Order-to-shipment planning

Turvo’s order to shipment planning tool allows you to consolidate multiple orders onto a single shipment for fulfillment. Orders can be manually planned into a single shipment, or automatically planned into a single shipment.

Read on below for instructions on how to:

• Create a shipment directly from an order
• Manually plan multiple orders into a shipment
• Auto order-to-shipment planning (not available by default: contact your Turvo representative) 
  • Selecting orders for auto order-to-shipment planning
    • Filling in optional fields
  • Completing auto order-to-shipment planning
• View attached orders
• How stops are automatically sorted
• Allocate customer order costs across multiple shipments
• Other features to automate shipment creation

Note: Orders must have an origin, destination, dates, and equipment set in order to be planned. Orders without an origin, destination, or date will not be able to be planned and the buttons greyed out.

Associate an order and shipment

Adding an order to a shipment or consolidated order also adds that order’s information and route details to that consolidated order and/or any associated shipments. This applies to all new orders and all planned shipments on an existing order.

Note: While adding an order to a shipment on the order list modal, orders without dates or locations are greyed out. Conversely, while adding a new shipment to an order, if the order doesn't have dates or locations, the Create new shipment option is greyed out.

This applies to various order-to-shipment scenarios:

• One order to one shipment
• Multiple orders to one shipment
  • Same origin to destination
  • Different origin to destination

In cases where schedules differ, the system merges the stops into one, with an option to either select a date or to unmerge the stops and select dates.

In cases where the stops differ, the system finds and suggests the optimal route and gives you the option to update the suggested route.

For information on removing an order from a shipment, see Removing an Order from a Shipment.

Create a shipment directly from an order

If you are creating a shipment for a single order:

1. Navigate to Orders and open the order. Go to the Shipment tab, then click the + Add Shipment button.

2. In the Add shipment modal, select Create new to create a new shipment or Find existing to find an existing shipment that the order can be added to.
   1. Protip: Your selection for the Create new/Find existing toggle will be highlighted in white.

3. The Add shipment modal contains fields for the Customer, Mode, Pickup/Delivery location, Requested Pickup/Delivery date, and Carrier.
   1. Turvo will fill in these fields automatically, if the information is provided within the order, but they can be changed manually if needed. 
   2. All shipment modes, except for Air, are available.
4. To automate the shipment with Turvo’s routing guide feature, check the Automate with routing guide box.
   1. For more information about routing guides and how they work, see the How to use Turvo's routing guide article in the Help Center.
5. Once all required fields are complete, the CREATE button will change from grey to blue.
6. Click CREATE to finish creating the shipment.

Manually plan multiple orders into a shipment

To create a single shipment for multiple orders:

1. Navigate to Orders in the left navigation bar.
2. In the Orders page list view, hover over the left side of the list and check the checkboxes for all the orders you need to plan into a shipment.
   1. Cumulative weight and volume of selected orders will display at the bottom of the screen.
   2. Note: If information for both the handling quantity and the quantity of the items within the order(s) is present, only the handling quantity is shown with an ellipsis (...) beside it. Hover over the ellipsis to see both quantities. If only one type of quantity is provided in the order(s), only that type of quantity is displayed.

Protip: You can quickly select multiple rows at a time by holding down the Shift key and clicking the first and last rows of the group you need to edit, rather than clicking each row individually. Alternatively, you can use the Select All checkbox on the left of the header row to select all visible rows, up to the first 50 results. You can also bulk deselect the rows by clicking the blue “-” button at the top of the column.

3. Click MANUAL PLAN.
4. On the intermediate planning review page, you have the opportunity to update any order details.

5. On the next page, you’ll see a map with the route stops listed below. The locations displayed are pulled from the locations indicated as the pickup or delivery location on each order.
   1. For shipments with fewer than 8 stops, Turvo will automatically order stops based on the date of the stops and/or the shortest distance between stops. For more information on the automatic sorting logic, see How stops are automatically sorted below.
6. You can assign a routing guide from this window by clicking the Routing Guide drop-down menu and selecting the checkbox next to Automate with routing guide.
   1. For more information about what routing guides are and what they do, see the How to use Turvo's routing guide article in the Help Center.

