Locations and Location Attributes in Bulk Planning

The key attributes of locations that affect the bulk plan process are: Location Calendars, Address Components, Latitudes & Longitudes, Location Roles, Location Activity Times and Special Services.

• Location Calendars specify the times when a location is open for pickup and delivery. Depending on the type of rate service, different types of calendar activities are used. For shipments involving SIMULATION rate service type, the hours associated with the calendar activity of LOAD are used to determine if a particular order can be loaded/picked up at a location. Similarly, hours associated with the calendar activity of RECEIVE are used to determine the open times when an order can be delivered at a location. However, for DAY DURATION rate service type, PICKUP and RECEIVE calendar activities are used.
• Address fields, along with the location ID, on the location are used to match the location or a pair of locations to lanes for rating and resourcing purposes.
• Latitudes and Longitudes on the locations are used to estimate the distances between locations. Estimating distances using latitudes/longitudes is faster than looking up the distances from the database or invoking an external distance engine. 
• Location Role defines the type of location.

Note: Define only one location role per location. Planning only uses the first role it sees on the location and having multiple roles could confuse the engine. 

• Activity times are defined on the location for the location role. These times specify the fixed and variable times for loading and unloading based on the type of the commodity. Activity times can also be defined for special services.
• Special Services are services that are required for a shipment to occur. For example, special services could include delivery of a specific order to a construction site, or a mandatory item inspection. Special services can be applied to locations, items, order releases and order movements. OTM can only use rates that include a specific special service if that specific special service is on the location, item, or order.

On the location, you can specify compatible equipment groups and service providers. For example, a particular location cannot handle any equipment larger than 48 FT and hence is incompatible with 50 FT and 53 FT equipment.