Appointment Rule form

Configuration Gate Appointment Rule Sets Appointment Rule Sets view Appointment Rule Set form Rules tab Appointment Rule form

The Appointment Rule form enables you to add and edit appointment rules. An appointment rule defines when a user can create an appointment, when an appointment is valid at a gate, and the maximum number of appointments allowed for each time slot.

An appointment rule set can have multiple appointment rules. You cannot define two By Day of Week rules with overlapping start or end date if the rules share one or more weekday or if the start and end times overlap. However, you can use the same start time as the end time of a previous rule.

For example, if there is an existing By Day of Week rule that covers Monday through Friday from 07:00 to 17:00, you can add other By Day of Week rules for anytime on Saturday or Sunday. You can also add other rules for a weekday for time slots before 07:00 or after 17:00.

If you want to add another By Day of Week rule for the same day of the week and time slot as an existing rule, you must add the By Day of Week rule with a start date that is after the end date of the existing rule. This in effect replaces the existing rule with the new rule after the start date specified for the new rule.

To add or edit an appointment rule:

In the General area, in the Rule Id field, enter an ID that uniquely identifies the appointment rule.

Optionally, in the Description field, enter a short description for the appointment rule.
In the Time Rules area, from the Rule Type drop-down list, select one of the following:

By Day of Week: To define your general appointment rules for all appropriate days of the week
Day Override: To override an existing By Day of Week rule for a specific day, such as a holiday

In the Rule Start Date field, enter the date you want the appointment rule to become effective.

When adding a new rule, the current date displays in this field by default.

If you select the Day Override rule type, the Rule Start Date determines the specific day for the rule.

Optionally, in the Rule End Date field, enter the date you want the appointment rule to stop being effective.

Do not use this field for the Day Override rule type.

In the Start Time field, enter the start time of the first appointment time slot during the day using military time.
In the End Time field, enter the end time of the last appointment time slot during the same day using military time.

If you have appointment time slots that run overnight, you must define two appointment rules. For example, if you have a night shift from 19:00 to 03:00 for a gate that uses appointments, then you must define one appointment rule from 19:00 to 23:59 and another rule from 00:00 to 03:00.

To define the whole day as the appointment time slot, specify the Start Time as 00:00 and the End Time as 23:59. N4 automatically subtracts one minute from the end time to allow you to create more than one appointment rule for the same day that start and end at the same time without overlapping the rules. For example, if one rule starts at 07:00 and ends at 12:00, N4 treats the end time as 11:59, so you can add another rule for the same day that starts at 12:00.

In the Start Time Tolerance field, enter the tolerance allowed before each appointment time slot, in minutes.

For example, if you enter 10, an appointment is valid 10 minutes before the assigned time slot.

In the End Time Tolerance field, enter the tolerance allowed after each appointment time slot, in minutes.

For example, if you enter 15, an appointment is valid 15 minutes after the assigned time slot. In addition, if the start time tolerance is 10 and the time slot duration is 60, then the total time slot duration including both tolerances is 85 minutes.

In the Time Slot Duration field, enter the duration in minutes of each appointment time slot.

For example, if you enter 60, and your start time is 07:00, and your end time is 16:00, there will be nine time slots during the day, one time slot for each hour. The first time slot is from 07:00 to 07:59, the second time slot is from 08:00 to 08:59, and so on. The last time slot is from 15:00 to 15:59.

Optionally, In the Appointment Window Open field, enter the number of minutes before the appointment time slot to open the appointment window, or the latest available time slot that a user can select when creating an appointment.

For example, if you enter 400, a user can only create an appointment for a time slot less than 400 minutes away from the current time.

In the Appointment Window Close field, enter the number of minutes before the appointment time slot to close the appointment window, or the earliest available time slot that a user can select when creating an appointment. You must set the value in this field to 0 if you want to create an appointment for rail or barge.

For example, if you enter 400, a user can only create an appointment for a time slot at least 400 minutes away from the current time.

N4 allows you to enter the negative values in the Appointment Window Close field.

Select the Days of Week check boxes for the days of the week you want to apply the appointment rule.

If you select Day Override in step 1, this field is not used.

In the Quota Rules area, in the Deliver Full, Deliver Empty, Deliver Chassis, Deliver Cargo, Receive Full, Receive Empty, Receive Chassis, and Receive Cargo field, enter the maximum number of appointments allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.

If the transaction type does not use appointments, the quota should be set to zero.

In the Cargo Quota Rules area, in the Deliver Cargo and Receive Cargo fields, enter the maximum number of appointments allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.

In the Deliver Cargo and Receive Cargo fields, enter the maximum number of appointments allowed for each time slot .
In the Deliver Cargo Qty and Receive Cargo Qty, enter the maximum cargo quantity allowed for an appointment.
In the Deliver Cargo Weight and Receive Cargo Weight fields, enter the maximum cargo weight allowed for an appointment.
In the Deliver Cargo Volume, Receive Cargo Volume fields, enter the maximum cargo volume allowed for an appointment.

