RE: fedex shipping labels

Steve

We are having a very similar problem, with both FedEx and UPS. We have not found a solution yet either.

We use JD Edwards and have been told that we should be using Varsity Logistics as our shipping solution, as they integrate well, supposedly - but it's rather pricey. Our owner would not approve the purchase; our quote was in the $40k range...

Our problem is even more critical as some of our customers are now requiring us to send the original tracking numbers back on the ASNs instead of the master tracking number.

I'd be curious to know what solution, if any, you eventually come up with.

Thanks

Bob Cagle
IT Manager
Lynk, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Richter
Sent: Thursday, August 7, 2014 8:01 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: fedex shipping labels

We are looking for ways to more efficiently create and print fedex shipping labels. Are there web services or other software from fedex that I can use?
Or 3rd party software that will do the specific functions I need it to do?

We currently use fedex ship manager with an ODBC connection to the IBM i to semi automate the process.

I need a more granular way to interface with FEDEX. One step would record the weight of the shipper carton and create a tracking number. Next step would print a single FEDEX label. The third would create the master tracking number and close the shipment as far as FEDEX is concerned.

What the warehouse does is pack items into shipper cartons. Each item is picked from a picklist. Once the shipper is full it is closed and a shipper label is printed. That shipper label has what we call an SSCC barcode printed on it. That SSCC number is unique so it can always be tracked back to the order.

Once the order is completely picked all the shippers are taken to the shipping station where the FedEx shipping manager workstation is located.
We scan the SSCC barcode of one of the shipper cartons. Using the ODBC connection to the IBM i all of the ship manager entry fields are populated.

It is at this point that the process starts to break down. If there are 4 shipper cartons the user enters that value in fedex ship manager, completes the shipment and 4 fedex labels are printed. A master tracking number is created along with 4 individual tracking numbers. Thru the ODBC connection ship manager writes 4 records to a table on the i containing the master tracking number, the tracking number and the SSCC carton number that was scanned to populate the FEDEX fields to begin with.

The problem is those 4 tracking records written to my tracking number file all contain the same SSCC carton number. So I can link a fedex tracking number to a warehouse purchase order. But I cannot link it to the specific items in the shipper of that tracking number. And secondly there are two labels on the shipper carton where all we really need is the single FEDEX shipping label.

thanks,

-Steve