Carrier Preparation for delivering to Australian Amazon Fulfillment … · 2018-05-28 · Carrier Preparation for delivering to Australian Amazon Fulfillment Centers Last Updated:

Carrier Preparation for delivering to Australian Amazon Fulfillment Centers

Last Updated: 3 Apr 2018

Please share any open questions you may have after reviewing this document so we can be sure to address your preparation needs: bit.ly/2w7kzmT

© 2017, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 2

Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Amazon’s Australian Fulfillment Centre .......................................................................................................................... 3

3. Criteria for Requesting Appointments via Carrier Central (formerly CARP) and email .................................................. 3

3.1 LTL/FTL Shipments

3.2 Parcel Shipments

4. Accessing Carrier Central ............................................................................................................................................... 4

5. Creating a Shipment ....................................................................................................................................................... 6

5.1 Bulk Shipment Upload

6. Reviewing Appointments ................................................................................................................................................. 8

6.1 Search by ISA

6.2 Search by Dates

6.3 Search by Shipment ID's

7. Editing, Rescheduling and Canceling an Appointment ................................................................................................. 10

7.1 Rescheduling Your Appointment

7.2 Add a Shipment

7.3 Remove a Shipment

8. Compliance expectations for Amazon deliveries .......................................................................................................... 11

9. Additional compliance notes for Vendor Freight (not FBA) ........................................................................................... 11

10. Pallet Pooling ................................................................................................................................................................ 12

11. Email Samples .............................................................................................................................................................. 13

11.1 Confirmation Email

11.2 Appointment Re-Scheduled Email Sample

11.3 Appointment Edit Confirmation

11.4 Appointment Edit Failure Sample

12. Frequently Asked Questions ......................................................................................................................................... 14


1. Introduction

This is an update to the original Carrier Central Manual distributed in February 2018. Please re-distribute within your company and ensure that any older editions are deleted from your systems. This document is aimed at carriers planning to deliver to Amazon warehouses in Australia and as such is only intended for use by carriers and vendors/sellers who run their own delivery fleets. It outlines in detail the appointment scheduling and delivery processes for freight/parcel delivery to an Australian Amazon Fulfillment Centre (FC). Compliance throughout the entire appointment-to-delivery process is very important in reducing delays and improving your overall experience. Carrier Central is the primary portal for carriers to view and request appointments to any of Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Carriers enter the details of the appointment including PO(s), pallet count, and delivery location, as well as requested delivery date. Amazon then grants the suggested appointment time if possible or schedules to the next best available day or time. The link to Carrier Central is: https://carriercentral.amazon.com N.B: This does not include Amazon-contracted shipping scenarios such as outbound or inbound collect freight or partnered carrier services.

2. Amazon’s Australian Fulfillment Centre

Amazon’s Australian Fulfillment Centre is located outside of Melbourne at the following address:

29 National Dr, Dandenong South VIC 3175 While our hours of operation will likely change over time, we currently receive freight from 07:00-15:00 Monday-Friday. 14:30 is the latest appointment time will book.

3. Criteria for Requesting Appointments via Carrier Central (formerly CARP) and email

Any non-parcel delivery or parcel delivery >15 boxes must be accompanied by an appointment number called an Inbound Shipment Appointment (ISA). The ISA is generated as part of the confirmation e-mail at the end of an appointment request workflow and must be given to the guard shack to enter the yard, please note that the appointment is not confirmed until you receive this email. Excluding parcel deliveries with < 15 boxes all vehicles will be denied access at the FC security gate without an ISA. 3.1 LTL/FTL Shipments As of Feb 2018, Amazon uses a system called Carrier Central to request appointments at FCs. Carrier Central is an improved version of the former CARP system with very similar functionality. While sellers/vendors and carriers can get access to Carrier Central, we recommend that the people running the trucks manage the appointments.


Carriers: If you deliver LTL/FTL freight for many of our vendors/ FBA sellers and want to consolidate multiple loads into a single shipment/delivery appointment, you may want to notify your customers that you would like to schedule appointments on their behalf. Vendors/FBA Sellers: In the event you need to book an appointment on behalf of your carrier, you will need to enter your carrier’s SCAC code when entering an appointment request. Please consult with your carrier if you are unsure of their SCAC code. They may have to create a Carrier Central account and setup their SCAC if they do not have one already. Details of how to create a Carrier Central account can be found in section 4. 3.2 Parcel Shipments

For non-palletised parcel shipments (mixed parcels from multiple sellers) >15 cartons or when cartons exceed 30cm on

any side the delivery will need to be booked in either using Carrier Central or if some PO numbers are unavailable by

sending an email to [email protected]. Emails must be sent by 2pm the day before a planned

delivery and must include the following information - requested delivery time, carton count, unit count, and (multiple)

PO numbers, if available.

