Adding/maintaining a tractor record

Primary tractor profile information is recorded in the Tractor File Maintenance window.

Adding a tractor profile and, optionally, a Pay To

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Go to Edit > Tractors.

    • Click image8 Tractor in the frame toolbar.

    A blank Tractor File Maintenance window is displayed, along with the icons that make up the tractor sheet toolbar.

  2. To open the new tractor profile, do one of the following:

    • Go to File > New.

    • Click image9 New in the sheet toolbar.

  3. Complete the tractor profile by entering data in all appropriate fields. Leave those fields that do not apply blank. Press TAB to move forward through data fields and SHIFT+TAB to move backward through data fields.

    Note: If you are setting up an owner operator as a tractor, and owner payment is based on the tractor class to which the tractor belongs, make the appropriate entries in the Tractor Type field(s), located in the Types section of the window. Your company can customize the names of these fields, and the options listed for them, in the TrcType1-4 labels accessed in the System Administration application.

  4. Select File > Save, or click image10 Save in the sheet toolbar.

    • If your company owns the tractor and it has an accounting type of None, entry of the profile is complete.

    • If you have set up an owner operator as a tractor, entry of the profile is complete if both of the following are true:

      • The tractor has an accounting type of Accounts Payable.

      • You entered a Pay To ID in the Owner/Pay To field.

    • If you have set up an owner operator as a tractor, and the tractor has an Accounting Type of Accounts Payable, and you left the Owner/Pay To field set to UNKNOWN, the system will prompt you to create a Pay To profile when you save.

      image11

    Continue to Step 5.

  5. Do one of the following:

    • To save the tractor profile without a designated Pay To, click No.

      Entry of the tractor profile is complete. An Add Pay To button will appear on the tractor profile screen and the system will continue to warn you about the missing Pay To each time that you save.

      image12

    • To add a Pay To for the tractor, click Yes to open a Pay To File Maintenance screen.

      image13

      You do not have access to the menu bar or the frame and sheet toolbars. Only the fields needed to create the profile are available.

      Continue with Step 6.

    Note: You can disable the system’s prompt for a Pay To. For details, see Hiding the Pay To buttons.

  6. Complete the Pay To profile information as needed, including the Pay To ID.

  7. Click image10 Save.

    Note: For definitions of the fields on the Pay To File Maintenance screen, see Pay To File Maintenance.

  8. Click the Close button to return to the tractor profile.

    Note that Pay To field is now populated and an Edit Pay To button appears below the Actg Type field.

    image14

Subsequent changes made to the tractor profile will not automatically update the Pay To profile. However, the Edit Pay To button gives you easy access to the tractor’s Pay To information so that you can make these changes yourself.

Editing a Pay To profile from the tractor profile screen

The Edit P-To button on a tractor’s profile allows you to edit the profile of the Pay to with which the tractor is associated.

image14

To open the tractor’s Pay To profile, you must click Edit P-To button

image15

When you save your changes and close the screen, the system returns you to the tractor profile.

Hiding the Pay To buttons

By default, either an Add PayTo or Edit PayTo button displays when you open any Accounts Payable resource profile. However, you can use the [Misc]DisableAutoPayTo setting in your TTS50 to configure the system to hide these buttons if you prefer not to use this feature.

Hiding the buttons will also disable the save prompts. Therefore, it will be impossible to create a Pay To profile from a tractor’s profile.
While each tractor should have a complete profile to maintain the accuracy of system data, it is possible to add a mini-profile on-the-fly. If, for example, the dispatcher finds that the tractor has not yet been added to the system, you can select Add Tractor from the Tools menu to create a tractor profile that contains the minimum amount of information necessary to use the tractor in the system. That mini-profile must later be modified to create a complete profile.

Looking up a tractor record

  1. In the File Maintenance application, do one of the following:

    • Click image8 Tractor in the frame toolbar.

    • Go to Edit > Tractor.

    A blank Tractor File Maintenance folder is displayed, along with the icons that make up the tractor sheet toolbar.

