Truck Visit Appointment Rule form

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

The Truck Visit Appointment Rule form enables you to add and edit truck visit appointment rules. A truck visit appointment rule defines similar information as with an appointment rule, but includes additional rules regarding the relationship between a truck visit appointment and its associated transaction appointments.

An appointment rule set can have multiple truck visit appointment rules. You cannot define two By Day of Week truck visit appointment rules with overlapping start or end dates 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.

If you want to add another truck visit 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 a truck visit 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.

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 the Rule Type field, the Days of Week check boxes are not used.

In the Quota Rules area, in the Total Trucks field, enter the maximum number of truck visit appointments allowed for each time slot defined.
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 Truck Visit Appointment Rule form:

Field Label	Description
Combining Transaction Rules	Select a rule to restrict the transaction appointments that a user can add to a truck visit appointment as follows: Same Day: N4 allows a user to add transaction appointments to a truck visit appointment only if the transaction appointment is on the same day as the truck visit appointment. Same Rule: N4 allows a user to add transaction appointments to a truck visit appointments only if the transaction appointment is on the same day as the truck visit appointment and all of the transaction appointments use the same transaction appointment rule. Tolerance: N4 allows a user to add transaction appointments to a truck visit appointment only if the transaction appointment time slot is within a specific number of minutes of the truck visit appointment. In this case, you set the tolerance in the Tolerance field.
Tolerance	If Tolerance is selected in the Combining Transaction Rules drop-down list, enter the number of minutes that a transaction appointment start time must be within the truck visit appointment start time. For example, if you enter 10 and the truck visit start time is 09:00, any associated transaction appointments must have a start time between 08:50 and 09:10.
Update Transaction Times	Select a rule to update transaction appointment times when a user adds them to a truck visit appointment as follows: Consecutive: N4 updates the transaction appointment times to be in consecutive time slots based the time slot duration set in the corresponding transaction appointment rule. The earliest transaction appointment start time equals the truck visit appointment start time. For example, if a truck visit appointment has a start time of 08:00 and a user adds three transaction appointments each with a duration of 30 minutes, then N4 updates the three transaction appointment start times to 08:00, 08:30, and 09:00. Same Start Time: N4 updates all of the transaction appointment start times to the same value as the truck visit appointment start time. For example, if a truck visit appointment has a start time of 08:00 and a user adds three transaction appointments each with a duration of 30 minutes, then N4 updates the three transaction appointment start times to 08:00, 08:00, and 08:00. When updating transaction appointments with a new time slot, N4 also validates the quotas for the old and new time slots and updates the number of appointment openings as needed. N4 does not update the transaction appointments if there are no open appointments available for the new time slot.
Calculate End Time	Select this check box if you want N4 to calculate and update the truck visit appointment end time based on the end time of the last associated transaction appointment. For example, if a truck visit appointment has a duration of 60 minutes where the start time is 08:00 and the end time is 09:00. And then a user adds three consecutive transaction appointments with end times of 08:30, 09:00, and 09:30, N4 updates the truck visit end time to 09:30. This results in a truck visit appointment duration of 90 minutes.
Overage allowed	Enter the percentage of appointments that N4 can allow over the max quota amount. For example, if you enter 10 for the Overage allowed and the max quota is 20, then N4 allows 2 appointments over the max quota for a total of 22 appointments. For percentages that result in non-integer values, standard rounding rules apply.
Peak Hour	Select this check box if the truck visit appointment rule applies only during peak hours and you want a record of truck visit appointments that are used during this time. If selected, when a truck visit appointment is created for this rule, N4 displays a dot in the Peak Hour column in the Truck Visit Appointments view (on page 1). In addition, when this truck visit appointment is used, N4 records an additional TVAPPT_USED_PEAK_HRS event that can be used for billing purposes.
Priority Group Max Trucks	If using appointment priority groups, select this check box to use the value in the Total Trucks field as the total number of truck visit 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 Trucks is 4, and in the Appointment Priority Group form the Guarantee is 50 percent, then the maximum number of truck visit appointments available to non priority trucking companies is 2. In addition, priority trucking companies are guaranteed at least 2 truck visit appointments. If you do not select the Priority Group Max Trucks check box, N4 does not guarantee truck visit appointments for priority trucking companies for the selected truck visit appointment rule.