Toyota Allocation/Ordering/Transporting System Explaination

this will be very long winded and i jump around points at time and i am stealing some of my prior posts so sorry about that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i am going to try to explain how toyota allocation systems works. this is not all encompassing on every aspect and/or nuances that affect the allocation system.

how toyota builds vehicles, how allocation works, how to put in a allocation reserve request, how transporting work.

how toyota builds vehicles:

toyota builds vehicles by way of computer allocation system. the computer determines what vehicle is made on the assembly line based on previous sales (pretty sure its last fiscal year). based on the previous sales it allocates certain models are built more than other models/trims/factory packages on the assembly line.

ie: out of 100 tundra's being built, it may allocate 30 to be limited, 20 be SR5, 5 be SR, 15 be Platinum, 20 be 1794, 10 be TRD.

ie: out of 30 limiteds being built, it may build certain colors more than others, more 4x4 than 4x2, more crew cabs than double cabs, etc.

right now i know platinum's are mostly being built with the AQ package code (HUD), but my regional port requires that if you order the AQ package, you also must select the RB package code (powered running boards). the system wont validate the request if both are not checked in the allocation reserve request screen (my screenshot).

dealer allocations system :

when you goto a dealer and say you want this specific configuration of a tundra (or any toyota) the dealer can either tell you what they have in transit, on the lot (or in times prior to covid) what they could swap with another dealer. if that dealer doesnt have or can get you what you are looking for they can log into dealerdaily and look for anything within that region.

here is a list of toyota regions in the USA.

New England Region -- Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island
Greater New York Region -- New York, New Jersey, Connecticut
Central Atlantic Region -- Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, W. Virginia, Delaware, District of Columbia
Western Region -- Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota
Ohio Valley Region -- Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee
Midwest Region -- Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota
Mountain Region -- Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming
Northern CA Region -- California north of the Los Angeles metro area
Southern CA Region -- Los Angeles metro area, and areas south
Pacific Northwest Region -- Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana

Gulf States Region -- Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi
Southeast Region -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
here is a list of the regional ports before they were renamed. this is an old repost from my tacoma world forum post

• Boston Office (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI) 508-339-5701
• New York (NY, NJ, CT) 973-575-7600
• Central Atlantic (PA, VA, WV, MD, DE) 410-760-1500
• Kansas City Region (ND, SD, NE, KS, IA, M0) 816-891-1000
• Cincinnati Region (MI, OH, KY, TN) 513-745-7500
• Chicago Region (MN, WI, IL, IN) 630-907-0150
• Denver Region (WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV) 303-799-6776
• San Francisco Region (Northern CA) 925-830-8300
• LA Region (Southern CA) 949-727-2700
• Portland Region (AK, WA, OR, ID, MT) 503-493-4900

• Gulf States Region (OK, TX, MS, LA, AR) 713-580-3300
• Southeast Region (NC, SC, AL, GA, FL) 954-429-2000

not confident on the phone numbers since they are from late 2000's
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


gulf states region is also know as GST (Gulf States Toyota)
southeast regions is also know as SET (SouthEast Toyota)

also be mindful that GST and SET do not have to follow Toyota USA rules since they existed prior to toyota usa coming to america (sorta like how CARB can set their own rules outside the EPA)

GST and SET also have financial arms that are own by the same family that runs GST or SET just like toyota/lexus financial are still the same company (Toyota Financial).

this also extends out to the extended warranties underwritten by GST or SET. just be mindful that these extended warranties may not be valid if you move or use a toyota dealer that is outside GST or SET regions.

as per the below pic, this is a scan of a printout of dealerdaily allocation reserve request that my dealer (this is my reserve request for a platinum) has no issue giving me a copy since i have bought about 13+ toyota's from them.



a dealer puts in an allocation reserve request into dealer daily. once you select the packages and/or options and color, they have to hit a button to verify that selection is valid for the regional port that dealer is part of. it will either validate it or reject it per the regional port rules.