7. Use the drop-downs to select a Mode drop-down and a Service Type for the shipment.
   1. All shipment modes, except for Air, are available.
   2. To manually rearrange your stops, grab the left side of a stop to drag and drop it into the correct stop order.

Protip: If you did not select the correct orders before clicking PLAN, click the X in the blue ribbon in the upper right corner of the screen to go back and update your selection. You can also select CANCEL on the bottom left of the screen.

7. 3. Duplicate stops are merged into one stop in this list.
   4. Click Unmerge to see all merged stops separately.

Note: You cannot merge the stops again once they are unmerged.

7. 5. If multiple stops are merged into one but have different dates, you will need to select the correct pickup or delivery date before proceeding.

7. 6. Dates displayed in red indicate they are out of chronological order. Out of order dates will not prevent you from planning the shipment -- they are simply called out in order to create awareness.

7. 7. Red text at the bottom of the planning tool indicates specific issues with the plan, such as pickups displaying after deliveries or dates out of order.

Note: Turvo does not allow shipments with a delivery as the first stop. If a delivery is first, a shipment cannot be created. 

7. 8. You can also set minimum and maximum weight and volume capacity for your shipment by using the options at the bottom left of the map. Simply click and type in the minimum or maximum desired weight or volume, and then click out of the box to update the changes.

8. Once you’ve finished updating your orders and settings, click CREATE SHIPMENT.

How Turvo synchronizes services between orders and shipments

When shipments are created from orders, Turvo synchronizes the services according to the scenarios below:

• Equipment-level services:
  • If multiple orders are planned into a single shipment, Turvo carries over equipment-level services on each order to shipment.
  • If one order is planned into multiple shipments, Turvo carries over equipment-level services to all shipments.
  • When an equipment-level service is added to a shipment, Turvo adds it to all the orders which are associated with the shipment.
• Stop-level services:
  • If multiple orders with common stops are planned into a single shipment, Turvo carries over stop-level services from all orders to their respective stops.
  • If one order is planned into multiple shipments, Turvo carries over stop-level service to all shipments at their respective stops.
  • When a stop-level service is added to a shipment stop, Turvo adds it to the orders which are associated with that stop. If the stop does not match the pickup or delivery of an order, Turvo will not add it to that order.
• Service added to order after shipment is created:
  • If the order is planned into a single shipment, Turvo sends updates to the associated shipments.
  • If the order is planned into multiple shipments, Turvo won’t send any service updates to the associated shipments. 
  • Note: This behavior is dependent on having a Services propagation rule enabled, shown in the section below. 
• Service is removed from a shipment:
  • If the order associated with the shipment is not associated with other shipments, Turvo removes the service from the order.
  • If the order associated with the shipment is associated with another shipment, Turvo does not remove the service from the order.
• Service is removed from an order:
  • If the order is planned into only one shipment and that shipment has no other orders associated with it, Turvo removes the service from the associated shipment.
  • If an order is planned into only one shipment but that shipment is associated with other orders, Turvo does not remove the service from the shipment.
  • If the order is planned into more than one shipment and the shipment associated with the service has no other orders, Turvo removes the service from the associated shipments.
  • If the order is planned into multiple shipments and the associated shipment has other orders, Turvo does not remove the service from the shipment.
  • Note: This behavior is dependent on having a Services propagation rule enabled, shown in the section below. 

Propagate Changes to Related Shipments

To enable the rule to propagate changes on orders to associated shipments, follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Admin Console > Rules > Propagation rules and select Order to Shipment
   
   Note: By default, order attributes will not propagate to related shipments unless propagation rules are defined.

2. Click + Create rule.
   
   
   
3. Select the Attribute and the Order type from the drop-down lists. Then select whether to Always propagate or to Propagate when criteria is met.
   
