Air Waybill Edit - Screen 2

Special formats for Commodity Descriptions

Here are some rules for filling out rating descriptions on AWB screen 2. These are not written for the most part, but I have inferred them from the examples in the TACT book and what the airlines reject in our FWB messages.
  1. Descriptions may *not* precede a rating line. All descriptions must be on or follow the associated rate line. This is a stupid rule, but I didn't make it up, and it is difficult for me to rearrange the descriptions in software since it is hard for a machine to tell in general which rating line a description should go with.
  2. When doing a ULD, the rate line (typically with a 'U' for rate class) must be followed by an 'X' rate class with the tare weight. The 'ItemNo' field of the X line must have the ULD rate class (such as '3' or '7') and the description field must have the ULD container id in the format ammmnnn(n)mm, e.g. PAG0123BA. You must add additional X lines (with no tare weight) for additional container ids. Tough luck if you are shipping more than 10 containers - BMS doesn't support continuation AWB's.
  3. When shipping containers, you may put the number of pieces inside the containers as "Shippers Load And Count" or SLAC on a description line. For instance, if the container is loaded with 27 packages, one of the description lines would be '27 SLAC'. This format is recognized by the EDI software and will be useful to agents overseas when unpacking and distributing a consolidation. BMS plans to have the 'consol' function key on AWB screen 2 add this line for you in the future.
  4. A rate class with no pieces may not precede the first rating line. Several of the AWBs done recently have had a 'C' rate class all by itself as the first printed line. The airlines don't like this, and I don't see the purpose of it.