Creating Transportation Lanes

Definition: Transportation lanes represent the relationship between two locations, two transportation zones, or a combination of locations and transportation zones that expresses the direct approachability of the locations, or all locations, within the transportation zones for a specific means of transport (MTr). Carriers can be assigned to the transportation lane as needed.

Using transportation zones as the source, destination, or both considerably reduces the number of transportation lanes to maintain. A transportation lane points only in one direction. To model the reverse direction, you must create another transportation lane.

The transportation lane controls how goods can be transported from one location to another.

Transportation lanes play a key role in SAP TM. They control:

• Which location can forward goods to another location
• Which means of transport can be used to do so
• Which carrier can supply a vehicle for the means of transport

Transportation lanes represent a direct connection between two locations or transportation zones to transport freight from one location to another. They're typically maintained on transportation zone level and are defined by:

• Source and Destination
• Direction
• Available MTr

  Optional: Carrier per MTr

Maintenance:

• Individual
• Mass maintenance

• Tr.Lane: Enter source and destination locations or zones to create a transportation lane.
• Intra-Zone Lane/Loc. Transp. Lane:
  • Define an intrazone lane by specifying a transportation zone.
  • Define a location transportation lane by specifying a particular location.
• Mass Maint. (Create): Create multiple transportation lanes by copying an existing one.

Means of Transport Assignment: Means of transport facilitates the movement of goods between the locations or zones of a transportation lane. Attributes for the means of transport, which apply to transportation activities between the source and destination of the goods, including transportation duration, distance, and costs, must be specified.

Carrier Assignment: A carrier provides services along a transportation lane for a specific means of transport. Carriers are assigned to the transportation lane by linking them to the means of transport. Once a carrier is assigned to the means of transport, attributes specific to this combination, such as transportation costs, priority, share of business, or capacity for transportation allocation, can be specified.

A trade lane can have a mode of transport and means of transport. The trade lane defines a transportation direction characterized by the orientation, source, and destination. Possible orientations are inbound, outbound, from, to, within, and along.

A trade lane is an abstract representation of transport classification. A trade lane instance does not represent a connection between any transportation network nodes (zone/location, and so on). It's a context-independent classification of any transportation-related activities.

Examples of trade lanes include:

• All transports from Hamburg to New York
• All transports within Germany
• All transports that leave Bavaria

• Transportation Zone Hierarchies:

  For example, "from Germany" includes "from Bavaria," which further includes "from Plant_Munchen."

• Hierarchical Relationships between Means of Transport:

  For instance, "Within Germany Using Means of Transport Truck" includes "Within Germany Using Means of Transport Refrigerated Truck."

• Means of Transport/Transportation Mode Relationships:

  For example, "Within Germany Using Transportation Mode Street" includes "Within Germany Using Means of Transport Refrigerated Truck."

A location is a distinct point on the Earth's surface, defined by the geographical coordinates of longitude, latitude, and altitude. These coordinates can be derived from the address data, which provides an alternate description of the same point. An address may include elements such as country, region, postal code, city, district, street, house number, and additional fields.

Geographical coordinates are displayed in degrees, minutes, and seconds within the Geographical Data section of the Location user interface (UI) and can be manually overridden. The precision field specifies the granularity of the geo-coding result, and the accuracy of these geo-coordinates depends on the quality of the address data provided.

The Transportation Lane master data object links two locations and records distance and duration information for each assigned means of transport. By default, this information is determined through calculating the straight-line distance, accounting for the Earth's curvature, and applying a deviation factor specific to the means of transport. If this abstraction level does not meet the accuracy requirements of business processes, more precise distances and durations can be obtained using an external Geographic Information System (GIS).

The following two options are available for calculating DDD:

• Shortest Distance Calculation: The system calculates the shortest possible route (line of flight) between locations.
• Precise Distance Calculation: By leveraging a third-party geographic information system (GIS), the system calculates the exact distance based on the means of transport.

• 1685381 - GIS Integration: Concept and Technologyhttps://me.sap.com/notes/1685381/E
• 2711181 - GIS Connector SCP Spatial Services2711181 - GIS Connector SCP Spatial Services - SAP for Me