  2. In the tab area of the folder, enter the tractor ID.

  3. To open the tractor profile, do one of the following:

    • Press ENTER.

    • Go to File > Open.

    • Click image16 Open in the sheet toolbar.

Setting up straight trucks

In TMWSuite, a straight truck is defined as a power unit or tractor with a cargo area that is integrated into the vehicle itself, i.e., the tractor and trailer are not separate units.

By default, when a driver and tractor are assigned to a trip, TMWSuite requires the entry of a trailer ID when you set the status of a trip to Started. If you do not make this entry, you get the following error message:

image17

With the proper straight truck setup in System Administration and File Maintenance, TMWSuite will allow you to start and complete loads without entering a trailer ID.

image18

In addition to straight trucks, there are other types of vehicles with integrated cargo compartments, such as panel vans, pickup trucks, and station wagons. The field named Must Dispatch With allows you flexibility in assigning dispatch requirements for all types of integrated units.

image19

The drop-down list for the Must Dispatch With field shows the options from a label named TrcRequiresDrvTrl.

image20

These dispatch requirement selections are available for a tractor record:

Trailer and Driver

Both trailer and driver are required-applicable when the tractor and trailer are two separate units (default).

No Trl (drv reqd)

No trailer can be entered. A driver is required. (This was the only straight truck option available in previous versions.)

Driver (trl optnl)

A driver is required. The trailer is optional.

Trailer (drv optnl)

A trailer is required. A driver is optional.

No Trl (drv optnl)

No trailer can be entered. A driver is optional.

Drv and Trl optnl

Neither a trailer nor a driver is required.

All of the options are system codes. By default, all are retired except Trailer and Driver. Therefore, only Trailer and Driver is shown in the Must Dispatch With drop-down list. This has been done because, for most TMW customers, only Trailer and Driver is applicable. For any other option that is applicable at your company, clear the Retired check box.

Protecting the driver/tractor relationship

In the tractor profile, you can link a tractor to a specific driver. Likewise, in the driver profile, you can link a driver to a specific tractor.

This driver/tractor relationship simplifies resource assignment because assigning one asset to a trip automatically assigns the other. This is useful if your drivers routinely use the same tractors.

In this example, driver BILBAK is linked to tractor 507 in the driver profile; and tractor 507 is linked to driver BILBAK in the tractor profile.

image21

By default, each time the resource is Started on a new trip, the system updates the driver listed in the tractor profile and the tractor listed in the driver profile. In our example, if driver BILBAK is assigned to a trip with tractor 800, the tractor listed in BILBAK’s profile changes from 507 to 800.

However, the DrvTrcProt General Info table setting allows you to specify whether resource assignments on a trip will affect the linked resources recorded in the profiles. When a dispatcher assigns resources to a trip, you can specify that linked resources do one of the following:

  • Remain as recorded

  • Change based on the new assignment (default)

Deleting a tractor record

You can delete a tractor record as long as the tractor has never been recorded on a trip.

The system does not check for references to a tractor on any records other than trips.

  1. With the record for the tractor you want to delete displayed in the Tractor File Maintenance window, do one of the following:

    • Click image22 Delete in the sheet toolbar.

    • Select File > Delete.

  2. The system will ask for confirmation before deleting the tractor record.

    image23

  3. Click Yes to delete the tractor record.

    The system checks to see if the record has been used on a trip.

    • If the system check shows that the tractor was never used on a trip, the record will be deleted.

    • If the system check shows that the tractor has been used on an order, the record will not be deleted and a message similar to the one shown here is displayed:

      image24

      In this example, the tractor was assigned on trips and will not be deleted.

If a tractor has been used on a trip and you no longer want to use the tractor’s profile, you can create an expiration for the tractor. Use the system code, Terminated, as the expiration type. This will prevent the tractor’s ID from being displayed in any list from which you would select a driver. For details on expirations, see Recording/viewing a tractor’s expirations.

You can still see IDs for terminated tractors if you have the Show Retired Items check box selected in the Set List Box Property window. The window is accessed from the Tools menu in all base applications.