This step is automatic. It books a carrier for a shipment the work order has already raised, and publishes the waybill.
It appears in the Add Step list as Courier Booking (new).
| Automatic? | Yes - it books with the carrier itself |
| Who does it | Nobody, unless the carrier is a manual one |
| Needs first | The shipment being collected, and which carrier |
| Produces | The consignment, with the waybill the goods travel under |
| Where you work it | Nothing to open for an automatic carrier |
What it does
It needs to know what is being collected and who is collecting it. The shipment reference is normally published by the Local Shipment or Sell and Ship step earlier in the run, so you rarely type it - you pick the carrier and the rest is already wired.
You can override the delivery address and the parcel's weight and dimensions. Leave both blank and it uses the customer's own address and sizes the parcel from the contents.
It also takes a direction: outbound to the customer, or inbound back to us.
Completing it
- For an integrated carrier it books, gets a waybill back, and completes.
- For a manual carrier there is no waybill until somebody assigns one, so the consignment is published without one and filled in later.
- If the carrier cannot be reached it retries on its own rather than failing the work order. A booking that keeps retrying is telling you something is wrong at the carrier's end.
When not to use it
- There is no shipment yet. It books for a document, so raise the Local Shipment or Sell and Ship step first.
- Sell and Ship can already do it. That step has a book-a-courier switch built in; a separate booking step is only needed when the shipment came from somewhere else.
- Somebody is collecting in person - book nothing.