the first reserve request is consider the primary request. you can enter multiple requests after the first one but the caveat is that if one of your secondary or tertiary requests gets built before your primary they may fulfill that reserve request and ignore the other selections. its a gamble if you are willing to take it. on my request i only put in 1 request and i am willing to wait for that vehicle to be built. the more odd ball the config (or low selling trim like the SR) the least likely it will be build on the assembly line.

once a vehicle is built at the assembly line, it is then allocated to a regional port. its a weighted system to certain configs are predominate to certain regions. more 2wd are sent south compared to 4wd being sent to snow states, etc.

once a regional port is selected by the computer it will look at allocation reserve requests in that regional port and pick one that is either an exact match to the config or as close to any that are not an exact match. then its tagged for that dealer on the request.

before the system opened up, toyota usa determined which dealer got what configurations, but since its now open, a dealer can preference what they want. another caveat is that depending on how the dealer did in previous quarters/fiscal year to meet toyota selling quota's, dealers get weighted on who gets what first and how many reserve request they are allowed to enter into dealer daily. another snag is if your dealer is considered a primary or secondary dealer. primary are toyota exclusive dealer, secondary are dealers that sell other brands along side toyota (they are somewhat considered a 2nd rate toyota dealer so they are lower on the totem pole for allocations)

big cities dealers you will see they will have 5-10 tundras in transit or on the lot. at one point the dealer about 100 miles away had 9 tundra's on his lot last month and now only has 1. one dealer in MN has currently 9 tundra's in transit but all are reserved (sold)

EDIT:
on the above screenshot, i forgot to add, factory accessories (ie: packages) are those items added during the factory/assembly line build of the vehicle.

post production items are those that are either installed at the regional port (PIO) or dealer (DIO). if you dont have it checked during the order reserve request, these can be ordered thru the parts department and added at the dealer (DIO), with the issue of possibly being charged higher than what would have been charged when you optioned it with the vehicle originally (usually added labor cost, parts dept. up-charge, shipping cost, or flat out profit margin on parts)

how transporting work:

on the allocation reserve request screen (which is not shown), certain "post production" items are installed at the regional port (PIO, port installed option). this is your best option for add-ons as the people putting these items on have higher proficiency and quality of install on these items compared to a dealer (also know as DIO, dealer installed option). remember the person at the dealer may have only installed and item once or a very few times, so your vehicle will be a test mule for them to learn.

on transporting a vehicle from the factory to the dealer:



this is a scan of my delivery status printout on our 2018 tundra platinum. the new screen for status delivery is completely different from when we bought our 2018 vs our 2022

once its built it will be loaded to a rail car and shipped to a regional port. once at a regional port any PIO will be installed, stop sale issues fixed and/or qc issues resolved prior to being loaded to a transport truck. once its on a transport truck you will not get any updates via dealer daily until it hits the dealer. rail updates are more likely.

(a lot of 1794 are in qc hold at ports and i have seen some sitting at a port since nov-2021, with one person replying saying his 1794 has been on hold since before then i think)

the dealer can go into dealer daily and pull up a timeline status screen of where and what milestones it is suppose to hit in the build/transport phase.

production date is the birth of your vehicle (or when its suppose to be build on the assembly line)

vessel depart/arrival is for shipments coming from japan (lexus, 4runner, land cruiser) and arrival at a usa ship port (i know jaxport is for SET region)

plant/port process means it been thru the assembly line and passed QC and loaded onto a rail car (usa plant) or from a ship from japan and loaded onto a rail car to ship to a regional port

rail departure is when it left the usa factory on the rail car or in the case of shipments from japan, the usa shipping port on rail transport

rail arrival is the arrival at the regional port

shipment to dealer is when its put on a transport truck to the dealer after being processed thru the regional port (qc holds, stop sale hold, PIO installs)

railcar location just tells you where it is located while in transit and what date/location "temple, tx". (this will only populate when its on a rail car from the plant/port to a regional port and if you catch the train stopped between the 2 locations)

edit: just wanted to add, the turkey day screwed the delivery by alot. it didnt end up arriving at the dealer until dec-3 and we picked it up at 6pm on dec-4. our original request was put into dealer daily back on oct-14 i think.


