Rail Freight Order 
Rail freight orders make up the logistic processing of transports with trains.
A rail freight order can model a train with one or more locomotives and one or more railcars. You can execute rail freight orders yourself or award them as a subcontract.
A rail freight order includes the following items:
Locomotives (vehicle resources)
If a train has several locomotives, you can model them using multi-items. Note that during planning, the system considers only the main locomotive that you have specified at header level. The other locomotives are not taken into account during scheduling or when considering incompatibilities.
Railcars (passive vehicle resources)
Railcar items can either result from the assigned railcar units (see Railcar Unit) or be created directly in the rail freight order. The latter is true in less complex scenarios.
You can also work with multi-items in this case. For more information, see Items and Capacities and Utilization in Rail Freight Orders.
Cargo
You assign cargo items to your railcars.
In the freight order type, you configure the most important settings for the rail freight order. For more information, see Customizing for Transportation Management under 
Freight Order Management 
Freight Order Define Freight Order Types 
.
You can create rail freight orders in various ways (see Creation and Editing of Freight Orders).
You can select a carrier for rail freight orders (see Carrier Selection). You can then award the rail freight orders directly to a carrier as a subcontract.
You can use the change controller to define how the system is to react to changes (see Change Controller).
Rail freight orders with non-linear transportation stages are not supported.
Structure
Rail freight orders contain the same information as freight orders (see Freight Order). The following points are variances:
General Data
Here, you can enter the following data:
Source location and destination location (rail)
Number of railcars
The actual number of railcars is displayed here. If you have agreed scale prices with your carrier, you can enter the number of railcars for the respective scale as the rating value once you have confirmed this with the carrier. The system then calculates the tariff based on this amount instead of the actual value. When doing so, it considers the calculation basis and rate table that you have defined.
ExampleYou have nine railcars available to you. This actual value is automatically transferred from the Equipment tab page. However, the tariff in the agreed scale is for ten railcars. If the carrier is in agreement, you can enter these ten railcars.
End of the example.Indication whether there are multiple executing carriers
Invoicing carrier level
Here, you specify whether there are one or more invoicing carriers.
Items
This area contains information about your train, locomotives, and railcars, for example:
Position of a railcar in the train
Equipment group and type
Railcar details such as whether the railcar belongs to the shipper or the carrier
You can use Change Hierarchy to decide whether all or only specific items are displayed. This includes:
Service items (see Service Items)
Cargo items (see Cargo Management)
The Items tab page replaces the Cargo and Equipment tab pages. You can personalize your user interface in such a way that the system displays the old tab pages.
Stages
Here, you can enter the following data:
Invoicing carrier
The invoicing carrier is the carrier that invoices the shipper (or another designated bill-to party) for the charges calculated for the corresponding stages. This is a common situation in rail scenarios in North America, commonly referred to as “rule 11”. In rule 11 scenarios, the electronic bill of lading is sent to just one carrier. This is usually the carrier responsible for the first or last main stage. In turn, this carrier sends the routing instructions to all of the invoicing carriers and executing carriers involved.
Invoicing carrier level (at stage level)
Here, you specify whether the carrier that you entered at header level or stage level is to be used for freight settlement.
Each stages is classified as a pre-carriage, main carriage, or on-carriage stage in accordance with the stage types you have defined. For example, a switching move to the source location would be a pre-carriage stage and a switching move to the destination location would be an on-carriage stage. All of the stages in between would be considered to be main carriage stages.
Bill-to party
Agreement party
Assigning Carriers by Stage
You can assign different carriers at stage level and create multiple invoices for each rail freight order. This is particularly important for North America since different carriers can be responsible for the different stages. In the rule 11 scenarios mentioned above, one carrier accepts the actual order but the invoices for the individual stages are submitted by all of the carriers involved.
Applying Default Routes
You can search for possible routes in your rail freight order based on the carrier, source location, and destination location (Routing pushbutton). The system uses the default routes, rates, and tariffs that you have defined to identify the various routes and sorts them by price. If multiple invoicing carriers can be used for a route, the system displays them as alternatives. For more information along with an example, see Rail Transportation.
Document References
You can enter document references at header level, stage level, and item level. For example, you can enter approval numbers for the use of stages or other reference numbers.
Status
On the Items tab page (hierarchy type Cargo Management for All Locations for the transportation mode Rail) you can set the handling execution status of your cargo and the cargo execution status of your railcars:
Multi-item
If you set the cargo execution status for a multi-item, the system automatically adjusts the cargo execution status of all subitems (that is, railcars) as well as the handling execution status of all cargo items that are assigned to the multi-item or to the railcars.
ExampleIf you select Set to “Cargo Loaded” for the multi-item, the system automatically sets the cargo execution status of all subitems (the railcars) to Cargo Loaded and the handling execution status of all cargo items to Loaded.
End of the example.If you set the handling execution status for a cargo item that is assigned to the multi-item or to a subitem (a railcar), the system automatically adjusts the cargo execution status of the railcar and of the multi-item.
ExampleLet us assume that you have a multi-item with two subitems (two railcars), each of which is assigned a cargo item.
If you select Set to “Loaded” for one of the cargo items, the system automatically sets the cargo execution status of the corresponding subitem to Cargo Loaded and the cargo execution status of the multi-item to Cargo Partially Loaded.
If you select Set to “Loaded” for the second cargo item, the system automatically sets the cargo execution status of the corresponding subitem and of the multi-item to Cargo Loaded.
End of the example. ExampleLet us assume that you have a multi-item that is directly assigned a cargo item.
If you select Set to “Loaded” for the cargo item, the system automatically sets the cargo execution status of the multi-item to Cargo Loaded.
End of the example.Single item
If you set the handling execution status for a cargo item, the system automatically adjusts the cargo execution status of the single item (the railcar), and vice versa.
ExampleIf you select Set to “Loaded” for the cargo item, the system automatically sets the cargo execution status of the railcar to Cargo Loaded.
End of the example.
For more information on statuses, see Statuses of Business Documents.