DBC: Freight

To access the majority of the Freight settings, go to New Dist Admin > Checkout > Freight.

Always Show Freight

By default, freight calculations are only shown on credit card enabled sites. For non-credit card sites, freight would show as TBD. To have freight shown on a non-credit card site, this option will need to be turned on.

Include freight charge from ICF Lot records

If there is a freight amount stored on the lot record for inventory that is being pulled on this order, this option can be used to add that freight into the freight calculation for the order.

Note: If only a portion of the lot is used, then the pro-rated freight amount will be used.

Enable Real Freight

DB/c can make real-time freight calculations, based upon UPS freight rates. This “get real freight” feature can be enabled on the "Work With Companies" page. If this option is enabled, it will be used in place of the standard freight calculation and the freight matrix rules, only on the shipping methods specified.

However, the heavy freight option that is set at the item level in DB/d will still be added in addition to the real freight calculation.

To use this feature, you must have a UPS account (user id, password, and 16-digit license number). You will need to contact UPS, or visit their website, to obtain your "Carrier Account Number." Before setting this option to “allow," you will also need to contact DB/c Help to let us know which UPS shipping services you will need calculated, and which ship via codes they need to be associated with.

Once enabled, the real-time freight calculation is determined by looking at where the items are shipping from, where they are shipping to, and how much they weigh. The “ship from” is determined as follows:

• PO Items – The system will look at the item file to see who the vendor is, and if a vendor plant is specified. If a plant is specified, the plant address will be used as the “ship from” address. If no plant is listed, the vendor’s primary address will be used.
• Inventory Items – After determining which lot record is to be sold (FIFO or highest price), the warehouse address associated with that lot record will be used as the “ship from” address.

• The item weight is stored in the “carton weight” field of the item record in DB/d. The carton weight is associated with the selling unit of measure.

  
  

  The selling unit of measure is set on the item master record. However, if inventory lots are stored in a different unit of measure, that can also be the selling unit of measure that is used online.

  
  

  So, if your inventory unit of measure is different than the selling unit of measure, you need to be aware of this. If any lines on the order do not contain a weight, this freight option will not be available.

• The “carton pack” field in the item master record of DB/d is also considered. This field is used to determine how many selling units of measure can be shipped together in one shipment.

  
  

  So, if your selling unit of measure is a BOX of 250, and your carton pack is 4, then this means that up to 4 boxes of 250 can be shipped together.

The shipping page at checkout contains a “Calculate Shipping Costs” button. After selecting a ship-to location, or entering a custom location, you can press this button to have the system calculate the freight fees for the available shipping methods.

Your designated “real freight” options will use the “real freight” calculation, while the other options will continue to calculate based upon the original methods.

Allow Real Freight Options With Zero Weight Items

When this option is disabled, having any zero weight items in the cart will result in real freight options being unavailable. When this option is enabled, zero weight items will be left out of the real freight calculation.

1. Click on the "All-Shipping Options" tab to see all shipping options that you have replicated/exported to DB Commerce from your back-office system.
2. Select the options you would like available on this company’s site.
3. Click on the "Selected Shipping Options" tab to see all options that have been selected.
4. You can click on any of the options and drag them up and down in the list to place them into a specific order.

5. When you hover over one of the options, you are presented with a few options:

   
   

   

   a. Edit will bring up some additional options to mark up or discount this shipping option’s value and/or apply a freight matrix (see below).

   
   

   

   b. Delete will remove this option from this company.

   
   

   c. Default Option can be selected if you would like this option to be the default shipping option for the users on the checkout page.

Freight Matrices

The Freight Matrices area allows you to setup freight matrix tables, which can then be applied to the different shipping options. A freight matrix can be designed to be an addition to freight that was calculated, or it can be designed to replace the standard freight charge that would have been calculated from the shipping option.

1. Click Add Freight Matrix and name your matrix.

2. Click Add Matrix Range to add the details for your matrix.

   
   

   

   a. Enter in the "Order Subtotal Minimum" for the range.

   
   

   b. Enter in the "Order Subtotal Maximum" for the range.

   
   

   c. Value: Choose whether you this will be a Flat Amount or a Percent and add the value that should be calculated.

   
   

   d. Application: Select if you want to replace the standard shipping amount calculated on the site, or if you want to add to that amount

Note: Any applicable item specific freight charges (heavy freight) will be added after the freight matrix is applied.

Send Freight to Back Office

DB/c has the option of sending the calculated freight amount in the order file to the back-office system. This is found in Legacy Dist Admin > Work With Companies > Company Information tab, on the right side in the "Backend System Transmission" section.

This will work for any freight calculation, regardless of which method you have selected to calculate freight. The decision of which option to use will be based upon if you want this value to flow into the invoicing process or not.

If you are making shipments and are pulling back freight charges via the shipping system module, then you will not want to send this amount as third party freight, as it will result in overcharging freight. You can designate if the freight should be sent in the order file as “third party freight," or if it should be sent as part of the order notepad.

• If it is sent as third-party freight, it will write into the order header, and will be treated as costed freight, which will flow into the invoicing process, and is subject to freight mark-ups.
• If the freight is sent into the order notepad, it will simply be sent as a message on the order notepad. It will use the first available order notepad line. So, this will not interfere if you are passing in other information via the order notepad tags already.

Note: if the “always show freight” option is turned on, the calculated freight will be sent for all orders. If that option is turned off, it will only send for credit card orders.

Freight Setting at Group Level

You can tailor your freight settings further at the group level by logging into the customer site as an admin, go into "Work With Groups," and select Freight Information from the top nav in that area. This page will, by default, show the shipping options that were selected at the time the company was setup.

For each option, you can leave it defaulted, revoke the option from being used by the group, or you can alter the way it is calculated by manipulating the line vs. order, percent vs. flat fee, and value fields. You also have the option of changing the freight matrix associated with the shipping option.

The Freight Matrices tab will allow you to view how the freight matrices are configured but will not allow you to make changes to them.