If you are delivering small parcel freight totaling less than 15 parcels and where cartons are less than 30cms on any side,

you do not have to book an appointment. Please remember that we do not receive any freight after 15:00 so you must

arrive well before 15:00. There is no guarantee that we will be able to immediately accept this freight if we are

unloading large trucks at the time you arrive with the parcel van. Please ensure that the driver backs into the dock door

specified by the guard shack and does not wander around the yard.

4. Accessing Carrier Central

Carrier Central accounts can be requested by visiting https://carriercentral.amazon.com.au/onboarding.

The system will authenticate you and walk you through setting up your details via an Amazon account. You can either login with your personal Amazon.com.au account or create a new Amazon.com.au account specifically for this purpose.

mailto:[email protected]

https://carriercentral.amazon.com.au/onboarding


Vendors (not FBA Sellers) - The Vendor Code field is the primary [5 character] vendor code used when receiving Amazon POs. If you have several vendor codes, please choose the one under which you receive the most POs.

Carriers and Vendors - The Standard Carrier Alpha Code (SCAC) field is a 4-6 character representation of a transport carrier’s company/service name. This is a standardized field in North America, but since carrier codes aren’t standardized in Australia, the carrier must make one up when they create their Carrier Central account. If multiple representatives from your company want to create Carrier Central accounts, please have them all use the same SCAC code. If you already had a SCAC code from the old CARP system, you should continue to use that one in Carrier Central. You will need to give your SCAC code to your clients if they are scheduling appointments for your deliveries. Your clients will not be able to schedule an appointment in Carrier Central without a valid SCAC code.

FBA Sellers – Carrier central accounts are only required for LTL and FTL shipments, Seller Central will advise you if this type of shipment is required. We do not recommend that Sellers create Carrier Central appointments unless they run their own transportation and instead let their Carrier do so on their behalf. In the event an account is still required please create a Carrier and not a Vendor account.


o The PO number required to set up the initial account is the Amazon Reference ID found at the top of the shipment summary screen

o The destination warehouse is MEL1 Accounts should be active immediately upon completing the onboarding form. 5. Creating a Shipment

Once you have created an account or logged in you will see the following screen:

1. Select MEL1 as the destination FC. Enter freight type, load type, whether the freight is clampable and the trailer number if available.

2. If you are delivering freight on a side-loaded vehicle, please enter SIDELOAD under the Comments field. Our Melbourne FC has limited dock door space for receiving side-loaded freight.

3. Enter your preferred delivery date and time. Please note that the FC is currently only open for deliveries 7:00-14:30 Monday to Friday.

4. Enter the shipment details:

Accurate pallet, carton and unit counts are mandatory, failure to enter these may result in the shipment being rejected or the appointment not being scheduled.

For FBA shipments: ARN is to be left blank. PRO is to be left blank. A Bill Of Lading (BOL) The “Shipment ID” number, this begins with FBA. PO List: “Amazon Reference IDs” (8-character reference IDs). Multiple POs must be submitted with commas as separators (e.g.: ABC12345, ZYX67890).

For Retail Vendor Shipments: ARN is to be left blank. PRO is to be left blank. BOL a unique BOL (Bill of Lading) number generated by the shipper for each unique shipment/truck. PO List: POs being delivered associated with each BOL. Multiple POs must be submitted with commas as separators (e.g.: ABC12345, ZYX67890).

1.

...

2.

...

3.

...

4.

...


Field Descriptions:

Field Description

Destination

Fulfillment Center

(FC)

• Choose appropriate FC (Amazon location where the freight will be delivered) from drop-

down menu

Freight Type • Choose appropriate type from drop-down menu

Load Type

• Choose accordingly for palletized, floor loaded or mixed freight. When trying to submit

an appointment for mixed freight, please select ‘Non-Palletized’ as the load type. For

example, even if <50% of the freight is floor loaded and you have 3 pallets, you would

choose ‘Non-Palletized’.

Is Freight

Clampable?

