Truckload Flow Overview

Oracle Transportation Sourcing provides the ability to manage the end-to-end process for sourcing truckload rates.

Overview

Following is the flow of tasks required to source truckload rates:

1. Shipment History
2. Lane Summary
3. Rate Record Template
4. CRT Configuration
5. Project and Bid Round
6. CRT Generation
7. Bid Invitation
8. CRT Upload
9. Bid Analysis
10. Solve Scenario – Run 1
11. Solve Scenario – Run 2
12. Build Rates

Starting the Truckload (TL) Sourcing Process

First, you define your demand. You can do this in one of three ways:

• Import your shipment history into Oracle Transportation Sourcing from Oracle Transportation Management.
• Upload your shipment history directly into Oracle Transportation Sourcing using CSV files.
• Skip the shipment history entirely and start the process by creating a lane summary.

Shipment History

In some cases, you will start sourcing your truckload rates with shipment history although it is not required for truckload rates. The shipment history pages are located under Sourcing > Historical Shipments.

Importing Shipment History from Oracle Transportation Management

1. If your shipment history is in Oracle Transportation Management, this is where you begin. You define the constraints that will find the Oracle Transportation Management shipments which match your demand via the shipment set criteria
   
   The following must be selected on the shipment set criteria:
   1. Mode Profile ID (transport mode) of TL for truckload.
      
      You can also include multiple modes in your profile. For example, you can include the transport modes of TL and MULTIMODAL in a profile named LAND. In that case, you specify a mode profile ID of LAND.
   2. Shipment Type of TL.
      
      Select a shipment type of TL even if your are sourcing multi-modal rates.
   3. Desired Geo Hierarchy Profile ID to prevent bad lanes from appearing in the shipment set.
2. Next, you bring Oracle Transportation Management shipments into Oracle Transportation Sourcing. To do this, you run the action Build Shipment Set.

Rate Lanes for Oracle Transportation Management Shipments

The Build Shipment Set action imports Oracle Transportation Management shipments into Oracle Transportation Sourcing as sourcing shipments. The lane ID associated with the new Oracle Transportation Sourcing shipment is the lane specified on the Oracle Transportation Management rate cost.

Uploading Shipment History via CSV Files

1. If your shipment history is not in Oracle Transportation Management, you can upload the data via CSV files. This includes the P_SHIPMENT, P_S_SHIP_UNIT, and P_S_SHIP_UNIT_LINE CSV files.
2. If you have uploaded your shipment history via CSV files, your next step is to define your shipment set criteria as detailed above.
3. Next, assign historical shipments to your new shipment set using the Assign Shipment Set action.

Editing Shipments in Oracle Transportation Sourcing

If necessary, you can edit individual shipments as defined in Oracle Transportation Sourcing. The Ship Units tab allows you to see the ship unit and ship unit line information if you are including it.

Note: If you add or copy any Oracle Transportation Sourcing shipments, you will need to add this to your shipment set using the Add to Shipment Set action.

Lane Summary

If you do not capture your shipment history in Oracle Transportation Sourcing, then you can start the truckload rates sourcing process by creating a lane summary. Or, if you already pulled your shipment history in to Oracle Transportation Sourcing via the Build Shipment Set action, then creating a lane summary is your next step.

A lane summary summarizes the demand (number of shipments in a time frame) that is expected for a particular lane. A lane summary is necessary for project creation at a later time. The lane summary pages are located under Sourcing > Lane Aggregation.

Building a Lane Summary in Oracle Transportation Sourcing:

1. You start by creating a lane summary criteria.
   1. Set the Shipment Type to TL.
   2. Specify a Time Period Size and First Time Period.
   3. Select the Shipment Set ID for which you want to build the lane summary.
   4. Specify a Desired Source Geo Hierarchy ID and a Desired Destination Geo Hierarchy ID to prevent bad lanes from appearing in the lane summary.
2. Run the Fill Missing Lanes action.
3. Run the Build the Lane Summary action.
4. View the lane summary details.
5. Run the View Lane Summary action.

Rate Record Template (OTM Rates)

A Sourcing rate record template is an OTM rate which allows you to utilize a sub-set of OTM's extensive rating capabilities. A rate is considered a Sourcing rate if you select the Sourcing Template check box on the associated rate offering. Oracle Transportation Sourcing supports a limited set of Oracle Transportation Management rating options. A rate record template is used in Sourcing to populate the CRT Configuration Details page. The rate offering and rate record pages are located under Contract and Rate Management > Contract Management.

