Planning a Multi-Block Shipment

A block shipment or Unit Train is a two-stop shipment with multiple equipment for rail or similar scenarios. A multi-block shipment is a multi-stop shipment that is the merger of two or more block shipments.

The system provides the capability to plan a multi-block shipment using the Create Multi-Block action.  As described below, this capability supports scenarios where within one shipment:

• each equipment and all of its ship units are picked up at one source stop and delivered to one destination stop
• a set of multiple equipment (a block) is picked up at the same source stop and delivered to the same destination stop
• the equipment in a block use capacity based upon block source and destination (rather than shipment lane)
• different blocks on the shipment may have different sources, or (more typically) different destinations
• all of the blocks on the shipment share the same Reservation Number
• shipment stop sequencing is defined by the Air/Rail Route Code specified in the action.

The multi-block scenario would typically be a rail scenario, though the capability may also be useful for similar scenarios such as barge or road train.

Note: The terms "block shipment" and "multi-block shipment" are used here simply to explain how to model this kind of scenario.  The system itself does not have any shipment field or status to indicate that a shipment is a "block shipment" or a "multi-block shipment".

Note: In the system, the terms "Route Code", "Rail Route Code", and "Air/Rail Route Code" all refer to the same data.

Multi-Block Shipment Data Setup

A multi-block shipment is created for a particular rail route code and reservation number.  Therefore, multi-block shipment processing depends upon the correct set-up of Capacity Limit and Rail Route Code data.

The relevant Capacity Limit records should specify Route Code ID and Reservation Number.

• Different Capacity Limit records with the same Reservation Number can be used for block shipments that will ultimately be combined into a multi-block shipment.
• Capacity Limit

The relevant Rail Route Code records will have the "Multi-Block" flag checked.

• Each of the Rail Route Code records should specify the complete stop sequence for multiple stops for the multi-block shipment.
• Rail Route Code

Note: In ordinary truckload scenarios, a Capacity Limit record represents recurring capacity, that is, capacity that is available each day or each week, etc. However, in the multi-block scenario, a Capacity Limit record represents capacity available for a particular day and reservation, not recurring capacity that will also be available in future days.  

Creating a Multi-Block Shipment

The creation of the multi-block shipment is a two step process.

Building the individual block shipments:

• each individual block shipment is a two stop shipment with one or more equipment
• for a given block shipment, all of the equipment count against the same capacity usage record

Different block shipments would typically point to different capacity usage records:

• the block shipment obtains its reservation number from the capacity usage record
• each individual block shipment might be built, for example, by creating individual single-equipment shipments for the same source and destination and then running the Merge Shipments action

Using the Create Multi-Block action to create the multi-block shipment:

• the action can run only for a set of shipments that share the same reservation number
• the user enters an Air/Rail Route code as input
• the action will merge the selected block shipments into one multi-block shipment
• the action will not recompute or change the capacity usage records for the equipment - these will remain what they had been on the individual block shipments. Thus, the new multi-block shipment will count against multiple capacity usage records on different lanes
• the action will sequence the stops of the multi-block shipment using the stop sequence defined on the user-entered route code
• the action will always set the Air/Rail Route Code Fixed check box to True
• the multi-block shipment will be rated according to a rate that matches the user-entered route code

The following is an illustration of how the individual block shipments are merged into a single multi-block shipment.