Re: fedex shipping labels

I spoke to fedex tech support yesterday. They said my options are the
fedex server or fedex ship manager. FedEx web services, I was told, was
for linking your web site with the fedex web site. Kind of like web
services are for tracking a package where as ship manager and server are
for creating the shipment.

And then after thinking about the problem I kind of question what I am
looking for. In the example where we pack 10 shipper cartons and bring
them to the shipping station the only reason they should be printing 10
labels at the same time is when the cartons are all the same weight ( and
presumably have the same contents ). Where it does not really matter which
carton gets what shipping label. And in the case where we have multiple
shippers with different contents the only fool proof way of knowing which
carton has which tracking number is to scan them after the label is put on
the carton.

-Steve



On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 1:56 PM, Bradley Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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
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