Including Express Delivery Company Requirements 

Use

This function enables you to map the particular requirements of express delivery companies with regards to shipping.

These requirements affect the following three components:

●     Label printing (address stickers, labels)

●     EDI and day-end closing (manifest, delivery list, or end-of-day list)

●     Parcel tracking

The following options are available after correctly implementing the Express Shipping Interface:

●     Printing labels for specific express delivery companies, including the special data fields often used without third-party systems

●     Transferring data for specific express delivery companies, using standard IDocs to the express delivery company (or a converter).

●     Using quotations from express delivery companies or parcel tracking from the SAP system

 

 

Implementation of the interface for each express delivery company, including creating forms, is not part of the SAP standard system. We recommend implementing the interface as part of a customer project, in collaboration with express delivery companies or consulting companies.

SAP cannot accept any responsibility for the usage of requests and quotations from individual express delivery companies.

Integration

You connect express delivery companies at delivery (inbound or outbound) document or shipment document level in the SAP system.

The express delivery functions are controlled using the Forwarding Agent partner. This means that as soon as a forwarding agent is assigned to the delivery or shipment, where the forwarding agent has been flagged in Customizing as relevant for express delivery, and the delivery or shipment is saved, the system works in the background to determine data and update any fields relevant for express delivery.

This data is then available when you print labels or communicate via EDI.

Once the parcel has been sent, you can start parcel tracking either from the standard delivery and shipment transactions (VL02n, VL03n, or VT02n/VT03n), or using a separate transaction (VTRK).

Prerequisites

To be able to ship parcels with express delivery companies using the SAP system in the three components (label printing, EDI, and parcel tracking), the following three prerequisites must be fulfilled:

●     The express delivery company has been created as a standard creditor in the system, and can be assigned to the delivery or shipment (depending on the process you require) as a forwarding agent

●     The express delivery company has been created and is active (there is a specific Customizing transaction for this) (see also: Creating an Express Delivery Company).

●     You have set up label/form printing (usually this is covered by standard message determination and message processing using print programs and SAP forms)

●     You have set up the IDoc interface for the service agent partner (see also: Setting Up Labels for Express Delivery Companies)

If the express delivery company does not want to accept the data directly in the form of a standard SAP IDoc (type SHPMNT or DELVRY), either you must write your own converter for these IDocs within customer projects, or you use workarounds within the print programs. To do this, you need to create Z database tables whose contents are then read and transferred as a flat file to the service agent.

Features

The interface for express delivery companies is available using the standard functions of deliveries or shipments, and offers you the following extended functions:

●     You can connect several express delivery companies in parallel, and can control them using the selection of forwarding agents in the delivery or shipment.

●     For each express delivery company you can define fields (as many as you wish), also called metadata, then populate and save the fields using the following options:

○     Standard function modules

○     Function modules you have written

○     Fixed values

○     Compositions of other metadata

○     Number ranges

○     Manual entries within the delivery/shipment transaction, without modifications

●     Value determination for these placeholders takes place automatically when you save a delivery or shipment that is relevant for the express delivery company according to the settings.

●     The values determined are available for printing (print structure VTRK_D2) and for the IDocs SHPMNT and DELVRY in order to transfer them to the service agent.

An express delivery company requires a Route Code field on its parcel labels, in order to control its sorting machines. This field encrypts the express delivery company-specific route of the parcel in the form of a barcode.

In the Express Delivery Company Cockpit, you can now define the placeholder Route Code for this service agent, whereby the system can determine its value using the standard function module XSI_GET_CARRIER_ROUTING. This function module searches a database table, using the postal code or city of the goods recipient, to find a suitable route code from the route code table provided by the express delivery company. If it finds a suitable value, the system saves the value. When the label is printed, the print program takes the value determined from the print structure VTRK_D2 (here VTRK_D2-Route Code). For more information, see Creating an Express Delivery Company and Setting Up Labels for Express Delivery Companies.

●     There is an XML RFC interface available for both automatic uploads of express delivery company-specific master data (such as current route tables) and for implementing initial Customizing settings (for example, all placeholders including the determination method). Usage of this interface is dependent on whether the service agent supports it. However, you can set up the connection for a service agent entirely manually, without using XML/RFC functions. To do this, you need to load master data, such as route tables, into the SAP system using a report.

●     Parcel tracking:

If the express delivery company offers a Web site for parcel tracking, you can navigate directly from the delivery or shipment to the parcel tracking pages using either a Web browser or the SAP HTML Viewer, as long as the above placeholder for determining a unique tracking number (also called a bill of lading or parcel number) is defined according to the company’s conditions.

There is also an XML/RFC interface that you can use to load tracking data directly from the service agent into the SAP system, as long as the service agent supports the interface. The parcel tracking data that you implement in this way enables you to perform evaluations of the express delivery company’s performance, and of the implementation of workflows (for example, notification of employees when deliveries are delayed/lost). These evaluations or workflows must also be implemented within customer projects.