Transport: book, rate, dispatch, deliver, settle trips and bill freight

#Purpose and scope

This chapter covers the Transport module: tariffs, consignments (bookings such as LR, AWB or B/L), multi-leg movement, load planning and dispatch, trip sheets, delivery performance and exceptions, and customer and carrier billing.

#Where Transport is in the menu

Transport has no sidebar group of its own. In the source its menu items are declared under Sales Management → Transport & Freight, and the address /transport opens the Transport overview. If you cannot see those items in your sidebar, open the pages by address (for example /transport/overview) and ask an administrator to check that the Transport module is installed and your role has access. Rate cards, zones, surcharge rules, vehicle cost profiles, carriers, freight tax profiles and driver pay rules are marked admin-only in the menu.

#Before you start

1. The Transport module installed (Sales Management lists it as a dependency).
2. Ledgers: a freight income ledger on the rate card or charge lines, a tax ledger where tax is charged, a creditor ledger on each hired carrier, and driver, advance and expense ledgers for trip settlement.
3. Customers and consignors or consignees linked to ledgers, so a bill-to account can be resolved.
4. The named permissions you need, such as transport.consignment.invoice, transport.consignment.cancel, transport.trip_sheet.close, transport.trip_sheet.settle, transport.freight_bill.* and transport.carrier_bill.*. They are granted to the TRANSPORT-ADMIN role.

#1. Tariffs and charges

1. Create Freight zones (cities and pincode prefixes) to use in lanes.
2. Create a Rate card with a validity window, the mode, optional customer, vehicle type and currency, then add Rate lines: origin and destination (city or zone), weight slab, basis and minimum charge.
3. Add Surcharge rules for fuel, waiting, detention, ODA, COD, peak and handling surcharges.
4. Set Freight tax profiles (which GST or VAT masters freight is billed under, rounding and reverse charge).

#2. Book and rate a consignment

1. Open Consignments and create a booking with origin, destination, parties, freight terms (paid, to-pay or TBB) and weight.
2. Rate it from the tariff. The freight line and any rule-based surcharges are saved as charge lines on the consignment; add hand-written accessorial charges in Consignment charges.
3. Only billable charge lines count toward the header total, so the total equals what will be billed.

#3. Plan loads and dispatch

1. Open the Planning workbench. Build a load from open consignments (BSuit can also suggest and consolidate), and set planned departure and arrival; arrival must be after departure.
2. BSuit checks capacity and vehicle-type compatibility, expired insurance, permits, registration and licence, licence class, and the driver’s hours of service.
3. Confirm the load (it needs at least one consignment), then Dispatch and later Complete. A load is Planned, Confirmed, Dispatched, Completed or Cancelled, and only a Planned load can be edited or deleted; cancel others instead.
4. Alternatively use the Dispatch board to assign an own-fleet vehicle or a hired vehicle number to a consignment, and Trips to see legs, fleet trips and sales deliveries together.

#4. Legs, containers, tracking and proof of delivery

1. For multi-leg movement use Route legs: depart and arrive each leg. Once legs exist the consignment status is derived from them, so it cannot read Delivered while a leg is still at a hub.
2. Track movement in Track & trace, which records scans (Booked, Picked up, In transit, Reached destination, Out for delivery, Undelivered). Track containers, seals and custody in Containers; a seal that differs on arrival is flagged, not overwritten.
3. Record proof of delivery with the receiver name (required) and delivered packages. This is the only way a consignment becomes Delivered.
4. To cancel, use the cancel action (needs transport.consignment.cancel).

#5. Trip sheets and settlement

1. Open Trip sheets. A new sheet is a Draft; Open it when the driver departs.
2. Record the driver’s advance and book route costs as Trip sheet expenses. Distance and the driver’s balance are derived from the odometer and lines, never typed in.
3. Optionally plan the cost from a vehicle cost profile and the planned distance, and compute the driver’s pay from a driver pay rule.
4. Close the sheet at the final odometer (not below the opening reading, and needs transport.trip_sheet.close). After closing, expenses can no longer be added.
5. Settle (needs transport.trip_sheet.settle). BSuit posts a settlement journal and freezes the sheet.

#6. Bill customers

1. Open Freight bills and create a bill from eligible consignments (single, consolidated or by customer and period).
2. Approve the draft (maker-checker: the creator needs the self-approve permission to approve their own bill), then Post. Posting debits the customer and credits freight revenue and tax payable.
3. Cancel an unposted bill; reverse a posted one (books a full credit note); raise credit or debit notes against a posted bill; file a GST e-invoice where used.
4. For a single consignment you can instead post a consignment invoice (needs transport.consignment.invoice); a consignment already on a freight bill must be billed from the bill.

#7. Pay hired carriers

1. Create Carriers (hired transporters) linked to a creditor ledger.
2. Open Carrier bills and build a bill from delivered consignments (or legs) that have a hire cost for that carrier. An inactive carrier or a consignment with no hire cost is refused.
3. Approve (transport.carrier_bill.approve), then Post to payables (transport.carrier_bill.post). Posting needs a hire-cost expense ledger and, when tax is present, a tax ledger.

#8. Monitor: overview, delivery performance, exceptions and profitability

Overview shows in transit, delayed, awaiting POD, uninvoiced and open trip sheets. Delivery performance shows on-time, in-full, OTIF, delays and dwell and the late list. Profitability shows margin by lane, customer, carrier and consignment, and planned versus actual trip cost.

1. Work Exceptions (delays, breakdowns, failed delivery, receiver rejection, damage scans, expired compliance and long stops): acknowledge, start, assign, resolve or dismiss, and reopen if needed. Users with transport.exception.manage work them and are the dispatchers notified of new ones.
2. Holders of transport.exception.reassign can move the affected legs to another vehicle or driver in one step.