Airborne via LIBRA

LIBRA system offers an alternative solution for shipping Airborne. Libra is an offline manifesting system, which will process shipments, generate shipping labels and upload daily shipment records to Airborne without an online Internet connection.  This allows for continued operation when Internet access is not dependable or Airborne’s computers systems have slow response times.

Cove Systems has developed a mechanism to communicate, and integrate, with the Libra system.

1. During the invoicing process manifest records are be created by the Generic Manifesting program.  The Airborne manifesting process then can be done immediately or by batch process; either way the Libra system will process each manifest record (using record number as ID) by directly accessing the manifest records using ODBC.

2. The operator enters the key printed on the bottom of the packing list (or scans the barcode).  The Libra system reads the manifest record information using ODBC, and creates the shipping label.

3. Then the Libra system updates the manifest record with the shipping charges & tracking number.

This process takes a few seconds and is constantly fast. At the end of the day Libra will upload the data to Airborne using a standard phone line.

Please note that the Libra system is an after-the-fact manifesting system and as such does not support certain functionality available with integrated systems.  An example of this is that it does not have the option to request shipping rates prior to manifesting.  This means that the operator must enter the shipping charges manually for COD shipments.

This document contains Cove Specific information.  Refer to the Libra documentation for information regarding setup, connection, configuration, account information and label printing.

Cove Configuration

F248: ABSYSTEM:  Indicates which system is used for manifesting Airborne shipments. If set to “LIBRA” the system expects the Libra station to manifest the shipment otherwise the system does the appropriate processing to use OmniRush.

Libra System Configuration

1. Connect to the network to access the Stream Data via ODBC.

2. Use LibraDC.exe to setup ODBC to access Cove database.

3. Use LibraDC.exe to setup the Cove provided SQL statements to retrieve and write-back.

4. Use LIBRA.EXE to setup access to the remote database (Stream data).

Operational Notes

Voiding Shipments, Tracking and Label reprints are done using the Libra system directly.

Technical Notes

Libra uses a KEY to locate the record to process and write-back the results back to it.  The Manifest record number is used to local the manifest record.

SQL Scripts

Retrieve Manifest records

SELECT

  COMPANY      AS AB_CompanyName,

  ADDRESS1     AS AB_Street1,

  ADDRESS2     AS AB_Street2,

  CITY           AS AB_City,

  ZIP             AS AB_ZipPostalCode,

  STATE         AS AB_StateProvince,

  COUNTRY      AS AB_Country,

  INSTRUCTIONS AS AB_Description1,

  INV_NO                 AS AB_Description2,

  INV_NO                 AS AB_ShippersRef,

  WEIGHT                AS AB_Weight,

  WIDTH                  AS AB_Width,

  HEIGHT       AS AB_Height,

  LENGTH       AS AB_Length,

  CODE          AS AB_ServiceLevel,

  RESIDENTIAL          AS AB_ResidentialDlvy,

  SAT_FLAG             AS AB_SaturdayDelvry,

  (COD_AMT * 100) AS AB_CodAmount,

  (VALUE) AS AB_AssetProtDVAmt

FROM

     admin.fv069f22

WHERE

 RECNUM = $AB_KEY

Write Back Manifesting Data

UPDATE admin.fv069f22

SET

  track_no = '$AB_ShipmentNumber',

  ups_chg = $AB_GrossCharges

WHERE

recnum = $AB_Key

More:

Shipment Attributes