Container Group

This page is accessed via Shipment Management > Group Management > Container Group.

Container groups are required for orders that require unitization which means that the order must be delivered in containers. A container group is a group of containers (equipment group with the Container check box marked) that are booked on a voyage as one booking line item. A container group comprises several containers (could be different types of containers), each of which can hold multiple products. A container can hold products from several orders and products from one order could be split into multiple containers.

Container groups can be added manually or be created as a result of unitization that occurs when you book a unitized order on a voyage using the order release action, Build Shipment on Primary Leg.

If there is no container group present in a voyage, then a new container group is created through containerization logic. The containerization logic involves loading the products from the orders into containers which entails running a load configuration process.

The load configuration process identifies the number and type of containers that are needed to optimally pack orders into containers. A new container group is created and a booking line is sent to the appropriate parties. Once a sea carrier receives a new booking line item, they return the container release number (CRN) corresponding to the new booking.

If a matching container group exists, then the containerization logic creates additional containers and adds them to the container group. A container group matches if the stuffing and de-stuffing locations are the same, and they share the same unitization purpose (for example, customer-driven, or consignor-initiated, etc.) These additions are notified to the sea carrier through booking line amendments. The planner can control whether to allow additional containers to be added to the existing container groups by setting a status on the container groups.

When a container group is created, a new booking line item corresponding to this container group is created and sent to the sea carrier. Once the container group booking is sent to the contracting carrier or their agent, they confirm the availability of equipment by returning a CRN. The empty containers are released later from a container depot against the CRN. Occasionally, the CRN return is delayed, as the carrier will check the availability of empty equipment by the due date. When there are changes to the booking line item or container group, a booking amendment is issued against the booking line reference (CRN may not be available).

Also, Unitizing Instructions are issued to the party responsible for the stuffing of units. Accordingly, upon completion of stuffing, that party will issue Unitizing Confirmation detailing the contents of units stuffed.

Container Group Attributes

The following data can be manually entered or automatically populated when you book a unitized order on a charter voyage as mentioned above.

Attribute	Description
Container Group ID	Uniquely identifies the group and is not controlled by the business number generator.
Shipment ID	Identifies the consol shipment to which the container group is assigned. As unitized orders are booked on this shipment, they are added to existing or new containers based on the result of the load configuration process. You can also view the containers that are on a consol shipment using the Equipment tab of the Shipment Manager.
Unitization Request Type	This field determines order-to-container group compatibility. For example when a consol shipment already contains container groups with orders and a new order is booked, Oracle Transportation Management retrieves all the container groups that have a status value of STUFFING_OPEN and are compatible with the order. A container group is compatible with an order if it has the same Unitization Request Type as the order (as determined by the Customer Unitization Request flag) and its stuffing and de-stuffing points are the same.
Container Release Number	See Above. You can enter any text in this field to represent the Container Release Number.
Stuffing/De-stuffing Locations	These are the locations where the container is stuffed and de-stuffed with the content of the unitized order prior to and after the primary (ocean) leg. These fields are populated by the unitization rule that was used to create the container group or from the locations that were entered directly on the order release Other Attributes tab.
Reference Code	This field is populated with the Reference Code that was entered on the unitization rule that was used to create this container.

 

Summary

This section summarizes the Total Weight and Volume for all containers in the group as indicated by the Number of Containers field. Click Status to display whether this container group can accept additional unitized order bookings based on its current status.

Shipment Equipment

This section displays the details of each container on the shipment referenced in the Shipment ID field at the top of the page. Each container is represented by an "S" (shipment) Equipment and corresponding Equipment Group ID and appears on a separate row showing the total weight/volume and equipment reference unit information.

Click the Expand icon for an S Equipment ID to drill down into each and display the ship unit details.