Lane Configuration - Adding Road Steps

1. Road Service Provider
2. Multiple Road Providers
3. Booked Temperature for Road Steps
4. Estimated Duration for Road Steps

In Validaide, configuring a Road Step in a lane can be a complex task, as many different setups are possible. This article explains the specific aspects of Road Steps and how you can make sure that they are configured according to your needs.

Road Service Provider

1. Company: If the same provider is always used, a specific supplier company can be selected. In this case, their company capabilities are used in the Lane Assessment.

2. Location: A user can select any Location (your own or supplier's location) that is configured to provide Road Services. 

How to configure your own Company Location as a road service provider?

In case the road service provider is a Location, you need to make sure that you first configure the location as a road service provider.

• Each Company Location (warehouse or office) can be configured in the My Company menu- Location page - Configuration tab - General Information section - Configuration tab to indicate it provides Road Transport.

• Once the configuration changes have been made, the information will be shown in the Profile tab under the location name.

Note: If Road Transport is selected, the Questionnaire will be updated to include the Road Freight Module. Please make sure the road capabilities are defined for these Locations, for which you might need to update your answers in the questionnaire.

• You can also define subcontracted trucking providers for this Location

• How to define the road freight capabilities for a forwarder office that uses multiple road transport subcontractors?
  For a situation where a forwarder office does not have its own trucks but uses multiple road transport providers, the Capabilities should be defined based on the common capabilities of the subcontractors. In the Lane Risk Assessment, the system will then use the capabilities as defined for the Location, assuming that any subcontractor that may be used will have the defined capabilities.

• Ocean carriers can be selected as road carriers in a lane step if the company has been set up to provide road transport, or under “My Locations” - Configuration - Suppliers, as road transport providers.

More on Location Configuration.

How to define subcontracted trucking providers for your Company Location?

If the road service provider is a location and it has subcontracted trucking provider(s) you can also indicate this in the Configuration tab - Suppliers section.

• The defined Road Transport Providers and subcontracted road transport locations are also shown in the Location Profile screen, along with subcontracted warehouses

More on Location Configuration.

Multiple Road Suppliers

It is possible to add or remove multiple road suppliers and road locations to a road step in a lane. This was developed so that a forwarder/ manufacturer does not have to create and maintain a lane for each sub-contracted Road Transport provider. They can create one lane for the combination of subcontractors.

• When adding a Road Step, Road Suppliers can be pre-populated with the Road Subcontractors of a Company Location that has been pre-defined.

• When adding a Road Step, the application automatically selects the worst-case scenario, meaning the Road Supplier with the lowest capabilities score. This is shown by underlining that Supplier.

• The user can see multiple Road Suppliers in the Lane Timeplan and configuration.

• When multiple Road Suppliers are selected for a Road Step, the user can modify which Supplier/Location's Capabilities are used. Afterward, a user can choose whose definition of the capabilities (View) is used.

Multiple road suppliers.

Booked Temperature for Road Steps

For Road Steps, there may be a different booked temperature than for the flight on the same Lane. E.g. for frozen shipments, the products may be booked at -20 in a truck and packed into a container that is booked at 2-8 (COL) during a flight. This is possible in Validaide:

• For each Road Step, a separate booked temperature range can be defined that is different from the Booked Temperature of the Lane
• You can also select FRO (-20) as booked temperature for road steps
• The Lane Assessment and Temperature Graph will be adjusted accordingly

Estimated Duration for Road Steps

• When the geographical location for the origin and destination of a Road Step is known to the system, an automatic Google Directions search will be performed. This requires that the step before and after the Road Step are defined (e.g. Pick-Up point, Warehouse, or Origin Airport)
• The expected route as determined by Google is shown on the Lane Map (note that the actual route used for a shipment may be different, for example, due to restrictions for freight transport).
• The estimated duration and distance are shown in the Lane Timeplan. This duration is based on the expected route and adjusted for trucks (so slower average speed than passenger cars).
• The user still needs to manually define the duration for the Road Step, so the information from Google is purely informational.

Lane Configuration - Road Stops and Crossings.