Con-Way Transportation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich., has added an electronic bill of lading function for its less-than-truckload customers to its web site, www.con-way.com.

The new enhancement will allow customers to set up templates for bills of lading that are used for repetitive shipments. It will be available only to registered customers of the secured area within the web site. Shipper, consignee and commodity information will be stored in a bill of lading template for quick, easy retrieval when same or similar shipments repeat themselves. Each customer can set up as many as 50 templates. The new function has the flexibility to generate a template from a completed BOL, and a BOL from a template. Both can be indirectly generated from an archived BOL.
According to company officials this newest enhancement will increase thespeed and convenience of two other existing e-business functions -- the production of completed bills of lading in a PDF format and the population of the PDF documents with key shipping data collected from input screens.
Con-Way customers have been printing their PDF file locally or sending it via e-mail to a separate location where the shipment will be picked up by Con-Way.
Company officials also said the new template functionality would enhance another recent improvement, the establishment of an XML (extensible markup language) link for the BOL. XML enables Con-Way and its customers to set up an electronic link between the customer's ERP or order process system and the CON-WAY EBOL system. The required shipping information is electronically transferred and the BOL document is auto-generated and ready for transfer via email to the shipping dock or elsewhere for printing.
In addition, a pickup notice can be sent electronically to the Con-Way service center that will make the pickup. Customers can also submit a BOL through XML and use it later as an on-line template.