How to create a Consignment via the Create Consignment screen

If you wish to bypass the Quotes process and create a consignment directly, you will need to fill in all the required fields on the create consignment screen.

Below sample demo video on how to create a consignment in MachShip:

                           

How to Navigate to Create a New Consignment

• To get to the Create Consignment screen, from the top menu Create/Manage, click Create Consignment under the Consignments section.

• Or you can alternatively use the link here

Create Consignment screen

• Despatch Date: Select your desired despatch date and time.

• Pickup and Delivery Location:
  
  
  • Very Frequent Locations: If you add any location to the very frequent location list, you will see a dropdown list to select. Once you choose a location, it will pre-populate all the address info from that location.
    
    
    
  • Location Name: As you type in the location name, MachShip will suggest the best match from your saved locations, once selected, the location’s address will fill all the relevant fields. If it is a new location, you can manually fill in everything and click on “save address” link to save it to your saved locations. Before it is created, you will need to specify the location type just like when you add a new location from Create Location screen.
    
    
    
    
  • Required fields for the Pickup and Delivery Location Section are: Location Name, Address 1 and Suburb.
    
    
    
    
  • Extra fields for Delivery Location:
    
    
    • Send Tracking Email: If this option is selected, MachShip will send any tracking update to the selected email.
      
      
    • Delivery Special Instructions: If you enter anything in this field, it will show up in the printed documents and could be used to provide extra information for the driver at the delivery location. 
      
      
      
      
      
• Items: Enter the items that are being delivered in this section. All dimensions are in cm's and all weights are in kg's. Note that these are LINE ITEMS so the weight should be item weight NOT total weight. MachShip will multiple out for totals. 
  
  
  
  
  • Very Frequent Items: It works similarly to Very Frequent Locations, it will allow you to select an item from your frequent item list if you have any. Once you select an item, it will add the item with its information to the item list, similar to the image below.
    
    
    
    
• Item Name: It is an optional field. If what you type matches with a saved item, it will populate the item type and dimensions, if not, you will need to manually fill in all fields as they are all required. 
  
  
  
  Once you have added the shipping items then you will be able to assign:
  
  
• add DG items: This option is made available if your company is provided access to consign Dangerous Goods. By clicking on the add DG Items link will result in the Add Dangerous Goods modal. You may click on this link on how to Add the Dangerous Goods information.
  
  
  
  
• add item Contents: This functionality will enable users to be able to specify a description for the item contents along with references and quantities. You may click on this link on how to Add the Item Contents information.
  
  
  
  
• References: You may enter two references as your business requires. 
  
  
  

NOTE: Reference fields can be re-named, set to be required and also configured as dropdowns, or a set format. MachShip lets you customise the existing reference fields to match up with your company's own internal references, such as Purchase Orders, Cost Centres or Invoice Numbers via setting up a Custom Field.

An example of how a reference field will look when altered is shown below. 

• Select A Route: Once all the information has been entered, you will need to generate routes. Click on Generate Routes button when you are ready. 

It will display the qualified routes from carriers with their service and rate. This will be sorted based on the selection you have set against your company

As can be seen above, MachShip will present the price (including Fuel and GST) as well as a delivery timeframe so you may be able to make the best decision for your business. 

Once you select the carrier option you can hover over and click the tile as below:

Once clicked, the carrier option will expand providing you with the below:

 You will need to review:

• Carrier Specific Options

Each carrier may have some specific information which they require in order to undertake the delivery. Due to the fact that these options are not generic, they are not asked before routing and returning pricing. 

•  Consignment details, Route and Items

The Details section will reiterate the consignment pickup, delivery, carrier, service, account, despatch and ETA details for one last sanity check. 

The Route section provides the details of the transit, the from zone, to zone and also a link to the rate. Click this link and you will be taken to a detailed description of the rate used to calculate the price. 

The Items Section will re-iterate the items which have been used to calculate the rate. If a piece rate (item based rate such as a pallet or carton rate) has been used then the type of rate used will be shown as the pricing item type. 

•  Optional Surcharges

There are certain surcharges which cannot be calculated simply based on the pickup, delivery, and item provided when routing. An example of this would be a tailgate or hand unload delivery. These will be presented under the Surcharges section. Click which ones should apply. 

•  Price breakdown

The price breakdown section will provide the component of pricing broken down by Base price (Route and Surcharges), Fuel Price, GST, and Total. 

• Dangerous Goods Declaration

If your company has access to create DG consignments and the consignment being created has no DG items on it then you will need to declare that the consignment contains NO Dangerous Goods. 

• Create the Consignment

There are three methods by which you can then create the consignment and they are:

• Create and Print A4 Labels

This will create the consignment and download as a PDF the item labels for the consignment as 4 labels to an A4 sheet of paper. 

• Create and Print Labels

This will create the consignment and download as a PDF the items labels which can be printed either on a thermal label printer or as 1 label per A4 sheet. 

• Create Consignment

The create consignment call will create the consignment and, if applicable, it will send the call to the MachShip Printing Application to print the item labels. If the printing application is not set up then the consignment will just be created. 

With each of the methods explained above simply clicking the button will cause the consignment to create and for the system to refresh through to the Unmanifested Consignments Page. Should you wish to create multiple consignments then it is suggested that you click the upward facing arrow which sits next to your selected option. 

This will then provide you with the options below:

• and Keep Details:

This will create the consignment (and completed the applicable label task) and then refresh to the create consignment page with all the same details (i.e Pickup, Delivery, Items, references, date and time) of the consignment just created. 

This method would be best used when creating a batch of consignments with the same items. 

• and Clear Form:

This will create the consignment (and completed the applicable label task) and then refresh to the create consignment page. The only details which will have been filled out would be those which have been set as defaults. 

This method would be suggested when you want to create a series of consignments with different details in quick succession. 

• and Create Return:

This will create the consignment (and completed the applicable label task) and then refresh to the create consignment page with all the same details (i.e Pickup, Delivery, Items, references, date and time) of the consignment just created except that the Pickup and Delivery will have been reversed allowing for the creation of a return.