hopefully that gives people a simple understanding how "ordering" works for toyota.

edit: with new info i will be adding the actual regional rail ports

unless otherwise noted, these are where they unload rail cars for toyota's
some locations also load them onto rail cars

some locations are also vessel unloads from japan (jaxport is a primary one)

i know off the bat that commerce, ga and jaxport is the primary location for SET region, and Kansas city is the regional port for me

AZ - Phoenix
AR - West Memphis
CA - Benicia (load/unload), Long Beach (load), Mira Loma, Richmond
CO - Denver
FL - Jacksonville (Load/Unload - Jaxport), West Lake
GA - Brunswick, Commerce, Savannah
IL - Logistics Park
IN - Layfayette (Load Only), Princeton (Load/Unload)
KS - Kansas City
KY - Georgetown & Louisville (load only)
MD - Jessup, Baltimore
MA - East Brookfield
MN - St Paul
MS - Tuepelo (load only)
NJ - Newark
NM - Albuquerque
NY - Selkirk, Mechanicville
OH - Lordstown
OR - Portland (load/unload)
TX - Houston, San Antonio (Toyota Assembly, load only)
UT - Salt Lake
WA - Renton

Canada

AB - Calgary
BC - New Westminster
WB - Moncton
ON - Agincourt (load only), Cambridge (load only), Woodstock (load only)

Mexico
Salamanca (load only)
Lazaro Cardenas Michoacan (load only)
Veracruz

edit:

apparently if you can get a rail status update on your allocation like shown below (pic used from @aguninc post)

look for the "TTGX981661" entry or similar entry to determine your railcar. then you can call this number to get an actual status

Trace rail cars with Touch Trace: dial 1-877-ShipCSX (1-877-744-7279), options 2-1-3




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i heard via 3rd party whispers that a big 3 (ford) may look into doing this same system.

the reason toyota does this is to simplify the number of variables/configurations that you have to build. if you are not building 50-100 different unique trim load outs you have less qc issues in the long run and less issues with parts.

tundra only has like 7 models and then you multiple that by the package(s) for those models.

then compare to a F150/F250/F350 and then you add in the packages for those and it gets nuts on how many parts/config you have to keep track of. now if you are a assembly line technician, you have to keep that somewhat in perspective, you cant remember all of those myriad configs but if you only have say 20-35 to remember, its gets easier and less likely you will screw something up.

but that just my speculation.

update 2022-11-05:

here is my allocation reserve request that was finally picked up. had to compromise on the FIO/PIO options since the wife was tired of waiting for her tundra after 6 months

 

great post!

 

Dang, thanks for all the insightful information! That’s one heck of a dealer sharing all this with you. I’m at 5 Toyotas from the same dealer, but I haven’t broken the code to get that kind of information yet!

 

We currently have 4 Tundras "on ground", 7 Tundras in freight, and 17 in allocation. All of them sold.

I'm one of the few parts guys that has access to new car inventory in dealer daily.

 

thanks for all the hard work for do for the tundra forums related to parts inquiries and what not. hopefully we as a group repay by buying stuff from you and or from your dealer website.

 

so for anyone that wants to see what the new status screen looks like i am stealing a post from another member @Leboxerdog since my reserve request hasnt even been picked yet.

 

Where are the regional ports?

 

read thru my OP, i have them listed. i dont actually list the actual port, but they are in that region in one of the states.

for my region, the port is kansas city.

 

well i found a very old post that i had over in the tacoma world forums where i posted the actual regional ports before they were renamed.