If the transaction type does not use appointments, the quota should be set to zero.

Enter any additional optional information for the appointment rule.
Click Save.

If an appointment exists for this rule:

You must enter a Start Date before the earliest existing appointment date.
You must enter an End Date after the latest existing appointment date.

For example, if the last appointment is tomorrow you can edit the end date to the day after tomorrow or to a later date.

If any of the existing appointments are future appointments:

You cannot define a Day Override rule for a day that has an existing future appointment.
You cannot deselect any of the Days of Week check boxes.
We recommend that you do not change a quota to a smaller value.

If you change a quota to a smaller value, the existing appointments are not affected, but the existing appointments may exceed the new quota resulting in fewer available time slots.

The following table lists the optional fields in the Quota Rules area, in the Appointment Rule form:

Field Label	Description
Through Container	Enter the maximum number of through container appointments allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Total Appointment	Enter the maximum number of total appointments allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area. This validation is independent of the other validations, such as the maximum number of deliver full containers. For example, if you enter 10 in the Deliver Full field and 5 in the Total Appointment field, N4 only allows 5 total appointments of any type, including deliver full. But if you enter 50 in the Total Appointment field, N4 allows 50 total appointments. However, the validation for the Deliver Full field only allows a maximum of 10 deliver full appointments. When making an appointment in the Appointment form, the Appointment Openings drop-down list displays the number of openings by transaction type. This does not take into account the total number of appointments. Therefore, if the total number of appointments has been reached, N4 does not allow a user to make an appointment even if Appointment Openings field displays remaining openings by transaction type.
Deliver Appointment	Enter the maximum number of delivery appointments allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Appointment	Enter the maximum number of receival appointments allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver Container	Enter the maximum number of delivery containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Container	Enter the maximum number of receival containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver 40	Enter the maximum number of 40' delivery containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive 40	Enter the maximum number of 40' receival containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver 20	Enter the maximum number of 20' delivery containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive 20	Enter the maximum number of 20' receival containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver Hazard	Enter the maximum number of delivery hazardous containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Hazard	Enter the maximum number of receival hazardous containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver Oog	Enter the maximum number of delivery out-of-gauge containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Oog	Enter the maximum number of receival out-of-gauge containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver Reefer	Enter the maximum number of delivery reefer containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Reefer	Enter the maximum number of receival reefer containers allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Entire Duration	Select this check box to use the entire time between the start time and end time in the Time Rules area for appointments. In this case, N4 creates appointments with a start time and end time equal to the appointment rule Start Time and End Time, ignoring the Time Slot Duration value. If using appointment priority groups and the Entire Duration check box is selected, N4 does not check for priority groups when a user creates a transaction appointment. However, when a user associates the transaction appointment with a truck visit appointment, N4 checks for priority groups.
Peak Hour	Select this check box if the appointment rule applies only during peak hours and you want a record of appointments that are used during this time. If selected, when an appointment is created for this rule, N4 displays a dot in the Peak Hour column in the Appointments view (on page 1). In addition, when this appointment is used, N4 records an additional APPT_USED_PEAK_HRS event that can be used for billing purposes.
Priority Group Max Value	If using appointment priority groups, select this check box to use the value in the Total Appointment field as the total number of appointments in the calculation for the Appointment Priority Group form's (on page 1) Guarantee field. For example, if this check box is selected, the Total Appointments is 4, and in the Appointment Priority Group form the Guarantee is 50 percent, then the maximum number of appointments available to non priority trucking companies is 2. In addition, priority trucking companies are guaranteed at least 2 appointments. If you do not select the Priority Group Max Value check box, N4 does not guarantee appointments for priority trucking companies for the selected appointment rule.
Consider Delivery Full Yard Quota	Select this check box if you do not want N4 to display the appointment opening timeslots for which the number of appointments reached the yard block quota. For API, if you mention the timeslot in the request, it displays an error to say no slots available. If you do not mention the timeslot in the API request, N4 picks the next timeslot available if quota is already met for some timeslots of the date.
Quota Rules Extension	If you want to override the appointment quota rules you must create a code extension of type APPT_QUOTA_RULE_EXTENSION and select the code extension name of the appointment quota rule from this lookup field.

The following table lists the optional fields in the Cargo Quota Rules area, in the Appointment Rule form:

Field Label	Description
Deliver Cargo Qty	Enter the maximum number of delivery cargoes allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Cargo Qty	Enter the maximum number of receival cargoes allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver Cargo Weight	Enter the maximum cargo weight of delivery cargoes for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Cargo Weight	Enter the maximum cargo weight of receival cargoes allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Deliver Cargo Volume	Enter the maximum cargo volume of delivery cargoes allowed for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.
Receive Cargo Volume	Enter the maximum cargo volume of receival cargoes for each time slot defined in the Time Rules area.