Understanding Vehicle Setup

To create a load, you must define the vehicles that you use in shipping. Vehicle setup enables you to define specific vehicles or vehicle types. You set up vehicles to specify the type and quantity of products that can be loaded onto them.

Common types of vehicles include tractors, trailers, and vans. These general descriptions of vehicles are the basis for which you later define each physical vehicle that you use. For example, if you use tanker trucks to ship items, you might set up a vehicle type named TANKER.

After you define a vehicle type, you define specific information about that vehicle type, such as:

• Dimension information

• Compartments

• Equipment information

Use vehicle dimensions to define the physical dimensions of a vehicle. For example, when the TANKER vehicle type is defined, you set up the exterior and interior measurements of the tankers. You can define how many compartments a type of vehicle has within it. For example, a tanker might have six compartments. You can also define the equipment that is on board the vehicle. For example, a tanker may have hoses as required equipment for pumping out product. If these hoses always accompany the tanker, you define them as equipment on the TANKER vehicle type.

After you set the vehicle types, you then define specific vehicle information in Vehicle Master Maintenance (P4930). For example, you can set up:

Vehicle Type	Description
License information	For each vehicle that you use, you can enter specific license information that might be required by various transportation agencies.
Out-of-service dates	Out-of-service dates help you to plan maintenance schedules. They can help you to route shipments by allowing the system to assign only those vehicles that are available for use.
Connected vehicle information	Connected vehicle information enables you to define two or more vehicles that are attached and given one connected vehicle ID.