Rate Shop for Load - Transportation Smartbench

Use this page to view tariff/service combinations identified by the route, rate and schedule (or route and rate) process and optionally select one of these combinations for a Load. You can access this page only when Monetary Information Control is set to All Monetary Values from the List of Users page and the Rate Shop operation is authorized by an Administrator.

Note: When you are on the Rate Shop for Load page, you cannot perform any action on the main Transportation Smartbench (TSB) frame.

The Rate Shop page is displayed even if there are no eligible tariff/service combinations. However, if the load is not currently eligible for rating (that is, undergoing re-planning) or is no longer eligible for rating updates (that is, Financial Status in greater than Voucher Pending), the operation will be halted with an appropriate error message.

If a load is attached to a booking, then the Rate Shop for Booking - Transportation Smartbench page is displayed.

If a load is attached to a trip, then the Rate Shop for Trip - Transportation Smartbench page is displayed.

By selecting the applicable columns for display on this page:

• Cost can be displayed in one or more of these currencies:
  • Base System Currency
  • User's Currency
  • Tariff Rating Currency (potentially different for each tariff/service combination)
  • Tariff Payment Currency (potentially different for each tariff/service combination)
• Distances can be displayed in one or both of these units of measure:
  • Base System Distance Unit of Measure
  • User's Distance Unit of Measure
• Calendar date fields can be displayed in date/time and date only format.
• Duration values can be displayed in measures of ‘Hours’ and ‘Days’.

Initially load the screen

When the Rate Shop page is first presented, tariff/service combinations will be selected for presentation based on the setting of the Direct Rate Shop Default Constraint Level flag in Global Settings:

• Soft Committed: The Rate Shop list will initially include just the tariff/service combinations that are compatible with the current hard and soft commitments for carrier, service, trailer equipment type, tractor equipment type, trailer domicile and tractor domicile.
• Tendered or Manual Input: Only hard commitments will be honored.
• Confirm or Shipment: Hard commitments will be honored only if they are based on shipment requirements, plus carrier will be locked if the operational status is Confirming or higher.

The order of results is based on the Carrier Selection setting from Global Settings:

• Cost: Sequencing will be based on computed cost.
• Performance: Sequence will be based on costs that have been adjusted to reflect relative differences in Carrier Performance (Grade).

When multiple services for a single tariff meet the routing, rating (and optionally scheduling) requirements for a load, the Rate Shop page will display a separate row for each qualifying tariff/service combination. While there could potentially be multiple tractor/trailer equipment types and tractor/trailer domiciles eligible for each tariff/service combination, the Rate Shop page will initially display the preferred equipment types and domiciles, where the selection within each tariff/service combination will be based on lowest cost and then priority for the equipment types.

Tender reject/cancel information is available for presentation. The inclusion of tender event (that is, tender reject, tender cancel), tender reason and tender date/time in the list will inform users of carriers that have already rejected a tender or had a tender cancelled internally.

Options section

Use the following controls to change the selection criteria for the Rate Shop list. Use the Refresh icon in the Rating Results section header to trigger a reload of the Rate Shop page after modifying one or more of these selection criteria:

• Include Entries with Invalid Scheduling: If scheduling is active for the load, the list will initially include only the tariff/service combinations where all scheduling constraints can be satisfied if there is at least one combination where scheduling is successful. If there are other combinations where routing/rating succeeds but scheduling fails, this check box will be enabled. Select this check box to also include tariff/service combinations where routing and rating was successful but where scheduling failed. If scheduling is not active for the load, routing and rating (that is, not scheduling) will be performed when loading the screen and this check box will not be editable. If scheduling is active for the load but scheduling fails for all tariff/service combinations, then this flag will be automatically selected and list will present combinations where routing/rating (without scheduling) was successful.
• Scheduling Active: This read only element displays the input load’s Scheduling Active flag. If all tariff/service combinations fail to schedule, this setting will be overridden to False.

  Note: Scheduling Active is an editable element on the Load entity grid.