• Choose Yes or No depending on if the freight is not palletized and to be unloaded using

a clamp truck

Trailer Number

• Optional, single value field

• If provided, it must consist of at least 1 non-whitespace character

• Can contain one or more spaces

CRDD (Carrier

requested delivery

date)

• Preferred date for delivering freight to the Amazon FC

• Please note that time is given on 24 hour (Military) Time format (I.e 0100 would be 1

AM and 1300 is 1 PM)

ARN (Amazon

reference number)

• Not applicable in AU

PRO • Not applicable in AU

BOL

• Provide the BOL number given by vendor (Shipment ID for FBA Sellers)

• Cannot contain any spaces (must be a single token)

• Cannot be longer than 30 characters

Pallet Count • Only necessary for appointment requests with Load Type “Palletized”

Carton Count • Value must be greater than 1

Unit Count • Mandatory field, complete based on shipper provided information

PO List

• Mandatory Field. Separate POs by a comma. Each PO must be a valid PO known to

Amazon Transportation Systems and match the destination FC on the appointment request.

All POs must be the same freight terms on a single shipment line.


Important Note: You will receive an acknowledgement of the request immediately from the portal. However, you will have to wait for confirmation on the appointment. You can check the status of the appointment in the portal itself. The appointment status will change from “Pending confirmation” to “Confirmed” once the appointment is confirmed. 5.1 Bulk Shipment Upload: Instead of having to manually enter shipment level information one line at a time, the browse button on the shipments section of the appointment request page allows you to upload the information to Carrier Central from an excel spreadsheet in a single transaction.

After you have entered the applicable information into the spreadsheet, you can upload the spreadsheet to the Carrier Central website. Each shipment will show up in a new line within the appointment field. You will then have the ability to make corrections, remove a shipment and add another shipment. Some helpful hints:

Make sure to save your excel file in .csv format

The size of the file should not exceed 2MB

Do not enter shipments for multiple trucks on the same spreadsheet 6. Reviewing Appointments

You can view past appointments by clicking on the “Search Appointments” option on the menu screen. You can use the

search option to review the details of past appointments as well as appointments that you have scheduled with the

Fulfillment Center. If you leave the search fields blank, the results will include all appointments that have been

scheduled by you. Appointments can be searched under the following criteria:


6.1 Search by ISA (Inbound Shipment Appointment) Number:

a. Enter ISA Number, multiple numbers (Up to 10) can be entered using a comma as a separator.

6.2 Search by Dates b. The following criteria can be used:

i. Appointment Creation Date ii. Last Updated Date

iii. Scheduled Arrival Date (Appointment Time) iv. Requested Delivery Date (CRDD)

6.3 Search by Shipment ID’s

c. The following criteria can be used: i. By Amazon Purchase Order

ii. Bill of Lading iii. PRO Number iv. Amazon Reference Number (ARN)


7. Editing, Rescheduling and Canceling an Appointment Carriers have the ability to edit, reschedule and cancel an appointment using the Carrier Central Portal. You may:

Reschedule and Cancel

Add additional shipments (PROs)

Remove shipments (PROs)

Modify PRO number

Modify BOL number

Modify PO(s)

Modify Load Type

Modify Clamp Type

Increase/Decrease pallet and carton count

Request a new appointment for redirected freight To submit edit, reschedule or cancel a request, log into your Carrier Central account and search for the appointment. Upon specifying your search criteria. The website throws a list of appointments matching the condition. Locate the Appointment Request ID or Appointment ID (ISA #) and select the “Edit”. No Edits can be made within 1 hour of scheduled delivery time. 7.1 Rescheduling Your Appointment

Select the ‘EDIT’ button next to the appointment

Enter your updated CRDD, shown on the red box on picture below

Select the appropriate reschedule reason code

Select the ‘SUBMIT’ button

7.2 Add a Shipment

Select the ‘EDIT’ button next to the appointment


Select ‘Add more shipments’

Select the ‘SUBMIT’ button

7.3 Remove a Shipment

Selecting the ‘EDIT’ button next to the appointment button

Select ‘Remove’ button next to the shipment that you wish to remove from the appointment

Select ‘SUBMIT’ button

All other appointment modifications can be made by selecting the appropriate choice from the corresponding drop down menu. After you have submitted the request, you will receive an email confirmation to inform you that the request was received. You will then receive a follow-up email to inform them that the request has been approved/denied/ 8. Compliance expectations for Amazon deliveries

Pallet Loading – Please ensure that double-stacked pallets are not shrink-wrapped together so that the top pallet cannot be downstacked. Shipments containing double-stacked pallets shrink-wrapped together will be rejected as un-safe loads. Arrange double stacked pallets so that both pallets are accessible by a forklift from the same side.

