What is it?
Consolidation is when you create multiple consignments with the same Connote level Information. There are a few detail that need to match on each consignment in order of them to consolidate:
Receiver:
The receiver details need to match. This includes the receiver contact information. If the contact details are different, this will cause the system to treat it as a different receiver.
Carrier & Service:
As long as the carrier AND service both allow consolidation.
Priority services typically only allow 1 item per Consignment and will not consolidate. Example, StarTrack Fixed Price Premium
Editing:
Editing a consignment after it is created will stop it from consolidating
Dangerous goods
OneFlo does not allow consolidation of Consignments with Dangerous Goods.
OneFlo will automatically consolidate future consignments into the original, ensuring you are never spending multiple "Base Costs" for each consignment.
Enable Consolidation
Consolidation is not enabled by default and requires additional configuration.
Request your Account Manager to enable consolidation
Using Consolidation
Tick box at the bottom left hand side of the screen.
Tick if you want this consignment to be consolidated to a previous consignment (based on Receiver details, Carrier Service)
Un-tick if you don't want the new consignment to consolidate to an existing consignment or have it consolidate to any future consignment.
Consigning and Labeling Behaviour
The tranport labels will be printed for your shipping goods as you save the consignment. Given that the system will know how many eventual items from orders will be added to the consignment, the label will always print as X (ordinal number). Here are a couple of scenarios that illustrate the behaviour
Consolidation:
In a scenario, there exists Order1 that goes to ReceiverX is saved in a consignment ABC0001 using ServiceA that is not yet released (manifested). The label will be printed as ItemNo as 1.
A few minutes later, another Order2 goes to same ReceiverX. When this order is saved into a consignment, the best service for that Order2 is determined to be ServiceA, this order will be added to the consignment ABC0001 with the label printed as 2 as it’s a second item in the consignment (but still with a unique barcode). Only the second label will be printed as delta.
This ensures that you don’t need to re-label the first package that has already been staged for pickup based on the updated label that says ItemNo 1.
Non-consolidation:
In another scenario, there exists Order3 that goes to ReceiverY that is saved in ABC0003 with ServiceB with the label printed as 1.
A few minutes later, another Order4 that goes to ReceiverY needs to be saved in a consignment. If Order4 goes cheaper with ServiceC, then this new order gets saved in a new Consignment ABC0004 with the label printed as 1.