• Boston Office (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI) 508-339-5701

• New York (NY, NJ, CT) 973-575-7600

• Central Atlantic (PA, VA, WV, MD, DE) 410-760-1500

• Southeast Region (NC, SC, AL, GA, FL) 954-429-2000

• Cincinnati Region (MI, OH, KY, TN) 513-745-7500

• Chicago Region (MN, WI, IL, IN) 630-907-0150

• Kansas City Region (ND, SD, NE, KS, IA, M0) 816-891-1000

• Gulf States Region (OK, TX, MS, LA, AR) 713-580-3300

• Portland Region (AK, WA, OR, ID, MT) 503-493-4900

• Denver Region (WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV) 303-799-6776

• San Francisco Region (Northern CA) 925-830-8300

• LA Region (Southern CA) 949-727-2700

not confident on the phone numbers since they are from late 2000's

 

Seems to me when waiting on mine back in Sept I was looking at different locations around the Cincinnati area using Google Earth and didn't find anything with rail access and if memory serves me no real truck loading facility. Which makes me wonder if the new trucks are driven from the rail yard off loading yard to the Toyota regional offices for the port installed options. If so, they must have a way to either disable the odo or reset it. My truck had 1.something miles when I got it and that included the trip to the gas station to fill it up.

 

there is quite a bit of rail access in cincinnati. all the colored lines are railroads

https://rail.ohio.gov/rail-in-ohio/resources/01-printed-rail-map-request

 

I'm familiar with the rail system there. Unfortunately I spent too many days there working on the RR.

 

or car carriers from train yard to port facility?

 

That is uncommon to see the vehicles off loaded right at the port. Unless of course the port is very close to the rail yard. Elkhart Yard had a van yard which was right next to the departure yard where van cutoff chassis and Class A running chassis were unloaded and driven or trucked to the nearby RV manufacturers. The autorack rail car requires much larger radius curve and general track conditions so building a customer access track can be very expensive. Generally off loading at a railyard and driving a few miles would be a more cost effective way of doing it.

Edit: After re reading your post it occurred to me car carrier might be the semi trailer not the rail car. Yes, that is an option for longer distances.

 

This link gives most of the US and Canadian rail loading and unloading ports with the address of the port and which auto manufacturers load and unload there.

https://aar.com/standards/pdfs/2019 AAR Terminal Guide Master 1.1.19.pdf

 

i know commerce ga and jaxport (jacksonville fl) are the main hubs for SET without even looking at that link.

and thanks for that link

 

this is my regional port (kansas city)

as you can see the port is pretty much just a big lot to unload the rail cars. if you notice in the top right of the pic, the rail line spurs off the main line (yellow arrow) and you can see all the rail car carriers (big yellow circle) on the right side of the lot. the red circle is the ramp to unload from the rail carrier. i am guessing from unload to lot is maybe .01 mile then they are loaded to a transport truck after that and taken to the actual regional service center.

if you want to see a better detail of that screenshot. if you zoom in alot you can see a lot of detail that i cant screenshot here to fit.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/7...2!3d39.0859112!4d-94.7343214?hl=en&authuser=0

 

Thanks for the excellent writeup.

I have been going through this process, having a Platinum built on May 12 that is still in freight. Your description matches what I have learned, except for one thing: My dealer told me the port installed options were installed at the originating port, NOT the destination port. This screwed me up because I wanted a tonneau cover, which is a port installed option. My dealer said not to worry. If it didn't have one on the build sheet (and I did not), because he could catch it in time to have it installed at the port. I assumed he meant that it would be installed when it got to NJ. I was wrong. On May 13 he called and said it was too late because the truck went from being built, to "on the train" in just one day. That didn't make sense to me since I thought the port installed options were to be installed in NJ. Then the realization hit me. I questioned the dealer regarding exactly which port the options were installed in. His reply: Texas.

