The use of route plans
A route plan is a network of loading and unloading addresses, one of which is a pooling point. A route plan can consist of more than one leg. Route plan legs are defined in the Route Plan Legs (fmfoc1151m000) session, which you can start from the appropriate menu of the Route Plans (fmfoc1150m000) session.
Route plans are linked to addresses. Addresses are defined in the Addresses (tccom4530m000) session.
If you use the pooling algorithm, the load building engine uses the carrier selection criterion field setting to look for a route plan that has addresses that match the addresses of the freight order. For this purpose, the load building engine checks carriers to find route plans that are linked to the carriers. The load building engine then uses the route plan to determine the loads and shipments.
You can also manually add a route plan to a freight order or freight order line. If you enter a route plan in the freight order header, the route plan is taken as the default value in the freight order lines. You can overwrite a default route plan in a freight order line. The load building engine uses the route plan entered in a freight order line to create a load plan, regardless of the planning algorithm used.
If a freight order has a route, all route plans defined for the route are considered in the route plan selection.
If you enter various route plans in the freight order lines of a freight order, the load building engine builds a separate load for each route plan. Therefore, if you want the load building engine to calculate the most cost-effective and efficient route, the Route Plan field in the freight order lines must be left empty. If you want to use a specific route plan regardless of any route plan that the load building engine can return, you must manually enter a route plan in the freight order lines.
Route plans are also used as freight order grouping criteria, you can include route plans in a plan matrix.
Route plan legs
Advance, main, and beyond legs are used in multi-modal routes, where the pooling planning algorithm is used.
The advance leg is the first part of the route where goods are picked up and transported to a pooling point, such as an airport, a train station, or a port.
The main leg starts at that pooling point and ends at the intermediate destination. The intermediate destination is a distribution center. At the pooling point, the goods from the advance leg are loaded into an aircraft, ship, train, or truck, and brought to the distribution center.
The beyond leg spans the intermediate destination and the final destination. At the intermediate destination, the goods are transferred from the airplane to trucks to bring the goods to their final destination.
A route plan can consist of more than one advance leg and beyond leg, but one main leg.
Example
Some goods must be transported from Amsterdam to Hyderabad, and another lot from The Hague to Hyderabad along the following routes:
Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Bombay - Hyderabad and The Hague - Rotterdam - Bombay - Hyderabad. In this case, the legs would be defined as follows:
Advance: Amsterdam to Rotterdam and The Hague to Rotterdam (by truck). Main: Rotterdam to Bombay (by aircraft). Beyond: Bombay to Hyderabad (by truck).
Note that in this example, the route plan has two advance legs.
Leg identification: lines and sequence numbers
Legs are identified by line numbers and sequence numbers. A route plan has one main leg and can have multiple advance and/or beyond legs. The advance and beyond legs of a route plan may or may not be in line, as is shown in the following diagram. Legs that are in line can be given the same line number, but must have different sequence numbers. For advance and beyond legs, lines that are not in line must have different line numbers.
Legend
- A - X: cities, of which D and E are ports.
- 10, 1: line number, sequence number
A to B, B to C, and C to D are advance legs. These advance legs are in line. Therefore, you can give these legs the same line numbers and ascending sequence numbers. In the diagram, the line number is 10 and the sequence numbers are 1, 2, and 3.
X to D is another advance leg, but it has a different starting point and follows a different route to reach D. This leg has line number 20 and sequence number 1.
D to E is the main leg. Goods travel by sea from D to E. The line number is 10 and the sequence number is 1. Because there is only one main leg, the sequence and line numbers are not important.
E to G, and G to H are beyond legs. These legs are in line. Therefore, you can give these legs the same line numbers and ascending sequence numbers. In the diagram, the line number is 10 and the sequence numbers are 1 and 2. E to F is another beyond leg, but it follows a different route and has a different destination. In the diagram it has line number 20 and sequence number 1.
Carrier selection by route plan
If large numbers of carriers are available in LN to perform transportation for route plans, selecting a carrier for a route plan during load building may take relatively long.
To limit the number of available carriers, and thus to speed up the planning process, for each route plan you can specify the available carriers in the Carrier/TMG/TMC by Route Plan (fmfoc1153m000) session. This session is available if the Carrier/TMG/TMC by Route Plan check box is selected in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session.
If one or more carriers, transport means groups, or transport means combinations are specified in the Carrier/TMG/TMC by Route Plan (fmfoc1153m000) session, in the Route Plan Legs (fmfoc1151m000) session, these fields are made blank and unavailable:
- Carrier/LSP
- Transport Means Group
- Transport Means Combination