LESSON INFO

Audience

  • Dispatchers who assign trucks to a bay and door.
  • Marshalling teams staging and releasing trucks.
  • Operations supervisors coordinating bay and door readiness.

Prerequisites

  • You can log in to Themis-Trace.
  • You have web app permissions to Marshal and/or Unmarshal.
  • You can select the correct Facility, Work Area, and Work Location on the Marshalling screen.
  • Doors exist for the facility.

Skills you’ll build

  • You can identify which schedule items qualify as Arrived and Marshalled.
  • You can marshal one or more schedule items using Door Selection (set Bay, Door, optional driver note).
  • You can unmarshal when a marshalling decision needs to be reversed.
  • You can predict when an SMS/call should be sent to a driver and understand how to get in touch with them.
  • You can recognize common failure modes (permissions, missing required fields, shipped orders, finished work, inactive/absent doors).

LESSON OUTLINE

Concept

  • The Marshalling screen manages scheduled truck movements in and out of a facility.
  • The screen is pre-filtered to schedule items with:
    • A specified Arrival Time, and
    • An unspecified Actual Finish Time.
  • The UI divides work into two operational states:
    • Arrived: Marshal Time and Actual Start Time are empty.
    • Marshalled: Marshal Time and Actual Start Time both have values.
  • A schedule item can belong to a group.
    • When you marshal or unmarshal a schedule item that has a Group ID, the system applies the same action to all schedule items in that group (and their linked shipping orders) as one operation, and it will block the update if any grouped item is already finished or any linked shipment is already shipped.

Minimum viable setup

  1. Confirm there is at least one Arrived schedule item.
    • Arrival Time must be set.
    • Actual Finish Time must be empty.
  2. Confirm Doors are configured for the facility (so a Door can be selected).
    • Doors are maintained under Administration → Facilities Maintenance → Doors.
    • A Door record has:
      • Facility (required)
      • Name (required)
      • Description (optional)
      • Inactive flag
  3. If you plan to rely on SMS:
    • The driver must have a Driver Phone value.
    • You must provide Work Location, Bay, and Door.

Marshalling

  1. In the Arrived list (or grid), select one or more rows.
  2. Click Marshall.
  3. In Door Selection, for each selected schedule item, set:
    • Bay
    • Door
    • Note to Driver (optional)
  4. Click Save & Close.
    • Save validates mandatory fields.
    • If a mandatory field is missing, the form keeps your inputs and prompts you to fix the issue.
  5. Confirm success:
    • Record moves to Marshalled.
    • Marshal Time and Actual Start Time are populated.

Unmarshalling

  1. In the Marshalled list (or grid), select one or more rows.
  2. Click Unmarshall.
  3. Confirm success:
    • Record returns to Arrived.
    • Marshal Time and Actual Start Time are cleared.

Verification

  • After marshalling:
    • The record appears in Marshalled.
    • Marshal Time and Actual Start Time are populated.
  • After unmarshalling:
    • The record appears in Arrived.
    • Marshal Time and Actual Start Time are cleared.
  • If SMS is expected:
    • SMS is triggered after a successful marshal save.
    • Confirm the schedule item has a Driver Phone.

COMMON ISSUES

    • Likely cause: The item fails the Marshalling pre-filters.

    • Checks:

      • Arrival Time is set.

      • Actual Finish Time is empty.

      • Facility filter matches the schedule item context.

    • Fix:

      • Update the schedule item so Arrival Time is set and Actual Finish Time is not set.

      • Adjust Facility, Work Area, and Work Location filters.

    • Likely cause: No rows selected, or permission is missing.

    • Checks:

      • At least one row checkbox is selected.

      • Your role includes Marshal (and/or Unmarshal).

    • Fix:

      • Select one or more rows.

      • Request the missing permission from an administrator.

    • Likely cause: Door does not exist for the facility, or it is inactive.

    • Checks:

      • In Administration → Facilities Maintenance → Doors, confirm the Door exists for the same Facility.

      • Confirm the Door is not marked inactive.

      • Confirm the Door’s Name follows constraints (max 30 characters, unique).

    • Fix:

      • Create the Door with required fields (Facility, Name).

      • Activate the Door (or clear inactive) so it becomes selectable.

    • Likely cause: Backend validation prevents the change, or another user has already marshalled the entity from another device.

    • Checks:

      • The schedule item (and any items in its group) does not have Actual Finish Time set.

      • Any referenced shipping orders are not shipped (all line items do not have Shipped Time set).

      • Any referenced freight bills do not have shipped shipping orders.

    • Fix:

      • Do not marshal/unmarshal completed work.

      • If shipping is already completed, the schedule item cannot be marshalled/unmarshalled.