Re: fedex shipping labels

Steve?

Have you looked into FedEx (and UPS and USPS) web services to see what they
have to offer? I know they're investing heavily in those types of
resources, so it may be worth it to either look through the documentation
online, or even give them a call.

I always use my account online with FedEx to create labels before dropping
off a package so I can just drop and go. And I know they do on they fly
label generation you print. So I would think there is something available
to others.

Brad
www.bvstools.com


On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 11:04 AM, Bob Cagle <bcagle@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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
--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.