Configure shipment stages, types, tags, package and truck types

Guide information

Audience: Administrator (sets up the catalog); Operations and Sales look these up when creating a shipment or booking

Reading time: about 12 minutes

Use this page to: confirm the shipment stage, shipment type, tag, package type, container type and truck type you need before creating a shipment or planning a road booking

Requirements

This tutorial requires the installation of the following applications/modules:

• Logistics Shipment - stages, shipment types, tags, package and container types

• Freight Forwarder Management - the truck types

• Freight Road - optional, adds the Truck Types menu

These five catalogs shape how a shipment is classified and tracked. An incompatible Shipment Type blocks saving outright with an error; a missing stage, tag, package type or truck type does not block you, but forces Operations to leave a field blank or pick something that does not really fit - which later shows up as a wrong number on a report or a kanban column that does not mean what it says.

Shipment stages

Label on screen	What it means	Where you see it	Filled by
Planning, Pre-Carriage, Customs Clearance, Main Carriage, On-Carriage, Completed (6 default stages)	The lifecycle steps a shipment moves through, shown as kanban columns.	Freight Forwarding ‣ Configuration ‣ Operations ‣ Shipment Stages	Administrator creates/edits the catalog; the system assigns Planning automatically when a shipment is created; Operations moves it forward with Current Stage on the shipment’s Settings tab, or by dragging the card on the kanban view.
Closed Stage (checkbox)	Marks a shipment at this stage as finished from a business point of view.	Same form, per stage	Administrator

Tip

The setup is correct when: a new shipment opens with Current Stage Planning, and the shipment kanban shows one column per stage, from Planning to Completed.

Shipment types

Transport Mode (Sea / Waterway, Air, Road, Rail, Multimodal) and Load Mode (FCL, LCL, FTL, LTL, Loose, Full ULD, Bulk, Break Bulk, RoRo, Consol, Direct, Charter, Express) together decide which shipment types Sales and Operations can pick from - Freight Forwarding ‣ Configuration ‣ Operations ‣ Shipment Types.

Warning

Load Mode must be compatible with Transport Mode - Multimodal accepts every load mode, but Air, for example, only accepts Loose or Full ULD. Saving an incompatible pair is blocked immediately with an error message naming both values.

Note

The default Shipment Type FCL is set to Transport Mode Multimodal, not Sea / Waterway - this lets an FCL shipment also cover the inland trucking leg, and is a deliberate design choice, not a misconfiguration.

Decide the Transport Mode for a new shipment type

Option	Use when	What changes
Multimodal	The shipment can move through more than one transport leg, like FCL at Hai Long (ocean plus inland trucking).	Accepts every Load Mode.
Sea / Waterway, Air, Road, Rail	The shipment only ever uses one transport mode and you want the system to block a mismatched Load Mode.	Only the Load Modes valid for that Transport Mode can be saved.

Set Transport Mode to match the services represented by this shipment type. Choose Multimodal when it is intended to cover more than one transport mode; use a single mode when the type is limited to that mode so Viindoo can block incompatible Load Modes. If the business scope is not defined, confirm it with the freight process owner before creating the type.

Tip

The setup is correct when: the Shipment Type list already offers FCL with Transport Mode Multimodal and Load Mode FCL - Hai Long’s FCL export uses it as installed, with no new type created.

See also

Booking Officers assign the confirmed carrier and route on top of the Shipment Type in Book carrier space for a shipment leg.

Shipment tags

Name and Color - Freight Forwarding ‣ Configuration ‣ Operations ‣ Shipment Tags - free-form labels used to filter and group shipments on the kanban and list views; they have no effect on shipment behaviour. Priority is used here only to illustrate how a tag is created - it is not a tag Hai Long applies to shipment L1 in this guide.

Package types and container types

Is Container, Height, Width, Length, Volume, Weight, Max Weight and Barcode describe a package or a container - Freight Forwarding ‣ Configuration ‣ Operations ‣ Package Types lists every type, and Shipment Management ‣ Configuration ‣ Cargo Information ‣ Container Types shows the same catalog already filtered to Is Container = true. The container used throughout this guide is the existing Container 40FT HC.

For the footwear export in this guide, Hai Long adds one package type for the shoe cartons, because the installed Carton (600 x 400 x 400 mm, 0.096 m3) is taller than the real cartons:

• Package Reference: Carton 60x40x35.

• Length: 600, Width: 400, Height: 350 (mm).

• Max Weight: 20 (kg).

Note

Volume computes itself from Length x Width x Height (converted to m3) - it is not a field you type into directly. For Carton 60x40x35 it reads 0.084 m3.

Truck types

Name, Code and Max Payload (kg) - Freight Forwarding ‣ Configuration ‣ Operations ‣ Truck Types. Freight Forwarder Management installs 9 truck types, including Tipper / Dump Truck at a 20,000 kg maximum payload - enough for the 18,500 kg bulk load on the Ha Noi -> Con Minh road shipment in this guide. The Truck Types menu itself only shows once Freight Road is installed. Search the list before creating a new one.

Tip

The setup is correct when: the Truck Types list shows Tipper / Dump Truck with Max Payload (kg) 20,000, at least the 18,500 kg of the road export in this guide, without a new truck type being created.

Troubleshooting

Can’t save a new Shipment Type: Load Mode error

Symptom: an error naming a Load Mode value and a Transport Mode value appears when saving.

Cause: the Load Mode you picked is not on the allowed list for the Transport Mode you picked.

Fix: change the Load Mode to one of the values allowed for the current Transport Mode (see Decide above), or switch Transport Mode to Multimodal if you need more flexibility.

A package type doesn’t show up when filtering to Container Types

Symptom: a package type you created is missing from the Container Types menu.

Cause: that menu filters strictly on Is Container = true; the record was saved without this box ticked.

Fix: open the record from the unfiltered Package Types menu, tick Is Container, and save.

The truck you picked can’t carry the load

Symptom: the vehicle turns out too small for the cargo on the day of pickup.

Cause: there is no automatic check tying a Truck Type’s Max Payload (kg) to the cargo weight entered later on a booking - choosing the right truck is a manual judgement call.

Fix: before selecting a Truck Type, open the Truck Types list and compare Max Payload (kg) against the cargo weight (e.g. 18,500 kg needs a truck rated at 20,000 kg or more, such as Tipper / Dump Truck).

See also

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