Rate Offering

In addition to the information required for standard truckload rate offering set up, you must specify the following for Oracle Transportation Sourcing.

On the Rate Header tab:

1. Service provider ID must be specified since it is a required field.

   Note: This field is required by Oracle Transportation Management, but Oracle Transportation Sourcing will not limit you to this service provider.

2. Select the Template check box.

Rate Record

Create a rate record from the truckload rate offering created above. The combination of this truckload rate offering and rate record will be used by Oracle Transportation Sourcing as the rate record template. As a result, it must include all costs that you want your carrier to bid on and that you may want to transform into Oracle Transportation Management rates later in the sourcing process.

Note: Although many attributes can be set on both the rate offering and rate record, Oracle Transportation Sourcing will only use attributes that are specified on the rate record attributes tab.

On the Attributes tab:

Specify the information required for standard truckload rate record set up, Oracle Transportation Sourcing does not require any additional information. However, you may need to specify information on the Attributes tab depending on the rate basis items that you use for the rate cost.

On the Rate Costs tab:

1. Select one of the rate basis items supported by Oracle Transportation Sourcing for TL mode.
2. You can also set up conditions for this rate cost.

On the Accessorials tab:

1. Specify an accessorial code. Refer to the Sourcing Rate Basis Items help topic for details on how the Always Apply check box works with Oracle Transportation Sourcing.
2. Specify an accessorial cost.
   
   For the cost, you can select one of the rate basis items supported by Oracle Transportation Sourcing for accessorials.

CRT Configuration

Once the rate record template is created, the next step is to create the CRT configuration. The CRT configuration allows you to specify how you want both the rate attributes and the bid attributes to appear in the bid document that is sent to the carriers. This bid document is called a carrier response template or CRT. A CRT configuration ID is necessary for the generation of the carrier response template.

The CRT configuration page is located at Sourcing > Setup > CRT Configuration.

1. Create a CRT Configuration.
2. Specify a rate record template.

   Note: A single rate record template may be associated to more than one CRT configuration which could potentially cause a mismatch between the rate record template and one of the CRT configurations. As a result, when you click Finished to save the CRT configuration, you will no longer be able to make any changes to the assigned rate record template.

3. Edit the lane attributes to make sure that only rows which you want your carriers to either see or bid on are listed in the final CRT spreadsheet.
4. Edit the rate attributes to make sure that only rows which you want your carriers to either see or bid on are listed in the final CRT spreadsheet.

Constraint Sets, Rule Sets, and Parameters

Create constraints and rules for exactly what costs can be sourced using constraint sets and parameter sets. The constraint set and rule set pages are located under Sourcing > Setup. The parameter set page is located at Shipment Management > Power Data > General > Parameter Sets.

1. Parameter Set ID. Sourcing specific parameters that apply to TL mode are:
   • ALLOW_HIGHER_BID
   • CREATE INTEGER AWARDS (applicable when solving scenarios)
   • PROCUREMENT_SOLVER_MAXTIME (applicable when solving scenarios)
   • PROCUREMENT_SOLVER_PERCENT_OPTIMAL (applicable when solving scenarios)
2. Constraint Set. You can constrain based on the following:
   1. Equipment Group Profile ID
   2. Service Provider Profile ID
   3. Mode Profile ID

Project and Bid Round

With your demand defined and aggregated and your CRT configuration created, you are ready to define how you want to run your sourcing project and review your bid round. The project and bid round managers are under Sourcing > Bid Creation.

Project

The project defines the information to be communicated for a particular bid. It also defines the contract period. Create a new project:

1. Complete all required fields on the Project tab.
2. Specify a constraint set which includes a service provider profile.
   
   Make sure that service provider profile includes the carriers (service providers) allowed to upload bids. While a constraint set is not required, you should specify one so that bids can be uploaded against this project.
3. For TL mode, the options on the Project Details tab are:
   • Define Carrier Capacity
   • Rate Record Template ID - The rate record template specified on the CRT configuration ID must match the rate record template specified on the project.
   • Equipment conversion factor

Bid Round

The bid round defines the structure for the bidding process.

When you save a new project, the first bid round is automatically created by Oracle Transportation Sourcing. The bid round manager is located at Sourcing > Bid Creation > Bid Round.

1. Review the bid round.
   
   You may want to change some of the values inherited from the project. For example, you may want to change the dates when you accept bids from carriers. The default is 30 days from the project start date.
2. Specify a CRT configuration ID on the bid round.

