About Sending Equipment Dimensions to External Distance Engines

For the purpose of ensuring the proper street level routing, OTM needs to send equipment dimensions (length, width, height and weight) for the external distance engines to use. Correct dimensions are needed for street level directions for tunnel and overhead height, bridge weight restrictions and so on. Equipment dimensions include the length, width, height and weight of the total equipment.

Also, see the topic Calculation of Loaded Equipment Dimensions for External Distance Engines.

HERE and PC*Miler Web Services (by ALK) use data differently.

• HERE considers Rolling or Running Dimensions for every stop such as Length, Width, Height and Weight of the equipment.
• Whereas PC*Miler Web Services (for Truck) considers only Rolling or Running Weight. For other dimensions such as Length, Width, Height it will always consider the equipment's exterior dimensions only.

If Equipment Restriction is 'On' in the External Distance Engine (EDE) or External Service Engine (ESE), then the Truck Configuration is passed to the EDE or ESE respectively.

The Running Dimensions Length, Width and Height of the shipment will be considered ONLY for HERE. The Running Weight of the shipment is considered for HERE and PC*Miler Web Services.

Calculation Part for Rolling Weight:

If the equipment group has a truck type, then Running Dimensions( L,W,H and Weight at every stop) for a shipment such as Length, Width (including Out of Gauge and Pulling Length), Height and Total Weight are calculated.

This Running Dimensions calculation will consider the dimensions of the power unit, equipment and ship units at a depot or a pick up or a drop off stop.

Rolling Weight Calculation:

Following is a sample break up at a pick up or drop off stop:

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Power Unit Tare Weight                               -       15500.00 LB

Equipment Group Tare Weight                    -       20414.81 LB

Cargo Weight (Ship Unit Weight)                  -       49300.00 LB

Total Weight                                                -       85214.81 LB

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Following is a sample break up at a depot stop:

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Power Unit Tare Weight                               -       15500.00 LB

Equipment Group Tare Weight                    -       20414.81 LB

Total Weight                                                -       35914.81 LB

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If the truck type is not provided on an equipment group, Rolling Length, Rolling Width, Rolling Height, and Rolling Weight will not be considered. The Exterior Dimensions will be used by default.

Note: Length, Width and Height dimensions are not mandatory. You need to provide required values on the respective fields on the Equipment Group.

For more details, see the product documentation for that external distance engine.

Configuration

External Distance Engine: This needs to be configured with the engine type, parameters and values. The external distance engine (EDE) parameter EQUIPMENT_RESTRICTIONS must be set to "Y". You need to configure the following to get the calculation of the length, width and height. Otherwise, you will just get the external dimensions.

Truck Type: This is used, with or without additional information, to determine equipment dimensions such as length, width and height depending on the truck type and the load. For example, the length of a closed truck is defined by the truck type but a flatbed trailer with an out of gauge load requires additional information. This allows you to define your own truck types and dimensions.

Truck Type External Distance Engine Mapping: This screen defines mapping between truck types and external distance engines so you can map trucks that you have defined in OTM for use with your EDEs.

Power Unit: This contains the pulling length of the power unit and is used to calculate the full length of the equipment. The parameter DEFAULT POWER UNIT FOR LENGTH CALCULATION  allows you to select  a default tractor to provide default weight and pulling length details. This will be used by OTM to calculate the truck length. To pass the correct equipment length, in-case of semi-trailers, OTM needs the power unit length as-well as the length of the trailer.

Equipment Group: Enter the Pulling Length and Truck Type. The pulling length is used for length calculation.

Note: The Truck Type External Distance Engine Mapping screen is used to map the truck types to the respective engine types like PC*MILER Web Services, HERE etc. These truck types are linked to an equipment group which provides the dimensions (length, weight, height, and weight at every stop) of the equipment used for the routing calculation. For example, when bulk planning a new shipment, the equipment group must be provided in an Order Release, which uses the equipment restrictions for the shipment calculation.

Compartments: Allows you to enter Widthwise Offsest and Lengthwise Forward Offset for oversize, out of gauge, loads. This information is then used to calculate overall length, width and height of the equipment with the cargo loaded. This is only necessary for out of gauge loads.