How Opter works

It must be possible to quickly and easily register information about assignments, regardless of whether they come in by telephone or email. Is the information in the order correct? Are the customer agreement and address correct? Opter helps you by checking the information and any unique customer rules and exceptions. The price is calculated and displayed directly on the screen.

We know how important it is to be able to book transport quickly and easily – and that everything is correct right from the very start. You can therefore decide yourself how the order picture should look in Opter, including which information is necessary and what overview you want.

Via a dedicated web page, your customers can easily order transports and continuously follow their assignments. The customer web portal naturally uses your graphic profile and gives your customers the opportunity to:

• Book transport
• View the status of current assignments
• Search the history and export summaries to Excel
• View digital signatures and scanned shipping notes
• Print shipping documents for booked orders, such as SIS, CMR and labels
• View prices during booking
• Print invoices

EDI saves time and reduces the risk of misunderstandings. Customers and other participants in the transport chain quickly receive updates about status changes. Opter can easily be integrated with other systems, such as:

• Electronic receipt of bookings
• Reporting of order status, prices and digital signatures (POD) to customers
• Booking of transport with subcontractors

All the most common EDI formats are supported by Opter:

• EDIFACT/IFTMIN
• XML
• CSV
• JSON

Opter allows you to continuously keep your customers updated about ongoing deliveries. Notifications are event-based and are sent to your customers on an ongoing basis, for the events and in the formats they require.

Automatic notifications save you time and provide your customers with a better service. The status changes that trigger SMS and email notifications can include, for example, new orders, loading, unloading, ETA, changes in weight and/or volume and final delivery with proof of delivery (POD).

You and your customers can use Opter to produce correct transport documents such as SIS shipping notes and CMR, as well as goods labels. The documents are available for printing via the customer web portal or can be sent directly to the customer via email.

No more mislaying of papers! All the required documentation is collected in one place for each assignment. Documents can be added to a booking as soon as they are created. It is also possible to link scanned shipping documents to an order.

Opter helps your transport managers ensure that assignments are carried out with cost and time efficiency, and with the right level of quality. The transport manager chooses which information is required to be able to make the right choice: assignments, drivers, routes, terminals, subcontractors or maps. Opter can also help your transport managers by automatically recommending or allocating assignments.

Tasks can easily be updated using drag-and-drop or shortcut commands. The information is displayed in real time and can be sorted and filtered.

The transport manager always has an overview of the transport assignments via updates from the vehicles. Delays or other deviations can thus be rectified straight away.

With the Opter driver app, the transport management always knows the exact location of the vehicles. Based on the vehicles’ current positions and capacity utilisation, the transport manager can easily give the right assignment to the right resource and handle any deviations.

Opter easily handles assignments that are to be divided into several sections (shipping legs), for example pick-up from the terminal, route and exit from the terminal.

Assignments can be divided up into any number of shipping legs. This means that you can plan your assignments leg by leg, without the customer having to see this information. You invoice the customer for transport from A to B, and can pay your carriers or subcontractors for the various legs. You have easy access to statistics for checking the financial result and contribution margin for each order and per customer. Carriers and subcontractors can be paid according to a price list or as a percentage of the customer revenue.

Opter can also automate the division of assignments into several shipping legs. By linking postcode areas to routes, times and terminals, Opter determines the fastest and cheapest way through your network for each individual transport.

Via the app or web portal, terminal workers can see which shipments are expected to arrive at the terminal, and can easily register arrivals and departures by scanning barcodes on shipping notes or parcel labels.

Route optimisation can be used to further streamline the transport management. The system suggests which assignments should be performed by which vehicle and also helps you to optimise sequences of pick-ups and deliveries automatically, taking into account specified time slots, for example.

Route optimisation is also used to calculate times for pick-ups and deliveries, which customers, recipients and other stakeholders can easily follow via track-and-trace.

Opter simplifies the reporting of carbon emissions. An initial estimate is provided already at the time of booking, and this is then refined once the transport has been performed. Customers can see the calculated emissions at the shipment level on the customer web and on their invoice.