Generate a Carrier Response Template (CRT)

Generate the carrier response template (CRT) from the Bid Round manager.

The carrier response template or CRT is the MS Excel spreadsheet that you send to your carriers. Your carriers then enter their bids into the CRT spreadsheet. The CRT is generated from the bid round and uses the CRT configuration for content and formatting.

1. Select a bid round.
2. Click Actions > Create Carrier Response Template.

Bid Invitation

Once the carrier response template and the lane summary are generated, you can invite your carriers to bid using the Send Bid Invitation action.

1. Select a bid round.
2. Click Actions > Send Bid Invitation.

Note: If you run this action and remain logged into OTM; then open the bid invitation and click the View Lane Summary link, you will see an error. Please log out of OTM prior to attempting to view the lane summary.

Carriers Enter Bids in the CRT

Once your carriers receive the bid invitation, they will then enter their bid information in the CRT.

What your carriers enter into the CRT, depends on what you specified in the CRT configuration. See Editing the Carrier Response Template for pointers and notes on editing the CRT.

Typically for truckload shipments, the following columns in the CRT would be updated by your carriers for each lane:

• Transport mode ID
• Equipment group ID
• Transit time
• Minimum shipments requested
• Maximum shipments requested

Then, depending on the rate costs specified in the rate record template, the carriers update:

• Rate cost, currency, and unit of measure, if necessary, under the rate cost header (for example, Bid per Shipment Total Distance Traveled).
• For rate accessorials, such as insurance and fuel surcharge, the carrier enters the bid amount under the accessorial charge header. For example, if the accessorial name is FUELSURCHARGE, then that will be the column header in the CRT.
• For stop off charges, there will be a header Stop Off Charge. Under this header, you see groups of columns for each range of stops (for example, Stop Range 1-4 Bid Amount and Currency columns and Stop Range 5-7 Bid Amount and Currency columns).

If your project is multi-modal, the carrier must complete the following in the CRT:

1. Unlock the CRT spreadsheet.
2. Copy the row containing the lane on which the you want to bid with more than one mode.
3. Into the new row enter the transport mode and costs for the second transport mode. The Oracle Transportation Sourcing solver selects the lowest cost regardless of the transport mode.

Carriers Upload and Review Bids

Once all bids are entered into the CRT, the carrier can upload the CRT. Typically, your carriers will log into Oracle Transportation Sourcing as a service provider to upload a CRT.

Uploading Bids

Carrier Uploading

Your carrier (service provider) completes the following:

1. Log into Oracle Transportation Management in the carrier's SERVPROV domain.
2. Click Sourcing > Bid Creation > Upload Bid Response.

Buyer Uploading the Bid Response on Behalf of the Carrier

If necessary, the buyer can upload the bid response on behalf of the carrier:

1. Log into Oracle Transportation Management in the buyer's domain.
2. Click Sourcing > Bid Creation > Upload Bid Response.

Manually Entering Bids

A carrier or buyer can manually enter bids as well. They can use the Copy Bid action to copy the bid details on the same or different lane to the specified or new bid round.

Checking if Bids are Properly Uploaded

The carrier can view the bid report via the View Bid Report action. The bid report allows a carrier to double-check if the bids uploaded via the carrier response template were properly saved.

Committing Bids

Once all bids are entered and double-checked, the carrier commits their bids. The buyer can also commit bids on behalf of the service provider.

1. Go to Sourcing > Bid Creation > Bid and search for bids to commit.
2. With one or more bids selected, click Actions > Commit.
   
   The bid status will change to COMMITTMENT_COMMITTED.

When all bids are uploaded and committed, the carrier is done.

Committing Over 1,000 Bids

If you have a lot of bids (more than 1,000), you must run the action from the search page as follows:

1. Go to Sourcing > Bid Creation > Bid.
2. Enter the appropriate search criteria, such as Bid Round ID, on the finder page.
3. At the bottom of the page, click Actions > Commit.
   
   You see a results confirmation page stating the number of bids found.
4. On the results confirmation page, click OK to change the bid status.

Bid Analysis

Next, you can check the progress of carriers entering bids. For each row in the bid response document, Sourcing creates a new bid. You can view and or modify these bids using the Bid manager. A service provider/carrier could log in using their SERVPROV user name and password to view and edit their uploaded bids. Also, a buyer can log in and review uploaded bids.

Analyzing Carrier Responses

On the carrier response analysis, you can check the status of carriers entering bids. For example, you can see the number of carriers without bids, number of committed bids, and number of committed and included bids among other details.