   
   
4. When you select to Propagate when criteria is met, the modal expands so you can define the criteria.
   
   
   
5. Once you have defined the criteria, click CREATE to create your rule. 

Configure criteria to merge stops of the same type and location

You can configure the system to associate orders without the intermediate planning screen, shown above.

Navigate to Admin console > Rules > Order > Configurations > Order to shipment planning. Toggle ON Criteria to merge stops of the same type and location, then select from the three options:

• No match required: Merge stops with matching type and location, using the shipment appointment date.
• Dates should match: Merge stops with matching type, location, and date using the shipment appointment date.
• Dates and time should match: Merge stops with matching type, location and appointment time.

Automatic order-to-shipment planning

Automatic order-to-shipment planning for your tenant gives you the ability to automatically plan multiple orders into one or more shipments, based on the orders’ schedules, routes, dimensions, capacities, and/or equipment rules of the combined orders. 

Important note: The auto order-to-shipment planning feature is not available in customer tenants by default. Contact your Turvo representative if you are interested in enabling this feature.

Selecting orders for auto order-to-shipment planning

To set up auto order-to-shipment planning:

1. Navigate to Orders in the left navigation bar. 
2. In the Orders page list view, hover over the left side of the list and check the checkbox for all the orders you need to plan into a shipment. 
   1. The cumulative weight and volume of selected orders, as well as the handling quantities of items within them, will display at the bottom of the screen.

3. Click AUTO PLAN.
   1. Note: If the combined shipment weight is over the set rules for the equipment type, the shipment planning will fail/the shipment planning will show the error in red and a description. You’ll also see an error message if there is no rule defined for the equipment type selected for the order. 
4. On the next page, you’ll see a list of the orders to be planned for in the left pane. Clicking an order will display details on the order’s route, equipment needed, and item details to the right, as pictured below.

1. 1. Potential issues in your order that might cause errors in shipment planning, such as missing mandatory or optional information, will be highlighted with icons next to the order in the left pane, as pictured below.

4. 2. The red warning icon next to an order indicates that the order is missing at least one required field.
      1. The fields for route information listed under the Origin - Destination section must be filled in.
   3. Filling in only the mandatory fields in your order can be useful if you do not yet know the equipment needed or all of the items to be included in the shipment. 
      1. The yellow warning icon indicates a missing optional field. 
      2. The fields listed under the Equipment needed and Items sections are considered optional and do not need to be filled in to proceed with shipment planning.

5. To update any of these fields, click on the order in the left pane to show its details.
6. Update the fields you wish to update.
7. Click SAVE in the right pane in order to save the changes to the order. 
   1. As you update each order, if there are still missing optional fields for an order, the red warning icon will change to the yellow warning icon. 
8. Once there are no red warning icons present, the SKIP & PROCEED button will become available. 
   1. Use this if you wish to proceed to the next page without filling in the optional fields. For more details, continue to the Filling in optional fields section below.
   2. Skip to the Completing auto order-to-shipping section if you are skipping optional fields.

Filling in optional fields

1. Once all mandatory and optional fields in an order are filled in and the changes are saved, the warning icon will disappear for that order. 
2. After all warning icons have been removed from the selected orders, the CONTINUE button will become available. Click it to proceed to the next page.
3. Before loading the next page, Turvo will validate the volume and weight information of the items against the rules set for the equipment type in your tenant. 
   1. If the combined shipment weight is over the set rules for the equipment type, the shipment planning will fail/the shipment planning will show the error in red and a description.
   2. You’ll also see an error message if there is no rule defined for the equipment type selected for the order.
   3. If this error occurs, click Retry next to the warning to reopen the order details and update them or click SKIP & PROCEED to ignore the equipment and items details and complete the shipment planning. 

4. Once you have successfully corrected the item and equipment details in your orders and clicked CONTINUE, or used SKIP & PROCEED, the next page will open.

Completing auto order-to-shipment planning

On the next page, you’ll see a summary of the orders planned into shipments and their routes. To view the details of the shipment:

1. Click Show route details.

2. If the orders selected on the previous page are consolidated into more than one shipment, you have the option to Reject a shipment from the planning.

