Attachment_5_-_TPS_SDDC_BIDS_User_Guide.pdf

MILITARY SURFACE DEPLOYMENT AND DISTRIBUTION COMMAND

(SDDC)

Bidding Interface for Delivery Solicitation (BIDS)

User Guide

Version .02 (Draft) / Valid for Program Version 1.2.0

February 6, 2013

Prepared for:

MILITARY SURFACE DEPLOYMENT AND DISTRIBUTION COMMAND

ATTN: G6, Automated Transportation System Division

Enterprise Technology Branch 1 Soldier Way, Building 1900 West

Scott AFB, IL 62225 Prepared by:

SRA International, Inc.

4300 Fair Lakes Court Fairfax, Virginia 22033

Contract Number GS-35F-4594G

Delivery Order Number HTC711-09-F-0005

DCN 11804-493-401-406-880

February 6, 2013 Contract Number GS-35F-4594G Delivery Order Number HTC711-09-F-0005 1 DCN 11804-493-401-406-880

Revision History

Date Revision Description

5/4/12 0.01 Initial Draft, Bidding Interface for Delivery Solicitation (BIDS)

(DCN 11084-493-301-306-765).

2/6/13 0.02 Added additional information to include Transportation Protective Services (TPS) functionality (DCN 11804-493-401-406-880).

Delivery Order Number HTC711-09-F-0005 2 DCN 11804-493-401-406-880

Table of Contents Introduction

User Authentication

Lane Workflow

Lane Building

Add Lanes

View Lanes

SPLCs

Carrier Bid Screen/Existing Transportation Protective Service (TPS) Lane

Existing TPS Lane

New Lane

New TPS Lane / Bid Form

Manage

Manage Notifications

Add Notification Form

Notification View

Table of Figures Figure 1 – Lane Workflow

Figure 2 – Add Lanes

Figure 3 – View Lanes

Figure 4 – Update Lane

Figure 5 – Add SPLC Form

Figure 6 – Expanded Details

Figure 7 – Existing TPS Lane Bid Link

Figure 8 – Table B

Figure 9 – Table E/F

Figure 10 – Details

Figure 11 – Bid Screen

Figure 12 – Add Notification Form

Figure 13 – Notification View

Figure 14 – Edit Notification

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Introduction This document serves as a user’s guide for the Bidding Interface for Delivery Solicitation (BIDS). BIDS provides the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) with the ability to facilitate the carrier bidding and award process. The BIDS system allows for the creation of lanes and the submission, evaluation, negotiation, and award of lane contracts. SDDC employees have the capability to create lanes which can be tracked from the bid to award process. Commercial carriers have the ability to bid on the available lanes, track their bids, and view their awarded lanes. At every step of the process, auditing provides data reliability and validation of submitted bids. This application uses the Electronic Transportation Acquisition (ETA) to authenticate users of the system.

User Authentication All users of the BIDS application must authenticate through ETA before gaining access to the system.

ETA uses Common Access Card (CAC) validation as a means of verifying the user. Roles are assigned to the user and determine the level of access within the application. If you currently do not have an ETA account, please go to https://eta.sddc.army.mil and follow the steps for requesting an ETA account. Once you have an account, request access to the BIDS application based on the level of access required.

Lane Workflow The Lane Workflow (Figure 1) shows the flow of events involved, from creating a lane to the final process of awarding the lane to the various carriers. The definitions of these processes are defined below.

Lane Building Evaluation

Carrier Bid Negotiation

Award

Figure 1 – Lane Workflow

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Lane Building: SDDC generates a list of lanes which cover most shipments involving commercial carriers. The lanes are released to the carriers for bidding.

Carrier Bid: Commercial carriers place bids on the available lanes based on their estimated shipping costs.

Evaluation: Government evaluates the bids and determines if any should be submitted back to the carriers for negotiation.

Negotiation: Government and commercial carriers negotiate the rates for the lanes.

Award: Lanes are awarded to the carriers.

Lane Building The first step in the process of a carrier bid is the generation of the lane. Lanes are routes between regions, states, or Standard Point Location Codes (SPLCs) which define the scope of shipping the carrier will bid on. Parameters within the lane which can be defined are the Origin, Destination, Equipment Type, and commodities shipped. SDDC G9 has the role of building lanes. Through BIDS, SDDC G9 can add, update, or delete lanes in the Lane Building screens.

Parameter Definitions:

Origin: The origin region, state, or SPLC for the shipment.