1. Select a bid round.
2. Click Actions > Carrier Response Analysis.

Including Bids

You can then include bids by running the Bid Include action. The status will change to BID_IN_INCLUDED.

1. Select one or more bids.
2. Click Actions > Bid Include.

Using the carrier response analysis action, you can go back and ensure all bids are in committed, as well as, included status.

Including Many Bids at once

If you have a lot of bids (more than 1,000) or you want to include bids across carriers, you can run the action from the search page as follows:

1. Go to Sourcing > Bid Creation > Bid.
2. Enter the appropriate search criteria, such as Bid Round ID, on the finder page.
3. At the bottom of the page, click Actions > Bid Include.
   
   You see a results confirmation page stating the number of bids found.
4. On the results confirmation page, click OK to change the bid status.

Using the carrier response analysis action, you can go back and ensure all bids are in committed, as well as, included status.

Close the Bid Round

Once you receive all expected bids, you can close the bid round. Once the bid round is closed, no more bids are accepted.

Note: You do not have to close the bid round to run the solver.

Solve Scenario Automatically - Run 1

Next, you can run through a scenario for the first time. Your first scenario run is typically totally unconstrained to give you the cheapest price possible.

Note: You can manually add bids to an existing scenario. You can either use this to create a solution totally from scratch or just to add a few bids to an solution created by the Sourcing solver.

To run the Sourcing solver, complete the following:

1. To access the Scenario manager, go to Sourcing > Bid Analysis > Scenario.
2. First, create a new scenario.
3. Then, run the solver via either Sourcing > Process Management > Solve Scenario or Sourcing > Bid Analysis > Scenario > Actions > Solve Scenario.
4. And finally, review the solution detail and solution summary to see how the awards are broken down by carrier.

Solve Scenario Automatically - Run 2

You will probably want to run the scenario a second time.

1. Specify a Sourcing Rule Set ID: At this point, you might want to add some business rules to the solver and see how that affects your cost. For example, you might want to limit the total number of carriers you want to do business with across lanes.
2. Run the solver a second time.
3. When solving the scenario, you can choose to award backup carriers. This enables you to have backup rates ready to use in case the awarded carrier cannot be used.
4. View the solution detail and solution summary: You can now view the solution given your constraints and see that the backup carriers got awarded as well.
5. In addition to the Solution Summary action, you can also study and compare your solutions using reports. There are reports to break down the awards by carrier, lane, and compare to the cheapest carrier on each lane. To view these reports, go to Sourcing > Reports.

Manually Creating a Scenario and Adding Bids to the Solution

You can manually add bids to an existing scenario. You can either use this to create a solution totally from scratch or just to add a few bids to a solution created by the Sourcing solver.

For all manually added bids, the Fixed option on the solution detail record is selected by default. When this option is selected, the solution detail record is not replaced if the Sourcing solver runs.

To create a scenario and manually add bids, complete the following:

1. To access the Scenario manager, go to Sourcing > Bid Analysis > Scenario.
2. First, create a new scenario.
3. You can add bids to this new scenario using one or more of the following:
   • From the Solution Detail Finder screen or Solution Detail results screen, click New to add a single solution detail record. You can use this method to add a single bid to a solution. This is not the easiest way to add multiple bids.
   • From the Scenario Finder screen or Scenario finder results screen, select an existing scenario and click Actions > Add Bids to Solution to add multiple bids.
   • From the Solution Summary screen, click Add More Bids to add multiple bids.
4. You can view a report showing the manual awards for each lane compared to that of demand and the total awarded. If the Fixed option on the solution detail record is selected, then the award is considered manual. To view the report, go to Sourcing > Reports and run the Manual Awards Report.
   
   This report will only list the equipment group for lanes with a shipment type of OCEAN.

Note: For truckload and LTL transport modes, the demand is calculated based on the sourcing shipments (p_shipments) associated with the lanes. This data is pulled from the lane summary details. If there are no p_shipments, then no records are returned for this report.

Note: For ocean transport mode, the demand is based on the total shipments found in the lane summary statistics.

Build Rates

The final step in the sourcing process is to build rates. Before building rates, you must complete the following:

1. Mark bids as usable to build rates with via the Set Bid Publish Status For All Bids or the Change Publish Status action.
2. Specify the chosen scenario on the bid round.
3. And finally, run the Build Rates action from the Project manager (Project > Actions > Sourcing > Rates > Build Rates).
4. The new rate offering and rate records are created as explained here.