The system’s automated calculation of the carbon footprint of each shipment helps you fulfil EU environmental requirements and your customers’ expectations regarding responsibility and transparency.

By combining the route optimisation, notification and tracking (also known as track-and-trace) functions, you can give the recipient the opportunity to choose the delivery date, receive notification of the estimated delivery time and follow the progress of the transport on a map.

The Journeys function is used by transport companies that need to conduct financial follow-ups of projects such as a journey or trailer. This function means that you connect one or more assignments to a trailer or a journey. The assignments can then be planned for a suitable resource.

The Opter driver app allows drivers to communicate easily with the traffic management via mobile phone, tablet or PDA. The driver receives the necessary information in the app, and all reporting back to the traffic management takes place in real time.

Examples of functions:

• Sending route orders
• Reporting back on the status of the assignment (e.g. loaded or unloaded)
• Changes to the assignment (e.g. weight or loading meters)
• Electronic signature (POD)
• Additional charges
• Text messages to individual drivers or groups
• Working hours
• Damage registration, including photos
• Opportunity to create orders
• Barcode scanning at shipping note and parcel levels
• GPS positioning on a map
• Check lists

Opter’s website for carriers provides quick and easy access to both payment breakdowns and information on completed assignments. Information about all the drivers and vehicles, as well as about amounts earned, is available as soon as assignments have been completed. As a complement, there are also separate pages on which each driver can see information about their completed assignments.

Opter automatically sends notifications via email or SMS. The tracking function allows customers, senders and recipients to check status updates about shipments, the latest events and estimated delivery times themselves. Once a delivery has been made, a receipt and POD information are also available. Tracking can also be used to show a vehicle’s position, thus enabling real-time delivery tracking.

Barcode scanning increases the efficiency and security of assignments. The app can be used to scan shipping notes and parcels during loading and delivery. It is easy to follow a parcel and see which actions have been performed, as well as any deviations that have occurred. The information goes straight to the web portal and can be forwarded to customers via notifications or EDI.

Upon delivery, the recipient can sign for the delivery on the driver’s telephone. The receipt will be available directly on the customer website and is notified or sent by EDI to your customer. If delivery is made using a hard copy shipping note, the driver can scan in the signed document using the app and thus make it available digitally to the customer.

Opter facilitates cooperation between transport companies and helps you become more efficient. With the EDI-based OpterLink service, you can easily get in touch with other transport companies that use Opter. Using simple drag-and-drop, you can book a transport assignment with a colleague directly on the screen, or vice-versa. Information about the shipment is communicated in real time. Regardless of whether you transport using your own vehicle or use a different connected carrier, there is full traceability and transparency throughout.

Opter makes it easy to handle different pricing systems, price lists and customer agreements. Pricing is done automatically and takes into account parameters such as weight, volume, vehicle type, distance, times, zones and postcodes.

When an order is created, the assignment is priced straight away, regardless of whether the booking was created by the customer online or via EDI. If any changes are made to the assignment, the price is updated accordingly. In practice, this means that the assignment can be invoiced as soon as the driver has completed it.

Assignments that are ready for invoicing are collated, and invoices are created automatically. The invoices can then be reviewed, and if necessary changed, until the invoice period is locked. You can choose to print invoices or send them by email as PDF invoices, as documentation for e-invoicing or as a file to a bank or financing company. You choose if you want to tick off payments and handle reminders in Opter or in your accounting system.

The payment function in Opter makes this process easier for you, regardless of whether your carriers are remunerated based on a percentage of the price to the customer or pursuant to separate price lists. You can also easily divide up an order sum between several different carriers. All carriers have their own page in Opter, where they can log in to review their assignments and print out payment details.

Opter does not have its own accounting function but can easily be connected to the market’s most common accounting systems. However, support is available for accounting based on the order characteristics, such as service, vehicle, customer and region.

Information about invoices and payments is then sent continuously to your system.

Opter makes it easy to produce and present statistics as diagrams and tables. You can easily get statistics about a variety of parameters, such as customers, vehicles, towns, routes, contribution margins, damage and delivery precision. These tasks can also be combined with each other and exported smoothly to Excel.