Terminal & containers
Build, park and load cages,
one scan at a time
The terminal app gives your warehouse staff the day's loads, lets them build cages by scanning, park them in a slot and load the truck in the right order. Any scan answers the question everyone asks on the floor: where does this go next?
Hi there,
A terminal shift is a long run of small questions. Which truck is next? Which cage does this box go in? Where did we park route 14? Is that box already on the truck? Zendera now tracks cages and other containers from the moment they are built until they are delivered, and the terminal app puts the answers in your hand.
You can work in a browser or on a handheld scanner at terminal.zenderatms.com, or in the Zendera app on a phone. Both work the same way. This page walks through a shift, from setting up the warehouse to the truck leaving the dock.
The terminal app and container tracking need unit tracking switched on for your organization. Ask us to turn it on, and we'll help you set up your depot.
Only people with the Terminal worker role can sign in to the terminal app. Office users and drivers can't open it with their normal login.
Before the shift · For admins
Invite your team and map the warehouse
Two things to do once, in Zendera on the web.
Invite terminal workers
Go to Settings → Users, click Invite user and choose the role Terminal worker. They sign in with that account and pick the depot they work at. Someone who also drives sees a choice of which role to use when they sign in to the app.
Add zones and slots
Go to Settings → Warehouse and pick the depot. Add a New zone for each area of the floor, then a New slot for each bay or rack position in it. Give a slot the Barcode printed on the rack label, so workers can scan it. You can search slots with Find a slot, and copy a barcode with one click.
1 · Start of the shift
Loads: every truck coming to your depot
Sign in, choose your depot, and open Loads. It lists the vehicle visits to your depot for the day, including trucks that haven't arrived yet. Each row shows the driver, vehicle, route numbers and how many boxes or items are done. When a driver comes back for a second run, the rows say Trip 1 and Trip 2.
Every visit has one clear status:
Filter on the date and on your zones, so you only see the work in your part of the warehouse. Search finds a visit by driver, route or registration. Open a visit and switch between Compile and Load (in the phone app the switch says Build and Load).
2 · Build the cages
Scan boxes into a cage
In Compile you see the boxes for each stop on the visit, and the cages already built. Scan or tick the boxes you are putting together, then scan the cage they go into. One scan and they're in. Boxes for another delivery location are refused, so they don't end up in the wrong cage.
Scan the label of an empty cage you already have, and it is put to work for this visit.
Choose Create new container (in the app: New cage from product) and pick the kind of cage. Zendera gives it a new SSCC barcode. Print its label, or write the last five digits on the cage.
When a cage is done, Mark ready so the loaders know it can go. Changed your mind? Send back puts it back in compiling. Do it per cage, or for the whole visit with Mark all ready.
In the app you can put a small cage into a bigger one with Put into another cage, or take a box back out if it went in by mistake.
Making new cages from a product needs an SSCC barcode setup for your organization. If the app says there is none, ask us and we'll set it up.
3 · Park, then load
Put cages in a slot, then on the truck
Move parks cages in the warehouse until the truck is ready. Scan the slot on the rack and the cages that go there, in any order. Nothing moves until you confirm. If a rack label is missing or won't scan, tap Choose from list and pick the slot by zone. The list shows how many cages are in each slot already.
Move tells you straight away if a cage can't be parked, for example because it is already on a vehicle or marked ready to load.
When the truck is at the dock, open the visit in Load. Zendera suggests the load order from the route: first on, last off, so the last stop's cages go in first. A Next marker shows what to load now. Scan each cage or loose box as it goes on. Load something out of turn and you're told at once, so you can decide whether to fix it.
What the loader sees
Rows already on the truck are ticked, the next one is marked. In the phone app the truck is drawn as a strip that ends at the doors, and you can load zone by zone.
Loaded the wrong cage? Undo the load and it goes back where it was. In the browser app, long-press the row.
Made-up example. Row 1 is the last stop, so it goes on first.
4 · Any time
Lookup: where does this go next?
Found a cage by the door, or a box nobody can place? Scan it in Lookup. It works on a cage, a box, a tracked unit or a slot, with a handheld scanner, the phone camera or by typing the barcode. The answer starts with the route it belongs to, in big type, then the stops it is for, then where it is now.
One scan, the whole answer
A cage shows its route, stops, state and the slot it stands in, or the vehicle it is on.
A box shows its order, which cage it's in, and whether it is still in the warehouse or already on a vehicle.
A slot shows what is parked there and warns you if the bay holds more than one route.
Made-up example of a cage scanned in Lookup.
Lookup also finds boxes that are loaded but not delivered yet, and says clearly that they are on a vehicle. No more searching the rack for a box that left an hour ago.
Reprint a box label from Lookup or straight from a row in Load. You pick which roll is in the printer: Standard (101 × 174 mm) or Lager (104 × 66 mm). Cages made from a product can get their cage label reprinted too.
Mark ready and Send back work on the Lookup card too, so you can fix a cage's status without finding its visit.
Scan a tracked unit to see its last events: loaded, delivered, picked up from a customer and returned to the warehouse.
The cage label shows the route, the stops it delivers to and what is inside, so drivers and loaders can read it without a scanner.
5 · After the truck leaves
Follow every container from the desk
Drivers keep working as they do today. When they pick up and deliver boxes in the Zendera app, the cages those boxes are in follow along. So the office and the terminal both see whether a cage is still on the truck or delivered.
Under Cargo carriers, click Containers for a list of every container, with its state, zone, slot and vehicle. Open one for its pickup and delivery zone and slot, the vehicle it is on and the cage it sits inside. People allowed to manage containers can Override state with a reason, or Void a container that no longer exists.
Next to it, Tracked product units lists your reusable cages and pallets by location, with status and when each was last seen. You can add units in bulk with Import CSV.
On order details, the products table gets a Container column showing which cage each product is in. Click it to see everything in that cage, including goods from other orders.
New to cargo carriers? The Cargo Carriers guide explains how carrier balances work alongside container tracking.
Ready to run your terminal in Zendera?
Unit tracking is switched on per organization. Talk to us and we'll turn it on, help you map your zones and slots, and get your first terminal workers signed in. Already on? Start by adding your zones and slots.