2023.1.0 New Features

January 24, 2023

Performance Optimizations

In this release, ShipHawk engineering has worked hard to optimize performance in a number of ways: 

• Shipping Speed. Latency when booking shipments has been improved. As a result, you will see we have improved your average booking speed by at least 10%.

• Order Search. When searching for open orders from the Order Details page, the search results will now return an average of 30% faster than before the release.

Order Details page. ShipHawk has optimized the Order Details page so that it loads roughly twice as fast.

OR Logic for Rules Engine Criteria

ShipHawk’s Rules Engine is a powerful tool for automating Rating, Packing, and Shipping decisions based on your requirements. A rule includes:

• Criteria that define when the rule is applied

• Actions that define what happens when the rule is applied

Previously, a rule’s criteria only supported AND logic, where all of the criteria had to be true for the rule to be applied. Now, criteria also supports OR logic, where any of the criteria can be true for the rule to be applied.

Example screen with AND and OR criteria:

Open

Example scenario: You want to offer free shipping for orders over $100 USD OR free shipping to a specific set of ZIP codes near a warehouse.  Previously, you  would have had to create and manage two separate rules, one based on order value and one using ZIP codes.  Now, a single rule can evaluate multiple criteria and apply the action accordingly.

Note that OR logic is available for criteria but not for actions because the Rules Engine would be unable to determine which action to apply.  In these circumstances, two rules should be used with criteria to define a specific action to take.

Support for FedEx Freight Direct

A new delivery service from FedEx called Freight Direct is now supported by ShipHawk. 

The following is excerpted from FedEx’s Freight Direct page:

Delight your customers with total convenience

• Flexible morning and evening 2-hour delivery windows

• Order visibility

• Regular notifications via text2 or email

• Day of scheduling

• Day of delivery

• 30 minutes prior to arrival

• FedEx Freight drivers unpacking Freight Direct shipment inside home

Your customers can choose from multiple service levels

• Basic — delivery to the ground level (front or back door) or to the garage without an appointment3 (no signature required)

• Basic by appointment — delivery to the ground level (front or back door) or to the garage with an appointment3

• Standard — to the first ground-level room in the home or business with an appointment3

• Premium — those requiring a two-person delivery, and/or placement in room of choice with an appointment3 (with the options of packaging removal4)

• Customer pickup at a FedEx service center

Ship nationwide

• FedEx Freight Direct Basic and Basic by Appointment reaches nearly 100% of the population of the United States and Standard and Premium reaches 90% of the population of the continental U.S.

• View available Standard and Premium delivery designation zip code coverage.

Packing Workflow Enhancements

Open

Starting with the 2022.7.0 release, customers who have Workstations enabled for their ShipHawk account now have access to new workflows from the new ShipHawk Workstations page. Packing Workflows in ShipHawk are user interfaces that allow you to pack items into boxes and boxes onto pallets at different times and physical locations in your warehouse. 

This release introduces additional workflow enhancements, including:

• Masterpack Support for Packing Workflow—you can now efficiently pack case quantities by scanning masterpack SKUs or having them automatically applied, which is especially useful for wholesale distributors who ship case quantities.

• Simple LTL Packing Support—you can now efficiently pack prepackaged boxes without needing to use the box packing mode. For ‘simple LTL’ shipments, this provides a way to pack boxes onto pallets quickly.

• Combined Box and Pallet Workflows–admins can now create workflows that allow users to pack boxes and then pack pallets in the same flow. Supports LTL shipments where SKUs are packed into boxes and then boxes are packed onto pallets.

Note: LTL packing workflows are still in beta stages so there are issues being actively resolved. That being said, we would love to gather early feedback. Enabling workstations will not affect your current process, so you do not risk causing problems in the warehouse by enabling workstations. For information on enabling Workstations for your account, contact your ShipHawk Account Manager.

Optionally Require ITN for International Shipments

International shipments valued at more than $2500 may require an Internal Transaction Number (ITN), which confirms the Electronic Export Information (EEI) has been accepted in the Automated Export System (AES). For more information, see Export Filing AES .

In this release, to make sure shipping clerks enter ITN numbers, ShipHawk admins can now have the option to require clerks enter an ITN number when the value of a shipment is more than $2500.

