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. Book a Pickup
4. Get a Quote
5. Make a Payment

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. 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. Book a Pickup
   • The Book a Pickup function provides the ability for customer account holders to make a booking for their freight to be picked up. Pickup bookings are only taken via the on-line Book a Pickup system.  
4. Get a Quote
   • The Get a Quote function allows 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.
5. Make a Payment
   • Where it suits the customer to do so, we have the capability to take payments on-line via BPOINT. 

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 Cochrane’s.    

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




 

This is a summary of how to use Create Consignment, for more detail please see Create Consignment - Instructions.

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

To create a consignment, select the Consignments tab and then select Create Consignment.
CREATE CONSIGNMENT

• Charge To section
  • Charge To: Please select either Sender, Receiver or Third Party from the drop-down list. (normally set to Sender)
  • Enter name and account number being charged.
  • Enter address, town & postcode.
• Service section
  • Service: select service type from drop-down list.
  • Enter Order Number, if applicable.
  • Dangerous Goods: select Yes or No. (if Yes you must have the correct DG paperwork to accompany the freight)
  • Special Instructions: can assist delivery if receiver or vehicle access is restricted, or if you wish to provide Authority To Leave.
• Sender section
  • Sender details are retained by the system and preloaded, however if there are no Sender details, please enter them.    
  • Enter Sender name and account number.
  • Enter Street Address, Town and Postcode.
  • Enter Contact name and Phone number, if applicable, and any Comments.
• Receiver section
  • Receiver details are retained by the system once entered.  To find previous receiver details, type a few characters in the Name field, click the Find Receiver button and select the receiver from the list presented.
  • Enter Receiver name and account number.
  • Enter Receiver street address, including town/suburb and Postcode.
  • Enter Receiver contact name, phone number and enter any Comments.
• Goods Specification
  • Please enter the overall weight and cubic of all items for each time.
  • Enter your reference description of freight type. For example: car parts, electronics, cartons etc., if required.
  • Description: select type of freight from the drop-down menu.
  • Items: enter the quantity of items.
  • Weight (kg): enter the weight in kilograms.
  • Cubic (L x W x H cm):  enter freight dimensions in centimetres.
  • Where there are multiple freights item of the same Description and Cubic dimensions, they can be entered in the same row, along with the total number of those freight items, their weight and cubic.  
    • Here the total cubic = (L x Qty Items) x W x H), where L, W, H are dimensions of a single item.
  • Once all freight types and items have been entered, tick the Print Labels Now box.
  • Click the Save button to see the pop-up printer dialogue box.
  • There is a label printed for each item with its own barcode to be securely attached to each item on the top or side. 

  • Ensure the label is clearly visible and not hidden by stretchwrap or tape.

     

• 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 'OUR NETWORK – WHERE WE GO' function from the top menu.   

The range of transport service includes:

• Express Next Day  - delivery tomorrow, a daily delivery service.
• Express 2 Days - delivery in 2 days, typically a 3-4 days per week delivery service.
• Express 3 Days - delivery in 3 days, typically a 1-2 days per week delivery service.
• Express 5 Days - delivery in 5 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 cant 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.

This is a summary of how to Get a Quote, for more detail please see Get a Quote - Instructions.

Select Get a Quote from the top main menu and you will be presented with page 1 of Quote Request Form.

On page 1 you enter the specific Transport Quote information into the fields provided, noting that all fields are mandatory.

1. Pick Up From and Deliver to (suburb/location)
2. Dimensions: Width W(cm), Depth D(cm), Height H(cm), Weight (kg) and Quantity
3. Describe Freight: describe freight items to be transported (For example: Item, Carton, Bundle, Skid, Pallet)  
4. Are these Dangerous Goods?   Yes    No
   • For Quote to be prepared correctly, Dangerous Goods being transported must be declared.
5. Once all fields have been completed click the NEXT button to go to Page 2.

 On page 2 you enter your contact information into the fields provided, noting that all fields are mandatory.

1. Name, Email address & Phone number
2. Company Details
   • If your business is requesting the quote enter its company name.
   • If you personally are requesting the quote, enter ‘Personal’.
3. Are you an existing customer?   Yes    No
   • If you select Yes you will be asked to enter your Account Number so we can prepare your quote using your existing rates.
   • If you do not have an account with us you will be quoted at our standard rates.
4. To proceed, please click on the square next to the ‘I’m not a robot’ reCAPTCHA verification.
5. Successful verification will show with a ‘green tick’
6. Once all fields have been completed click on the SUBMIT button to go to complete the quote submission process.
   • An error message will indicate that a field has been left blank correct this on Page 2 or select GO BACK if the blank field is on Page 1.  Note all other field entries are retained if you have to do this.  Correct the error and click on the SUBMIT button again.
7. Successful Quote Request submission will be displayed.
8. Quote Request submission is complete.