3. Once you reject a shipment, you’ll be prompted on the next screen to REJECT or CANCEL. Rejected shipments will return to an open status and can be planned again, if needed.

4. Once you’ve confirmed the shipments, click CREATE SHIPMENTS.

5. The Creating shipments modal will populate the planned shipments. Shipments can either be:
   1. Completed: Shown with a green check mark and the shipment was completed properly.
   2. Failed: Shown with a red X and means the shipment was not completed properly.
      1. Note: If a shipment has failed, re-planning it should resolve the issue.
6. Once all of the shipments are successfully completed, you can choose to either GO TO SHIPMENT or check the box to Open all shipments once the modal is closed.
7. Click DONE.  

Viewing attached orders

Attached orders can be viewed by clicking on the Orders tab within the shipment.

The shipment route can be viewed or updated by navigating to the Details tab and expanding the Route segment.

See our article on Managing advanced shipment details for additional information on managing the new shipment.

How stops are automatically sorted

When your selected orders result in a shipment with 8 stops or less, Turvo will automatically sort them based on the date of the stops and/or the shortest distance between stops. 

The route created from the selected orders will always - 

1. Start with a pickup.
2. End with a delivery.
3. Have deliveries occur after their linked pickups.

Example: Order A and order B have different pickup locations, but the same delivery stop. The pickups for order A and order B will always go before delivery AB.

Turvo will also automatically sort the orders by pickup/delivery date first. If multiple stops have the same date, Turvo will then sort remaining stops by their distance to the previous stop.

For instance, if we have orders with the following stops:

• Order A - Stop A (01/01) and stop B (01/02)
• Order B - Stop C (01/02) and stop D (01/02)

Turvo will make stop A the first stop on the route, because it has the earliest date. However, because the remaining stops have the same dates, Turvo will then compare the distance between stops B, C, and D to stop A to determine the rest of the route. 

With the following distance between stops:

• From stop A to stop B: 200 miles
• From stop A to stop C: 100 miles
• From stop A to stop D: 300 miles

The second stop on the route will be stop C. Then, Turvo will compare the distances to stops B and D from stop C:

• From stop C to stop B: 50 miles
• From stop C to stop D: 150 miles

The third stop on the route will be stop B, because it has the closest distance. With this, stop D is the last stop remaining making it our final stop. After the logic has run, you’ll have the following route for your shipment:

Shipment 123 route:

• Stop A (01/01) 
• Stop C (01/02)
• Stop B (01/02)
• Stop D (01/02)

Note: Any stops without a date will have a lower priority than those with a date. owever, if the stop is designated a pickup, it may automatically go before a delivery stop.

Allocate costs between shipments and orders

If you regularly combine multiple orders into a single shipment or split a single order into multiple shipments, Turvo’s cost allocation feature can automatically calculate and allocate your billable customer costs from the order(s) to each shipment and your payable carrier costs from the shipment(s) back to each order.

When enabled, the cost allocation feature determines the billable customer costs and/or the payable carrier costs based on your preferred factor, such as the weight, volume, and the distance traveled to more determine margins for your shipments and orders.

See our Order-to-shipment planning - Allocate costs article to learn more about the cost allocation feature.

Automatically use carrier payable shipment costs to re-rate customer billable costs on transportation orders

Depending on your configurations for automatic rating for billable customer orders and the contract items you have in place for your customers, Turvo can also convert payable carrier costs on shipments into billable customer costs on the transportation order(s) the shipment was created from. See our article on Automatically adding carrier payable shipment costs as customer billable costs on associated orders to learn more.

Other features to automate shipment creation

Turvo offers other features that can be utilized at shipment creation to further simplify the process of building shipments, such as inheriting groups from associated entities or automatically applying contracted or global rates to your customer or carrier costs. Learn more about these features in the Help Center articles below:

• Assigning your shipments to groups
• Autopilot: Automatically apply your customer’s billable rates to shipments
• How to assign a contracted carrier rate to a shipment