Vehicle Selection Mode

How vehicle selection mode works

If there is a number of Shipping policies that can be used to transfer the products between the two objects, you can use this table to check if the shipping with the required vehicle is chosen (Cheapest, Fastest, Closest fit, or By priority).

The vehicle selection mode does not work with shipping policies of push type (Push: schedule, Push:uniform).

See how it works.

The logic defined in this table can be affected by the Time windows.

Column	Description
From	Defines the origin object that the vehicle sets off from. It can be a factory / DC, supplier or group.
To	Defines the origin object that the vehicle sets off from. It can be a customer, factory / DC or group.
Type	Defines the vehicle selection mode for the defined From and To shipping locations: Cheapest — [set by default] selects the shipping policy with the cheapest vehicle type. Transportation costs from the Paths table are also considered. Calculation is done based on the distance to cover (Distance column in the Paths table). If the distance is not specified, it is taken from the map (it may be a straight line or an actual route, depending on the state of the toggle button in the Straight column of the Paths table). If Fixed delivery cost is selected in the Cost calculation column of the Paths table, this selection mode simply considers the specified cost. Fastest — selects the shipping policy allowing for the fastest delivery with its vehicle type. If the time is not specified (Transportation time column in the Paths table), this mode considers the distance to cover (Distance column in the Paths table) divided by the speed of the specified vehicle type. If the distance is not specified, it will be taken from the map (it may be either a straight line or an actual route, depending on the state of the toggle button in the Straight column of the Paths table). Closest fit — the best vehicle's load ratio. The less free space is left, the better. The selection mode estimates the required number of vehicles to deliver the requested volume of products, and then calculates their load ratio by dividing the summarized volume to ship by the summarized capacity of the required number of vehicles. E.g. if we need 4 vehicles (30 m³ each) to deliver 100 m³ of products then: 100 / 120 = 0.83 By priority — defines the priority of the vehicle types to use. Let's say you prefer to use vehicle carrying 25 m³ to vehicle carrying 15 m³ only. In the parameters of this mode you can define the 25 m³ vehicle to have a higher priority. In this case, on checking the chosen shipping policy the selection mode will also check if the required (25 m³) vehicle type can be used. If the site has this vehicle type in its fleet, the selection mode wll choose to wait for a vehicle of this type to become available (and select the shipping policy that uses this vehicle type), rather than ship with the less prioritized vehicle type that the current policy is using.
Parameters	The field displays the parameters for the defined selection Type. Available only = false — [if Type is set to anything but By priority] defines if the vehicles that are currently away delivering the orders should be also considered in calculations. By default only the vehicles that are at site are considered. The cell contains a dialog box allowing you to change the default state. E.g. You may create a filter that will allow using the cheapest vehicle among available at site. List of vehicles with defined priorities — [if Type is set to By priority] defines the priority of the vehicles that you would like to use for deliveries. The cell contains a dialog box allowing you to define the priority.

How vehicle selection mode works

The Shipping policy is triggered.
If it is of push type (Push: schedule, Push: uniform), the vehicle selction mode will not be triggered on step 4.
It organizes orders according to the priority rule, thus defining the first customer to visit.
Then it checks if there are other orders from that same customer, organizes them according to the priority rule, and loads the max possible number of orders to a vehicle.
Finally, it tells the vehicle selection mode what is about to be shipped and what vehicle is about to be used.
The vehicle selection mode checks the volume that must be shipped, estimates the required number of vehicles considering LTL/FTL policies.
If the chosen policy is able to deliver the required amount of products, the selection mode checks if there are policies that are using other vehicle types.
It calculates the cost of all alternative shipping policies, finds the cheapest one and compares it to the currently chosen. If the current one is not cheaper, the orders will not be sent.
It checks all shipping policies of the required source within this period. The policies that are not available on the required day are also considered.

To define priority of vehicle types

Double-click the cell in the Parameters column to open the dialog box allowing you to specify vehicle types and their priority.
Click Add to create a new record in the table.
Select the required vehicle from the drop-down list the Vehicle type column's cell contains.
Now click the Priority column cell and set the index number (ordinal) for the current vehicle type.
Vehicles with index 1 have the highest priority.
Click Save to close the dialog box. The column cell will now contain the list of the specified vehicle types and their priorities.

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