Destination: The destination region, state, or SPLC for the shipment.

Equipment Type: The type of transport which is required for the shipment.

Solicitation Type: The type of cargo which will be transported.

Mile Breaks: Division of carrier rates based on a range of miles.

Weight Breaks: Division of carrier rates based on a range of weight in pounds.

Add Lanes The Add Lanes Tool is used by SDDC G9 to create new lanes in BIDS. All aspects of a lane can be assigned through the form as seen in Figure 2. The fields represented on the add lanes form are listed below.

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Figure 2 – Add Lanes

Lane Mode: The lane mode pertains to the lane.

Created Date: The date and time that the lane was created.

Equipment Mode: This determines what will show in the equipment drop-down.

Equipment: The equipment can be added to the lane.

Add Equipment: This adds the equipment to the equipment list to be submitted as a lane.

Equipment Selected: This grid shows the equipment that will be part of the lane.

Commodity Classification: This is the classification of the commodity. At least one needs to be selected.

Commodity: The commodities that could be added to the lane. Type in the first few numbers of the commodity that you want listed.

Commodity Selected: Lists the commodities in the lane.

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Commodity Drop-down: Type in the number of the commodity, and it will start showing the top 10 commodities that start with that number.

State, SPLC, Zone, TPS_Regions: The different ways to display the location drop-down. Only one type of location description is allowed. To switch to another locations type, all prior entries must be removed.

Location: The location to be added to the location grid.

Origin, Destination, Both: The locations position.

Location Selected: List the locations that are part of the lane.

Create Lane: Alters the Lane to use the equipment, commodities and locations as listed in the above grids. Once it is altered, it will either show an error or success message in the text box on the bottom.

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View Lanes The View Lanes page provides the user (SDDC G9) with the ability to view created lanes and make any modifications required on the lanes before they are submitted to the carrier for bidding.

Figure 3 – View Lanes

This screen is used to quickly browse through the different lanes and see the details of the screens.

Equipment: The equipment listed with the lane.

Commodities: The commodities that are with the lanes.

Origin\Destination List: Locations for the lane.

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Figure 4 – Update Lane

Lane Mode: The lane mode pertains to the lane.

Equipment Mode: This determines what will show in the equipment drop-down.

Equipment: The equipment that is part of the lane.

Add Equipment: This adds the equipment to the equipment list to be submitted with the lane.

Commodities: Lists the commodities to be submitted with the lane.

Commodity Classification: This is the classification of the commodity. At least one needs to be selected.

Commodity Drop-down: Type in the number of the commodity and it will start showing the top ten commodities that start with that number.

Locations: List the locations that are part of the lane.

Origin, Destination, Both: The locations position.

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State, SPLC, Zone, TPS_Regions: The different ways to display the location drop-down. Only one type of location description is allowed. To switch to another locations type, all prior entries must be deleted.

Update Lane: Alters the lane to use the equipment, commodities and locations as listed in the above grids. Once it is altered, it will either show an error or a success message in the text box on the bottom.

SPLCs The SPLCs view is the section where users building lanes can add SPLCs to be used in lanes. After a SPLC is added to the view, they are then available in the add/update lane functions.

Figure 5 – Add SPLC Form

The SPLC to be added is entered into the field next to the Add SPLC button. The user then clicks the Add SPLC button. BIDS queries DTOD to verify that the SPLC is valid and adds the SPLC to the table view along with the City, State, Country, and Lat/Long values for the SPLC. If the SPLC is not valid or DTOD cannot be reached for query, the user will be notified with the appropriate message.

The SPLC table also has filter and sort features. The SPLC can be sorted by any of the columns either ascending or descending. Multiple columns can be selected for sorting. The filter fields are below each column header and provide the user to view specific SPLCs based on a variety of filter features.

Carrier Bid Screen/Existing Transportation Protective Service (TPS) Lane The carrier bid screen allows the carrier to access data on existing tenders and either adjust rates on TPS lanes already under contract, or bid on lanes that exist but are not currently under contract. Users can view details for each lane by clicking on the arrow to the left of each lane. Information associated with that lane is displayed in a tab format. (Figure 6)

On the right hand side of each lane, a Bid link is shown. Clicking on this option will display a form which provides the carrier the ability to change carrier information, point of contact, and/or rate data (Figures 7 through 9).

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Figure 6 – Expanded Details

Carrier Information: Carrier information associated with the TPS lane.

