FAQ - Sales Questions

Cochrane’s Transport provide a range of Customer Self-Service functions on-line via our website including:

1. Create Consignment
2. Customer Portal
3. Get a Quote
4. Book a Pickup
5. Make a Payment
6. Consignment Enquiry
7. New Customer Enquiry

1. Create Consignment

   The Cochrane's Transport Create Consignment system is designed to create consignments (connotes) on-line and print consignment notes and labels for freight identification and tracking. Customers can also book a pickup within this system. It also includes capability to review past Consignment history and maintain customer details.

2. Customer Portal  

   The Customer Portal is designed to provide customers current and historical information on their consignments including, Proof of Delivery (POD) and Freight Tracking. Customers can also access Financial Statements for the services we have provided.

3. Get a Quote

   The Get a Quote function allows account customers to receive a quote for freight and / or receiver destinations that are not currently covered by their existing rates.  The Get a Quote process can be particularly useful for businesses that pass on the delivery costs to their customers transport and want to know the exact cost beforehand.

4. Book a Pickup

   The Book a Pickup webform provides the ability for customer account holders to make a booking for their freight to be picked up. 

5. Make a Payment

   Where it suits the customer to do so, we have the capability to make payments on-line via BPOINT. 

6. Consignment Enquiry

   The Consignment Enquiry webform allows customers to submit consignment-specific enquiries directly through our website for faster and more streamlined support.

7. New Customer Enquiry

   The New Customer Enquiry webform is for customers with ongoing freight requirements to complete who are requesting a customer account with Cochrane’s Transport.

In addition to these customer self-service functions, we can accommodate establishment of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with customer systems to enable EDI data transfer to and from Cochrane’s Transport.  Typically, this would be:

• Customer EDI of Consignment Note data into Cochrane’s Transport systems
  and
• Cochrane’s Transport EDI of scan event and POD data into Customer systems.

The Customer Portal is designed to provide customer access to their specific Consignments, Proof Of Delivery (POD), Freight Tracking System (FTS) and Statements.  To have access to Statements your Customer Portal setup needs to have this function enabled by us.    

Menu Option – Consignment Statement 

• Select Statement Period from drop-down list and click on View.
• Statement shows each Consignments in the period selected with Date, Sender, Sender Town, Receiver, Receiver Town, Route Code and Amount charged, inclusive of fuel levy and GST. 

Menu Option – Consignment Search 

• Search by one or more of the following options:
  • Select type of record to be searched, either Connote, Booking, Quotation or All.
  • Search by Date range: enter dates into Pickup Date From & Pickup Date To.
  • Search by Period from drop-down list.
  • Search by Reference number.
• Once your search parameters have been entered, click on Search.
• Record data displayed includes, Date, Reference number, Type, Amount, Receiver, From Zone, To Zone, Quantity, Weight and Last Scan.
  • Reference number and Last Scan entries can be clicked on for more information. (underlined on mouse hover)

Menu Option – POD Search 

• Search by one or more of the following options:
  • Search by Date range: enter dates into Data Entry Date From & Data Entry Date To.
  • Search by Consignment number.
  • Search by Receiver and/or Receiver Town.
• Once your search parameters have been entered, click on Search.
• Select type of record to be searched, either Connote, Booking, Quotation or All.
• Search by Date range: enter dates into Pickup Date From & Pickup Date.
• Record data displayed includes, Date, Reference number, Quantity, Weight, Receiver, Receiver Town, Sender, Order No. and POD.
  • Reference number and POD entries can be clicked on for more information. (underlined on mouse hover)
  • Where POD entry is YES, the POD is an image of a signed consignment note.

Menu Option – FTS Search 

• Freight Tracking System: Search by Consignment number.
• Enter consignment number, (ensure Partial Seach is ticked), and click on Search.
• Data displayed includes, Item Number, Date, Time, Status, Destination, Depot, Print Name, Scanner Id and POD.
  • Item Number can be clicked on for more information. (underlined on mouse hover)
  • Note POD entry will be listed as N/A for any non-delivery scan event. 

Menu Option – Admin 

• Change Password
• Delivery Report
• Download Service
• Maintain Senders/Receivers

Menu Option – Log Off

The Create Consignment system is available to create consignments (connotes) on-line and print labels for freight. Navigate through fields by pressing TAB or click in the relevant field.  

Create Consignment - Instructions

• When freight is picked up or dropped at Depot it must be accompanied by printed copies of any consignment note related to it.  
• How do I delete a consignment? Select Consignment Removal Request from the Consignments menu option.  Enter your email address and Consignment number and click the Submit button. This sends your request to our accounts team who will process your request.  
• Dispatch History & Manifest Delivery Report provide options to search, filter and print consignments.
   

Our network provides freight delivery services to more than 1,600 towns/suburbs across SA, Broken Hill & Mildura, an area covering more than 1 million square kilometres.   

While most of these towns/suburbs have an express next day delivery service, there are some remote areas where a different service type suits the volume and frequency for their freight.   Generally, as the volume and frequency of freight to a location decreases, the delivery service frequency is reduced accordingly.  Each town/suburb has a transport service description that you see displayed when you use the Where We Go function from the top menu.   

The range of transport service includes:

• Express Next Day - delivery usually next business day, a daily delivery service.
• Express 2 Days - delivery in 2 business days, typically a 3-4 days per week delivery service.
• Express 3 Days - delivery in 3 business days, typically a 1-2 days per week delivery service.
• Express 5 Days - delivery in 5 business days, typically a once-a-week delivery service.
• Customer Collection Location - collection point usually less than 50 km of remote area locations.
• Call To Arrange - for locations not on the normal network routes, nor close to collection locations, call us to arrange delivery.
• Onforwarding Service - for locations further north than Roxby Downs, including NT, Broken Hill surrounds and Kangaroo Island we partner with Onforwarding Service providers to provide a delivery service.
• Non-Service Area - there are a few locations and areas we just can’t get to.  If you need to send freight into one of these areas, contact us to discuss your options.

Search for your location and its service offering here.

Quotes are available for account customers by completing the Get a Quote webform.

For details on using this form, see Get A Quote - Instructions.