to be included.
Appointment rules:
- Threshold: Enter the number of minutes, hours, or days that must elapse for the rule to trigger.
- Units: Select Hours, Minutes or Days from the drop-down, depending on your desired unit of time.
- Appointment Start/End: Indicate whether the threshold should apply at the start of the appointment or the end of the appointment.
  - Note: Some scenarios will automatically populate Start or End in this field.
Quantity rules:
- - - Threshold: Enter the number of units that the order is over or under by.

Units: Select whether the number of actual units represents a Percent or Base units.

+ Add criteria: Allows you include or exclude specific customers, carriers, groups, modes, and locations from your rule to make it more exact.

The available criteria depends on the When event selected. To include specific information in your rule, select Is. If you’d like to exclude specific information from your rule, select Is not. Your first additional criteria will be an If statement, and any additional criteria added to the rule will be an And statement.

For example, in the screenshot below, the rule is set to trigger when a shipment is running late (When criteria) if the customer is Regression Shipper (If criteria-Customer) and is in a Dispatched or En route status (And criteria-Shipment status).

The + Add criteria options include:

Customer: Choose whether to include or exclude specific customers from your rule.
- Protip: Beginning to type the customer name will populate options under the text field.
Mode: Include or exclude specific shipping modes from your rule by selecting Is or Is not and choosing the specific mode from the drop-down menu.
Group: Choose pre-existing groups within your Turvo tenant to include or exclude from your rule.
Carrier: Choose to include or exclude specific carriers from your rule.
Origin location: The location the shipment was picked up. These will be existing locations in your Turvo tenant.
Destination location: The location the shipment is being delivered. This will be an existing location in your Turvo tenant.
Tag: Include or exclude specific tags from the exception rule.
Shipment status: Include or exclude shipment statuses from your exception rule.
Order phase: Include or exclude specific order phases from your rule by selecting Is or Is not and selecting the phase from the drop-down menu.
Order status: Include or exclude specific order statuses from your rule by selecting Is or Is not and selecting the status from the drop-down.
Location: Include or exclude specific locations from your rule by selecting Is or Is not and select the location from the drop-down menu. This will be an existing location in your Turvo tenant.
Scheduling type: Indicate whether the pickup/delivery is scheduled By appointment or FCFS (first come, first served).
- Note: Scheduling type is available for all When scenarios except A required appointment has not been scheduled.
Stop type: Indicate what type of stop the rule will fire on. Types of stops available include Pickup, Transload, Port of Landing, Transshipment Port, Port of discharge, Recovery, Storage, Delivery, and Termination.
Next appointment is within: Set a time threshold for when the next appointment is scheduled. This criteria can be used to further specify your A location update is missing scenario to trigger when a shipment still hasn’t received location updates and it’s closer to its next scheduled appointment. For example, in the screenshot below, this rule will trigger when a location update hasn’t been received in the last 2 hours and the shipment’s next scheduled appointment is within the next 45 minutes:

Actions: Toggles that allow you to designate whether the exception is going to be shared with the carrier and/or the customer on that shipment, if they are a connected Turvo tenant.

Default owner: Choose which party is responsible for providing updates/information on the exception or resolving the exception. You can choose between My Company, Carrier, or Customer.

Final Step:

Once you’ve filled in all of the information for your exception rule, click SAVE to save your work and activate the rule for your tenant.

Updating existing rules

To make any changes to your existing exception rules, hover over the rule and click on the 3 dots icon to the far right. This will give you the options to edit, disable/enable, copy, or delete your rule.

Note: The list of rules will feature all rules configured in Autopilot, whether they are for exceptions, accessorial acceptance/rejection, or payable discrepancies. Refer to the Actions column to understand more about what the rule is for at a glance.

Editing rules

Click Edit from the drop-down menu to bring up the Edit rule modal and make any changes you need to the rule. Make sure to click SAVE to save your changes!

Disabling and Enabling rules

Disabling a rule will stop the automatic exceptions from being created until it’s enabled again. This option is good for those rules that need to be paused, but not removed from the list. You can see whether a rule is Disabled or Enabled in the Status column of the Rules list view.

Copying rules

Select Copy to copy an existing rule’s information into a new rule.

Protip: The copied rule won’t indicate it’s a copy anywhere in the name, so be sure to change the new rule name to something unique!

Deleting rules

To completely remove a rule from your tenant, select Delete from the drop down menu.

When Delete is selected, you’ll receive a prompt asking if you’re sure you’d like to delete the rule. To continue with deleting, select YES or select NO to keep the rule in place.

Note: Once a rule has been deleted, you cannot recover it from the system.

Autopilot: Automatic exception rules on orders and shipments

Autopilot rule creation logic

Autopilot exceptions vs Business rule validations