Carrier POC: Carrier Point of Contact.

Equipment: Equipment types available.

Commodities: List of commodities.

Territorial Rates: Contains rate table, rate information, origins/destinations and exceptions.

Protective Services: List of protective services and their corresponding rates/charges.

Accessorial Services: List of accessorial services and their corresponding rates/charges.

Existing TPS Lane An existing TPS lane consists of many different pieces of information. Through the bid form, a carrier may modify and submit changes for processing. The carrier can change rate data for the rate table associated with the tender, and modify the rates for any Protective Services and Accessorials for the lane.

Figure 7 shows and example of Rate Table A. This per mile rate consists of a minimum charge and per mile rate. The carrier can adjust these rates up to the not to exceed (NTE) rate negotiated for the contract.

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Figure 7 – Existing TPS Lane Bid Link

Figure 8 is an example of a per hundred weight rate table. Rate table B consists of a minimum charge, minimum quantity, and a rate for each quantity.

Figure 8 – Table B

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In Figure 9, the rate table E (and F, not shown) are an example of per hundred weight per mile. Two sets of minimum quantities are given and rates based on mile breaks are available to set rate pricing.

Figure 9 – Table E/F

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New Lane In cases where a lane does not currently exist, and the frequency of use requires the need for a new lane, SDDC G9 will create a new instance of a lane. These lanes will be displayed under the New TPS Lane tab. Selecting the arrow to the left of the lane will display information for this lane. As shown in Figure 10, the lane only contains data not specific to the carrier. Selecting the Bid link to the right of the lane will bring up the form shown in Figure 11.

Figure 10 – Details

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New TPS Lane / Bid Form The bid form looks similar to the Existing TPS lane edit form, except that carrier information is not yet associated with the lane. The carrier fills out carrier specific information and determines the Rate Qualifier and Rate Table best suited to the mode of transport. Based on the Rate Table selected, the carriers can then populate rate data, add protective services and accessorials, and any exceptions to the lane the carrier might have.

Figure 11 – Bid Screen

Manage The Manage page is only available to the manager role. No other BIDS users are able to view or access the tools on the manage page. This page provides for functions within BIDS that need to be restricted to a select group of privileged users due to their impact on the application.

Manage Notifications Notifications provide the manager with the ability to notify groups of updates to the system or time sensitive availability to particular functions within the application, such as carrier bidding.

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Add Notification Form The form at the top of the Manage Notifications view is the entry form to create a notification. Managers fill out all the tabs on the form in order to post a notification to the system (see Figure 12).

Figure 12 – Add Notification Form

Notification Title: The title of the notification should be relevant to the subject of the notification.

Notification Message: The subject body of the notification. Specific information regarding the notification should be placed here.

Start Date/Time: The Start Date/Time field is the starting point when the notification will be viewable to the users. Calendar controls to the right of the field give the manager the ability to select a date and time automatically.

End Date/Time: The End Date/Time field is the point in time when the notification will no longer be viewable. Like the start date/time, calendar controls allow the manager to select the date/time from drop-down calendar controls.

Priority: The priority sets the position the notification will be displayed on the notification list box. High will be the first to be displayed, followed by Normal and Low.

Viewable By: Viewable By sets the groups which can view the notification. Based on the role set in ETA, a user in the represented role will be able to view the notification only if their role is given view rights to the notification.

Add Notification Button: Clicking the Add Notification button will add the notification to the view below and make it active within BIDS.

Reset Form Button: The Reset Form button will return all the fields to default settings, clearing any fields and selected options.

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Notification View In the Notification table view below (see Figure 13), the notifications currently in BIDS are displayed in a table view. From here, a notification can either be updated or deleted.

Figure 13 – Notification View

Figure 14 – Edit Notification

Edit: The Edit notification form displays the current values for the selected notification. Any of the values for the notification can be modified from this form. Click Update Notification when all changes have been made, or Close to cancel out of the update form (Figure 14).

Delete: Delete allows the manager to remove a notification from BIDS. Delete will prompt for a confirmation before removing a notification from the system.

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Appendix A Acronyms

Acronym Definition

BIDS Bidding Interface for Delivery Solicitation

CAC Common Access Card

DTOD Defense Table of Official Distances

ETA Electronic Transportation Acquisition

NTE Not to Exceed

SDDC Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command

SPLC Standard Point Location Code

TPS Transportation Protective Service