Bottom line: I can still add it, but at the dealer. In the midst of this supply crisis, I was fortunate to have my truck built and shipped quickly, but sadly for me, this one point of the process went too fast. My $1,295 tonneau cover is now going to cost $1,895 installed. Sux for me, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

 

Not sure if you're aware, but retail on the trifold is $1185. Attached are the instructions to install it. Not sure where they're getting $700 from, but it would take the average person an hour to put that thing on, if that.

 

Thanks. Yes I am, I think. I installed a tonneau cover on a previous truck and it went relatively fast and easily.

I was reading through the tonneau cover thread and I saw a post or two saying the cover is weatherproof (or darn close to it) when factory installed. That's what I was hoping for. Is that the Backflip or Toyota price? Toyota's website shows $1,295.

My dealer said the $1,895 includes retail markup, shipping and installation. Dealer talk. Next they will be asking if I want it undercoated! The dealer said "Let me see what I can do." More dealer talk. I'll decide what to do when I get the truck, which I hope will be in a week or two. $1,295 installed would have been fine with me, but I am certainly not inclined to pay $600 more than that, just because the truck was "shipped too fast".

 

$1185 is for the part. On Toyota.com, they show $1295 because whomever is installing it at the port needs to get paid too. Sometimes install prices are cheaper through Toyota when building the vehicle, depending on if it is an accessory that can be thrown in at the time the vehicle is being built, versus having a tech at the dealership having to disassemble something put the part in, then reassemble. Since the bed cover wouldn't be any easier at any point, the labor is about the same (roughly 1 hour).

I have never seen a bed cover be weatherproof. Some are better than others at keeping water out, though. $1185 is the Toyota retail price. If you went into the parts department and bought it, that would be what they would sell it for. Service would probably charge 1 - 1.5 hours of labor, at whatever rate they have. It may be different for accessories versus the door rate. The sales department likes to make money on accessories too, hence the extra ~$600.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I too, have never heard of a weatherproof tonneau cover, unless you get the one piece fiberglass cover. I once bought a used Silverado that came with one. I hated it. While it kept the bed dry, it was otherwise awkward and in the way. I am just hoping to get as close as possible to waterproof and the consensus seems to be that the OEM cover will do that for me.

 

as per my original post, thats why i said getting it installed at the port is usually cheaper than getting it done at a dealer since dealers have added cost of paying for shipping and paying someone to install it. also some dealer do markups on pricing, just like in a real world situation.

ie: if a cup of coffee cost .25c to make, you will charge .75c to serve that to a customer.

 

I get it.

 

lordstown, ohio rail facility ...

https://www.google.com/maps/search/lordstown+rail/@41.1763429,-80.8730216,1102m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

updated original post with new info


apparently if you can get a rail status update on your allocation like shown below (pic used from @aguninc post)

look for the "TTGX981661" entry or similar entry to determine your railcar. then you can call this number to get an actual status

Trace rail cars with Touch Trace: dial 1-877-ShipCSX (1-877-744-7279), options 2-1-3

 

someone was saying in another thread that toyota is now using silverbow, mt as a regionialy port railyard. not really sure of that since its so dam small for a regional port.

https://www.google.com/maps/@46.0022649,-112.6681871,522m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e2?hl=en


and then you compare it to the primary regional railyard port for that region and how massive it is

https://www.google.com/maps/search/...-122.7658081,552m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e2?hl=en

 

here is a comparison of the portland railyard (circled in yellow) compared to silverbow, mt railyard placed in the top right corner. these are too scale to each other.

 

If you don’t mind me adding a dumb question, as at 57 I am waiting for my first Tundra . Is there any point to putting in extra requests to other dealers in your area, if you already have one in at a particular dealer? If I am reading this excellent post right, probably not, since my first request from April will already be in dealerdaily? I am in Canada, which might throw a wrench in things.

 

not sure how .ca works since i only have access to usa process.

hopefully a dealer is nice in .ca to actually let you in on the process and see if it actually mirrors the usa process.

on top of that, each providence could be different also.