Continuous Move Shipments

This action is accessed via:

• Shipment Management > Shipment Management > Buy Shipments > Actions > Operational Planning > Manage Continuous Move > Find Shipments
• Shipment Management > Shipment Management > Sell Shipments > Actions > Operational Planning > Manage Continuous Move > Find Shipments

Continuous moves link two or more shipments of the same service provider to get a lower cost when shipments are travelling in similar geographic areas within a specific time period. For example, if a shipment is travelling from Chicago to Miami and another shipment is travelling from Chicago to St. Louis using the same service provider, you may want to create a continuous move to get a discount on the rate offering.

Regarding parameter sets:

• If shipments have common parameter sets, that parameter set will be used.
• If the shipments have no common parameter sets and shipments are already on the continuous move, the continuous move shipment parameter set will be used.
• If no shipments are on the continuous move, then the first shipment parameter set is considered.

The property glog.business.continuousMoves.passHOSStatesDownstream is used during the shipment graphing process. When TRUE (default), hours of service data is passed from shipment to shipment for continuous moves. When FALSE, hours of service information is not used during continuous moves calculations.

The property glog.business.continuousMoves.redriveOnlyIfDiffRateService controls whether to redrive shipments while manually linking shipments into a continuous move shipment. When true, OTM will redrive only if the rate service changes. When false, OTM will redrive regardless of a rate service change.

The property glog.business.GGraphBuilder.plotCMShipments is used for controlling the building of shipment graphs (related shipments) for plotting continuous moves. Unless True, continuous moves will not be plotted.

The Logic Configuration - Continuous Moves parameter CM RETURN DISTANCE COST FACTOR favors a return to the source so instead of just going out is more of an out and back approach.

Note: Continuous Moves are not compatible with capacity commitment. Bulk plan won't provide a proper solution with continuous moves and capacity commitment turned on at the same time in the same plan. Even running bulk plan with capacity honored in one plan and then performing Bulk continuous move separately with resultant shipments may lead to sub-optimal solutions in some cases. (You should use Fleet aware bulk plan in this case.)

Requirements

Shipments must meet the following requirements to create a continuous move:

• All shipments linked together in a continuous move must use the same service provider and that service provider must have a rate offering that includes rules for continuous moves.
• The maximum distance that can separate the delivery stop for one shipment from the pickup stop for the next shipment is defined in the continuous move rate offering. If this distance is exceeded, you cannot create a continuous move.
• It must be feasible for the service provider to be able to travel between all shipment stops within the pickup and delivery time windows for the orders on the shipments.
• The user-defined maximum number of shipments using a continuous move must not be exceeded.
• If the shipment is already delivered to its destination, the continuous move must be created before a period of time defined on the rate offering expires.
• Continuous moves only work with 'non-connected' shipments, meaning shipments that are not 'related' to other shipments. For example, if you create a multi-leg set of shipments for an order, these shipments will not be eligible for continuous moves because the order relationship ties them together.

Select Shipments for a Continuous Move

Perform the following steps to find shipments that can be part of a continuous move:

1. Enter a value in the Maximum Duration field to determine the maximum amount of time that can elapse between the delivery location for one shipment and the pickup location for the next. For this check, OTM looks at the latest end time of the first shipment and adds the maximum allowed duration to it. If the earliest start time is after this time, OTM will not permit the shipment to be connected.
2. Enter a value in the Maximum Distance field to enter the maximum distance allowed between the delivery location for one shipment and the pickup location for the next.
3. Select how you want to look for potential continuous move shipments by selecting one of the following options:
   • Look Next: This will return shipments that have a shipment start date and time after the selected shipment's end date and time.
   • Look Previous: This will return shipments that have a shipment end date and time before the selected shipment's start date and time.
   • Look for Previous and Next: This will use both of the proceeding methods.
4. Click Find. A list of eligible continuous move shipments appears. You can then select which shipments you want to include in the continuous move tour and click Link Shipments.

Cost

Rates for Service Providers who allow continuous move shipments are defined on truck load rate offerings in the Rate Manager.

The cost for a continuous move shipment includes the charge for the empty leg. Apply the cost for the empty leg to the shipment before or after the empty leg. The cost for the empty leg cannot be divided among shipments.

Automatically Create Continuous Moves

Rather than manually creating continuous moves, you can set up Oracle Transportation Management to automatically link shipments together that meet all of the business rules you have defined. At the end of the Bulk Plan process, Oracle Transportation Management will review all shipments to look for continuous move opportunities. For more information on tuning the bulk plan process for continuous moves, see Bulk Plan Tuning Continuous Moves Logic. To have this process occur, you need to set the following parameters:

Type of Parameter	Parameter
Planning	CONTINUOUS_MOVES_CONFIG_ID CM AUTO CREATE CM MODE CM MAX SEARCH DISTANCE CM MAX SEARCH DURATION CM_REDRIVE
Logic	CM_COLGEN_NUMBER_OF_ITERATIONS CM_CONSOLIDATION_ALGORITHM_TYPE CM_DISCOUNT_PERCENTAGE CM_ENUMERATION_MERGE_MAX_SHIPMENTS CM_MAX_DISTANCE_BETWEEN_SHIPMENTS CM_MAX_DURATION_BETWEEN_SHIPMENTS CM_MAX_DURATION_OF_TOUR CM_MAX_SHIPMENTS_IN_CONTINUOUS_MOVE_TOUR CM_MIN_SHIPMENTS_IN_CONTINUOUS_MOVE_TOUR CM_RATE_DISTANCE_ID CM_SAVINGS_CALCULATION_TYPE CM_SEQUENCING_ALGORITHM CM_SEQUENCING_ALGORITHM_FOR_HIGH_SHIPMENTS CM_SEQUENCING_LOW_SHIPMENTS_MAXIMUM CM_SKIP_DEPOTS_WITHIN_TOUR CM_WAIT_TIME_PENALTY

 

Shipment Redrive

More continuous move eligible shipments can be found by utilizing the redrive functionality.

Redrive checks the latest start time of the next shipment and calculates whether it is equal to or later than the end time of the first shipment plus the drive time.

For example, if a shipment from Los Angeles to Kansas City has a shipment end time of 3:56 a.m., and a shipment from St. Louis to Atlanta has a shipment start time of 4:00 a.m., then without the redrive functionality turned on, this will not be a potential continuous move. This is because there is not enough time between Kansas City and St. Louis. However, with the redrive functionality turned on, this becomes an eligible continuous move shipment because the shipment is redriven to find that the latest start time in St. Louis is 1:00 p.m.

To turn the redrive functionality on, you must set the following parameter: CM REDRIVE.

The property glog.business.continuousMoves.redriveOnlyIfDiffRateService controls whether to redrive shipments while manually linking shipments in a continuous move. When the property is true, OTM will redrive only if the rate service changes. The default is false, OTM will redrive regardless of whether the rate service changes (as long as the above parameter is set).

Unassign Shipments

You can unassign a shipment from a continuous move.