Last Mile Tracking Number

A carrier service integrated with ShipHawk can work with a local consolidator service for the “last mile” delivery to a customer. For example: FedEx Smartpost, UPS Surepost etc. 

 In addition to the primary carrier service tracking number written back to NetSuite by ShipHawk, ShipHawk can now write back the last mile service tracking number to a custom field in the  Item Fulfillment record.  This assures both compliance with vendor requirements and a better customer experience. The mappings can be set up under NetSuite integration settings in ShipHawk: Settings -> Integrations -> NetSuite -> NetSuite Shipment Mappings -> Mappings for Transaction body fields -> Add.

Sync Delivery and Pickup Instructions from Sales Orders

Customers now have the ability to automatically sync pickup and delivery instructions for LTL carriers from NetSuite to ShipHawk if available on the  Sales Order or the Item Fulfillment record. The Pickup Instructions and Delivery Instructions can be  included by setting up a new Order Field Mappings under ShipHawk settings in NetSuite. Once set up, the instructions populate on a proposed shipment automatically so that the shipper does not have to enter them manually.

Shipment Method Mapping for Multiple Subsidiaries

A merchant can have multiple subsidiaries, with each subsidiary having its own shipping method different from the merchant’s default shipping method.  Previously, if a merchant’s subsidiary had a different shipping method than the merchant’s default, the shipping method would have to be specified manually. Now, ShipHawk supports the ability to set different default shipping methods for each subsidiary so that the right shipping method is automatically applied for each subsidiary. 

Shopify App Upgrade

ShipHawk’s In-Cart Rating & Fulfillment app in the Shopify App Store is being upgraded to support the Shopify 2022-04 API versions, to meet Shopify API deprecation requirements.

FedEx Air Dangerous Goods

Shipping Dangerous Goods and Hazardous Materials by FedEx Air is now supported by ShipHawk. 

ShipHawk now supports shipping hazmat, lithium batteries, and dangerous goods (including limited and excepted quantity) by eligible FedEx ground and air parcel services.

Automatically Dispatch LTL 3rd Party / Collect Shipments

Previously, Third Party and Collect billing merchants had to dispatch manually. To improve your workflow times, ShipHawk now dispatches automatically for selected carriers. Please contact your ShipHawk account manager for more information.

Fixed Ship Rate for SKUs Rule Action

You can now match third-party shipping rates with the Fixed Ship Rate for SKU rule action, which applies a fixed rate per service level per item based on specified SKUs. Other items in the order will be rated normally, and a total rate that includes the Fixed Rates and Carrier Rates is returned. This feature is useful especially if you are drop-shipping items through third-party suppliers. Note that the rule action could conflict with table rates so you must validate that the correct rates are returned.

Simplified Item Types

One of the fundamental configuration settings related to Products in ShipHawk is the Item Type.  Item Type defines how each item is packed by the packing algorithm.  Starting with this release (2023.1.0), ShipHawk has introduced new Item Types that simplify their selection while providing more flexibility in how to pack items. ShipHawk can now support three different item types and a number of advanced packing settings that define how a particular item can be packed. 

New Item Types

The three new item types include:

• Pallet—for items that are pre-packed or stored on pallets. Replaces previous “Pallet” and “Unpacked > Pallet” item types.

• Box—for items that are pre-packed in boxes that can be shipped without being packed in a separate material container. Replaces previous “Parcel”, “Box”, and “Unpacked > Box”.

• Loose—for items that are always packed  in containers before shipping. Replaces previous “Unpacked > Generic Unpacked Item” and other “Unpacked > (all other item types)”.

Advanced Packing Settings

The advanced packing settings include:

• Do NOT pack with other items—the item will always be packaged alone.

• Do NOT palletize—the item will never be stacked on a pallet.

• Do NOT pack before palletize—the item (box or loose) will be stacked directly on a pallet without first being packed in a container.

IMPORTANT: The Item Type feature introduced in this release ( 2023.1.0) is NOT backwards compatible with Item Types in previous versions. Existing ShipHawk accounts will NOT be automatically converted to the new Item Types.  Please contact your ShipHawk account manager or email support@shiphawk.com for information on migrating your account to the new Item Types.