APS Setup
General
Use the APS Setup page to configure the connection between 3PL Dynamics and an external Advanced Planning System (APS) that plans and dispatches trips on your behalf. Besides the interface connection details, the setup determines which system is authoritative when a planned activity is updated with an actual date and time, and whether that update also shifts the planning of the activities that follow it on the same trip.
Functionality
The Processing group on the APS Setup page contains two fields that control how planned activities behave once actual dates and times start coming in from the APS, for example through a device or status flow.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Activity Update Strategy |
Decides which system leads when a planned activity's actual dates/times change. APS Leading lets the incoming update from the APS take over the activity's actuals, status, and Ready flag. BC Leading keeps 3PL Dynamics in control: an incoming update is blocked with an error if the activity is marked Manual, or if it's marked Ready and the incoming data doesn't match. |
Move Succeeding Activities |
Only editable and only relevant when Activity Update Strategy is APS Leading. Set to Yes (the default) to shift the planned start and end date/time of every succeeding activity on the same trip — that is, every activity with a higher sequence number — by the same difference whenever the actual starting or ending date/time of an activity changes. Set to No so that only the activity itself is updated; the planned dates/times of the succeeding activities are left untouched. When Activity Update Strategy is BC Leading, succeeding activities are always shifted and this field is disabled and reset to Yes — the parameter has no effect in that strategy. |
For example, with APS Leading and Move Succeeding Activities set to No, reporting a later actual starting date/time on stop 2 of a trip no longer pushes out the planned dates/times of stops 3, 4, and so on. Stop 2 itself is still updated as usual — including its actual dates/times, norm hours, and Ready validation.
Note
Turn off Move Succeeding Activities for trips that are planned and monitored by a device or status flow driven by the APS. This keeps the APS-planned schedule for the rest of the trip stable instead of having it recalculated every time a driver reports an actual date/time.
This behavior applies wherever an actual starting or ending date/time is set, whether through the user interface, a function set, a status, or the APS.