I. Transportation Management System Overview

Transportation management lets you use the company's transportation and helps you identify vendor and routing solutions for inbound and outbound orders.

For example, You can identify lease expensive rates for shipment or find the fastest route. The tariffs define how much will be paid for specific transport.

In the United States, the Department of Transportation (DOT) requires interstate movers to make their rates and charges public in a tariff that details the services provided, the conditions under which the services are provided, and the prices that are charged. Each moving company determines its own rates and charges and publishes its own tariff.

The Transportation Management Module in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is designed for companies that engage logistic service providers for the transportation of their own goods and services. It can be used in scenarios for intercompany transfers and with companies that use their own vehicles for transport. The features are not ideally suited for logistic service providers or carriers, although other features of the system might be suitable for these types of organizations.

Inbound Transporation

When you order an item from a vendor, and the items must be delivered to your warehouse, you might want to arrange the transport of the items yourself. You can plan the transportation and receipt of the inbound load.

Outbound Transportation

You can use Transportation management by treating the other legal entity like any other shipping carrier. You can't automate the economic transactions between legal entities. Therefore, you must handle these transactions manually (for example, by creating a purchase order). In the legal entity that provides the logistics services, Transportation management can be used to determine transportation rates.

Now that we understand Transportation Management concepts, let's look at some of the Configurations needed for completing Inbound and Outbound Transporation Processes.

II. Transportation Management Configuration

A. Warehouse Configuration -

To be able to use Transportation Management activities in a warehouse, you must consider them when setting up a warehouse.

On the Warehouse Fasttab, set the Use Warehouse Management process slider to Yes, 

B. Terms of delivery -

For matching estimated charges and actual charges on invoices,

C. Charges Codes - 

Setup charge codes that will get added to orders when the load process is completed, one for vendor freight and another for customer freight

Navigate to Accounts Payable > Charges Setup > Charges code

Vendor freight 

Customer freight

D. Miscellaneous Charges - 

Navigate to Transportation Management > Setup > Rating > Miscellaneous Charges,

E. Accessorial Charges -

Create an accessorial master for a hub and use that master to create a hub accessorial charge and carrier accessorial charge

Navigate to Transporation Management > Setup > Rating > Accessorial masters,

F. Carrier Accessorial Charges -

Click on the 'Accessorial assignments' button on the Carrier Accessorial Charges form,

For second charges,

G. Rate Masters -

Rate masters are a key part of the rating setup for a shipping carrier. You can use rate masters to determine the available rates for the shipping carrier and to determine whether the rates justify considering the shipping carrier for an assignment.

The rate master is associated with a shipping carrier in the carrier's rating profile. For each rate master, you must define rating metadata and a rate base.

Before setting up a rate mater, you must set up at least one set of rating metadata. 

Setting up rating metadata requires the following tasks:

> Set up rating metadata with lookup criteria, such as postal codes and carrier service

> Associate a rate master with rating metadata and, on the rate master, provide values for criteria, such as a postal code and carrier service. One or more rate masters are associated with a shipping carrier on the Rating profile fasttab,

Rating metadata is engine-specific, You must set up rating metadata before setting up a rate engine.

The rating metadata that is required for the engines that are shipped with Supply Chain Management is generated with the engines when you select the Initialize base engine data button on the

Transporation Management > Setup > Transportation Management Parameters, 

H. Shipping carriers -

The shipping carrier is one of the required basic setups for Transportation Management. The carrier is a key input for the orders and loads that are created.

Use the Shipping carrier page to set up a carrier service, mode of shipment, transportation tender, and rating profile for the shipping carrier.

Create a shipping carrier

To create a shipping carrier, follow these steps:

Navigate to Transportation Management > Setup > Carriers > Shipping Carriers.

Select New to create a new shipping carrier. In the Shipping Carrier field, enter the type of the shipping carrier. In the Name field, enter a name for the shipping carrier. In the Mode field, select the shipment mode type.

On the Overview FastTab, specify the shipping carrier details by using the following fields:  

     Activate shipping carrier - Set this slider bar to Yes to use the specified shipping carrier for the shipment.

     Vendor - Select the vendor account to which you want to assign the shipping carrier.

     SCAC - Enter an ID for the Standard Carrier Alpha Code (SCAC).

     Activate carrier rating - Set this slider to Yes to enable automatic rating for the shipping carrier.

Optional: In the Transportation tender type field, select one of the following methods for updating the details of the transportation tender:

     Manual - Manually update the transportation tender details by using the Transportation tenders page.

     EDI - Automatically update the transportation tender details by using an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) on the Transportation tenders page.

Optional: In the Pro number sequence field, you can select a number sequence that is associated with a generic engine, if any are available.

On the Addresses FastTab, select New, and then enter the address and purpose of the shipping carrier.

Select OK to save the address.

Note:

I have set up accessorial charges for a couple of shipping carriers for outbound and inbound processing, it will be covered in subsequent blogs.

I. Create a load template -

Load templates are used in the load planning workbench to allow for the defaults for weight restrictions and/or equipment restrictions for the load.

Navigate to Transportation Management > Setup > Load building > Load templates

Conclusion:

Now that we have completed some of the basic configurations required to complete the Transporation Management Module, Next blogs we will complete Inbound and Outbound Order Processing.