The point when you enter who the carrier is for a given order during the ordering process depends on a number of factors. Often the carrier is discussed and agreed with the customer at the time of Order Entry. Sometimes you can’t determine a carrier up front until you’ve assembled the items for despatch and packed/weight/measured the delivery. The carrier selection can also relate to whether you are calculating and passing on delivery charges and what information you need to make those calculations i.e. final weight/volume of the delivery.
Usually, the choice of carrier selection occurs during ‘Order Entry’ or ‘Order Despatch’ as discussed below.
When entering orders
- If a customer has a preferred carrier, then that carrier is defaulted from the Customer Details when the order is created.
- If you charge a flat rate for shipping, the shipping fee can be added to the order via a charge code associated with the carrier.
- If you make your own deliveries and charge by distance and number of trucks required for the delivery, then you can use the order entry ‘delivery calculator’ which based on your ‘own truck’ carrier.
When despatching
If carrier charges are calculated by weight or volume, then the delivery fee needs to be calculated after this information has been entered in the consignment details of the order despatch.