On-Time - Please note that we may cancel appointments 15 minutes after the appointment time if you have not arrived. We will mark this as a “no-show” event and you will be required to request another appointment. 9. Additional compliance notes for Vendor Freight (not FBA) On-Time – Each Purchase Order that we send to our vendors has a unique Delivery Window which must be met to be compliant with our policies. We know that our FCs can’t always respect the requested delivery date for every request, so we judge compliance by the Carrier-Requested Delivery Date (CRDD) entered in the Carrier Central request. If Amazon pushes the appointment due to operational constraints at our FC, the vendor will not be held accountable as long as that first CRDD is within their delivery window. This date applies to all POs entered on the appointment request, so please be sure to request an appointment that fits within the soonest delivery window. It is important that vendors and carriers are aligned on the delivery window for each PO, as carriers could create non-compliance scenarios for vendors. We recommend that vendors include the delivery window details on each Bill of Lading (BOL) as well, for good recordkeeping practices. Below is a screenshot from Carrier Central which indicates where you will input the CRDD.


BOL # and PO List – Each unique shipment/truck should have a unique BOL (Bill of Lading) number generated by the shipper. The BOL number for each shipment on the truck being delivered under the given appointment must be entered in the Shipment Information screen. Similarly, we require the corresponding POs being delivered associated with each BOL. It is imperative that the PO(s) are listed accurately on the appointment, or we may encounter issues in correctly applying the freight to our vendors’ Purchase Orders. We provide our vendors with extracts of this data so they can hold carriers accountable for accuracy. Below is a screenshot from Carrier Central which indicates where you will input BOL and PO(s). Multiple POs must be submitted with commas as separators (e.g.: ABC12345, ZYX67890)

10. Pallet Pooling

Amazon does not guarantee pallet returns. We accept AU standard wooden pallets for domestic shipments and ISO

standard wooden pallets for import shipments. We have CHEP and LOSCAM accounts that you can transfer pallets to per

your agreement with those companies (effective date for transfers is 30 Days from date of delivery) but the entire

process is hands-off for Amazon. We do not confirm any pallet transfers via e-mail/phone/etc. or exchange pallets on-

site. If you send us non-pooled wooden pallets, we will accept the freight, but will not return the pallets.

CHEP: 4000345145

LOSCAM: 323303

We require all carriers and shippers to apply equipment management best practices when using a rental pallets (pallet

pooling services)

Raise all transfers electronically in myCHEP or other systems

The movement date and effective date should need to be the day the delivery arrives at the Amazon FC Dandenong South (global rules will apply the transfer rule)

Provide one pallet transfer docket per delivery

Raise discrepancies with the corresponding pallet pool provider (e.g. Chep or Loscam ) within 3 months of delivery


11. Email Samples

11.1 Confirmation Email:

11.2 Appointment Re-Scheduled Email Sample:


11.3 Appointment Edit Confirmation

11.4 Appointment Edit Failure Sample

12. Frequently Asked Questions

What is the largest truck Amazon can accept? o We can accept trucks sizes up to and including a B-Double. o An appointment request is only for a single truck, delivering to a single FC. If you are sending two trucks

to the same FC, you will need to submit two appointment requests.

What’s the difference between editing and canceling an appointment? o If you are simply changing the requested delivery date/time or shipment details (BOL, PO List, etc.), please

edit the existing request instead of canceling it. o Cancelling an appointment completely removes that record from our dock management tools. If you

cancel an appointment, that reservation is lost and you will be required to reenter the queue for the next available appointment.

How should I communicate delivery window compliance with the shipper? o Please communicate to your shipper (the Amazon vendor) when/if you are unable to deliver the shipment

within the delivery windows on their POs. Amazon gives vendors ample time to prepare and deliver their products, and does not intervene in vendor/carrier negotiations.

My company can only deliver packages to Dandenong South at certain times. Can you please schedule my freight at certain times?

o We receive freight from a diverse network of carriers and vendors and cannot honor requests for deliveries at specific times. We may schedule an appointment at any time during our receiving hours (07:00-15:00 Monday-Friday). The last appointment for a day is at 14:30.

Can I book several POs on the same shipment? o Yes, you can book several POs on the same appointment, even if they are from different

vendors/warehouses. All freight on a given truck should be listed on that truck’s appointment record.

Can I deliver freight from several appointments at the same time? o If you have several appointments scheduled at different times throughout the day, you may not deliver

them all at the same time. If you would like to deliver multiple shipments consolidated into a single truck at the same time, you must have all pallet counts/POs for the shipments on a single confirmed appointment.

Carrier Preparation for delivering to Australian Amazon Fulfillment … · 2018-05-28 · Carrier Preparation for delivering to Australian Amazon Fulfillment Centers Last Updated:

Documents