Online Shipment Tracking

Online Shipment Tracking

Project Description

Development of this project was taken up to enable the customers to track the status of their shipments for a third party logistics provider located in USA. Each shipment was tracked for successful delivery. Analyze and stores information about trucks, locations and all dispatch details for each shipment.

Capability Analysis :

The following description has been implemented in this development.

1. Trucks - Stores information about trucks, so that all relevant info about a truck was automatically populated into the form as soon as truck number was selected. Also prevents invalid entries for truck number. New trucks can be added at any time.
2. Locations - Stores information about locations, so that all relevant info about a location was automatically populated into the form as soon as Location Name was selected. Also prevents invalid entries for Location Name - New locations can be added any time.
3. Compliant Types - In order to analyze the complaints, 7-10 types / categories of complaints that was generally received was identified and whenever a complaint was received, it was classified into specific category.
4. Users - Stores Login ID, Password & access rights for the users, so that only authentic users can enter and view data subject to their authorizations, which can be controlled by administrator -New users can be added - No limit on number of users)
5. Shipments - Stores all dispatch details for each shipment. This was the main table and any time a shipment was dispatched a record was entered into this table.
6. A table was provided in the DB to store the shipment cost data and the cost data for additional stops.
7. A table was provided in the DB to store the list of truck loaders.
8. Complaints -Stores all customer complaints as a shipment number, compliant type, complaint date, complaint description, date closed, status, remarks and the complaints was be tracked by location (zip code) and the household address in that particular zip code.

A separate form/screen was provided to enter data into each table; hence there was 8 forms which can be printed out though the printouts don't look as professional in terms of layout as the reports.

1. Form 1 - Enables to add details of a new truck or update details of an existing truck or delete an existing truck or view details of all trucks
2. Form 2 - Enables to add details of a new location or update details of an existing location or delete an existing location or view details of all locations
3. Form 3 - Enables to add a new compliant type or update details of an existing complaint type or delete an existing compliant type or view the list of all complaint types
4. Form 4 - Enables to add details of a new shipment or update details of an existing shipment or delete an existing shipment (if entered by mistake or else) or view summary details of all shipments
5. Form 5 - Enables to add details of a new complaint or update details of an existing complaint or delete an existing complaint or view details of all complaints
6. Form 6 - Enables to add details of a new user (plus access rights to forms / reports) or update details of an existing user or delete an existing user or view details of all users. Needless to say that there was an "administrator user" who was a super-user and has all rights.
7. Form 7 - Enables to add details of shipment cost or update details of an existing record or delete an existing record or view details of all records
8. Form 8 - Enables to add a new truck loader to the list or update details of an existing record or delete an existing record or view details of all records

There were 4 reports used in the development of the application as per the client's requirements;

1. Report 1 - Shipment report that can contain any number of stops.
2. Report 2 - Utilization report allows you to track utilization of each truck based on load capacity for each week or any period selected based on the from & to dates, specified by the user, this enables us to capture when a truck was utilized below capacity.
3. Report 3 - Multiple Runs Report allows the client to track the number of runs for each truck per week or for any period selected based on the from & to dates, specified by the user
4. Report 4 - Complaint Analysis Report allows the client to track the number of complaints split by types with pie chart or bar graph. This can be for each week or for any period selected based on the from & to dates, specified by the user.

Technology Architecture

MS SQL Server 2000 for Database
Visual Basic 6 for Forms / Data entry screens
Crystal Reports 8 for Reports
Usage of system DSN to connect to database
Application can run on a Windows workgroup or domain over a LAN with any number of users. Windows 98, NT, 2000 & XP were supported.

Tangible Benefits:

1. Utilization report has allowed client to track utilization of each truck based on load capacity for each week or any period selected based on from & to dates, specified by the user, this enables to determine when a truck was utilized below capacity.
2. Complaint Analysis Report has allowed the client to track the number of complaints split by types with pie chart or bar graph. This can be for each week or for any period.