Understanding shipment splitting

A shipment can be split into multiple shipments occurs if shipment splitting is enabled for a freight bill to and if the shipment weight and/or volume exceed at least one of the defined maximum weight or volume limits defined within qualified rate contracts.

You must either modify the default splitting rule or define a splitting rule to utilize shipment splitting functionality. Shipment splitting rules determine if a shipment is split and how the splitting is handled.

See Working with shipment splitting rulesfor additional information about defining shipment splitting rules.

The need to split a shipment is determined by comparing the weight and volume of the shipment to the highest maximum weight and volume defined in the qualifying rate contracts.

• Maximum weight, a required field within carrier rate contracts, must be specified.
• Maximum volume, an optional field within carrier rate contracts, can be specified.
• If only maximum weight is defined within rate contacts, the specified maximum weight determines if a shipment is split.
• If both maximum weight and maximum volume are defined within rate contracts, the value that exceeds the maximum limit specified in the contracts determine if a shipment is split.
• If both maximum weight and maximum volume are defined within rate contracts and the values of both exceed the maximum limits specified in the contracts, both values determine if a shipment is split.

For all other document flow rules, rating and routing for an oversized shipment fails even if splitting is enabled.

Once a shipment is split, the original shipment is maintained with a reduced order quantity. New split shipments are created for the remaining quantity but cannot exceed the load size defined by the maximum split shipment weight and volume. The sum of the quantity for all the resulting shipments is equal to the quantity of the original shipment. The example within the table below shows the shipment splitting process flow for Shipment ID 0000000100.

During the splitting process, the original shipment is locked and assigned a "Splitting" status. Once the splitting process is complete, resulting shipments rate and route accordingly or move into a candidate for optimization status if applicable. Any shipments not successfully rated and routed as a result of the splitting process are assigned a "New" status.

Note that while a shipment is in the process of being split by TM and has a "Splitting" status, any attempt to update the original shipment by the system of record (in this case the WM module) is rejected by the TM module. Modifications to split shipments, though, can occur after the splitting process is complete.

Shipments can be split by moving entire shipment lines or by splitting a shipment line quantity. A shipment line can only be split if the splitting rule allowing it to be split is set to "Yes". Otherwise, the entire quantity for a shipment line is moved to a new shipment if splitting is enabled and required.

If the quantity for an entire shipment item is moved to a new shipment as a result of the splitting process, then the item for that line entry remains with a quantity of 0 in the original shipment detail.

It is assumed that any shipment lines containing items that are considered as "kits" cannot be split. For example, the shipment lines for an order of 200 computer systems could consist of 200 monitors, 200 keyboards, 200 hard drives, etc. Shipment splitting does not split a line of the 200 computer systems since components of a single system could potentially be placed on different vehicles.

If Splitting is enabled, splitting cannot occur if:

• The weight or volume of one unit of an item is greater than the enforced limit (since the single item weighs or is larger than the defined limit).
• There is no feasible rate contract that meets all shipment criteria including lane, date, and mode/service requirements, but ignores weight and volume restrictions.
• There is a requested carrier on the initial incoming shipment.