• Remove Commitment Constraints: If the Direct Rate Shop Default Constraint Level flag in Global Settings is not Confirm or Shipment, use this check box to remove existing constraints for carrier, service, equipment types and domiciles. If selected, all hard and soft commitments will be lifted (excluding commitments based on requirements for attached shipments and also excluding commitments for carrier if the load operational status is Confirming, or higher).
• Equipment Type Selections: Use this combo box to view other eligible equipment types and domiciles for a given tariff/service combination:
  • Best Equipment Types: Default. List will include the best trailer equipment type (and tractor equipment type and domiciles, if applicable) for each tariff/service combination.
  • Applicable Equipment Types: If the carrier for the selected tariff/service combination is domicile based, the list will include all eligible tractor domicile/tractor equipment type combinations for the selected tariff/service combination. The best trailer equipment type and trailer domicile are displayed for each row. If the carrier is not domicile based, the list will be loaded with all eligible trailer equipment types for the tariff/service combination.
  • Applicable Trailers: If the carrier for the selected tariff/service combination is domicile based, the list will include all eligible trailer domicile/trailer equipment type combinations for the selected tariff/service/tractor domicile/tractor equipment type combination; otherwise, the list will be loaded with all eligible trailer equipment types for the tariff/service combination (that is, same as for Applicable Equipment Types).
• Voyage Selections: Use the drop-down list to view other eligible itinerary and/or voyage combinations for a given tariff/service combination (if applicable):
  • Best Voyages: By default, this value is selected. This mode will select the best itinerary/voyage combination for each qualifying tariff/service combination.
  • Applicable Voyages: This mode will select all eligible itinerary and/or voyage combinations for each qualifying fixed date tariff/service combination. A separate row will be displayed for each qualifying timetable entry for the primary itinerary.
• Apply Resource Constraints: Indicates whether resource constraints such as lane constraints and equipment availability are applied when executing any routing/rating/scheduling request. If this flag is selected and Transportation Planner configuration is also set to "True", then resource constraints will be considered when selecting a carrier/tariff/service combination. If this flag is deselected, regardless of the Transportation Planner configuration, resource constraints will not be honored.

Shipment Legs section

This section displays the list of shipments assigned to a load. Use this section to modify the shipment pickup and/or delivery horizons and generate scheduling results based on the revised shipment horizons.

The ability to modify shipment horizons is controlled by Allow Change Shipment Horizon From Rate Shop on the List of User Groups page. See “User Group fields”. Users are allowed to view the impact of potential changes to the shipment date horizon even if they are not allowed to update the shipment dates.

When the Scheduling Active flag for the load is set to True, you can modify the shipment pickup and/or delivery horizons for each shipment that has not yet been confirmed. However, if the load becomes scheduling disabled as a result of the rate shop process, then none of the changed shipment horizons can be saved. When Scheduling Active for the load is False, shipment horizons cannot be changed.

Use the Refresh icon in the Rating Results section header to reload the Rate Shop page after modifying one or more of the following fields:

• Override Pickup From Date/Time
• Override Pickup To Date/Time
• Override Delivery From Date/Time
• Override Delivery To Date/Time

Any change in the date/time values for a shipment is identified with a pink background. The modified values will be saved only when the rate shop result is committed.

The overridden shipment horizons will be used throughout the operational lifecycle of the affected shipments.

Selecting a tariff/service combination

When a tariff/service combination is selected from the Rate Shop page and user clicks Submit or Submit Tender:

• If the Hard Commit flag (in the Submit Options section) is checked, the carrier, service and trailer equipment type for the load will be hard committed based on the chosen tariff/service combination. If there is a tractor equipment type, trailer domicile or tractor domicile associated with the route, these values will also be hard committed. Otherwise, any of the values associated with the selected route that are not hard committed will become soft committed.
• If scheduling is currently active for the load but scheduling failed for the selected tariff/service combination, the "Scheduling Active" flag for the load will be set to False when updates are performed.
• If the current load is in Tendered or Tender Accepted operational status:
  • the carrier and service associated with the selected tariff/service combination is different than the carrier and service that received the most recent tender for the load:
    • If enabled, user is prompted to provide Reason Codes for the tender cancel event (in addition to the Override Reason Code, if enabled).
    • If the user is authorized (that is, has access to and uses the ‘Submit/Tender’ operation), the tender to the existing carrier will be cancelled and a tender offered to the new carrier.
    • If the user is not authorized (or does not use the ‘Submit/Tender’ operation), the request to modify the tariff/service combination for the load will be denied.
  • If the carrier and service associated with the selected tariff/service combination is the same as the carrier and service that received the most recent tender for the load, the user is prompted to provide a reason code for the tender update event (in addition to the Override Reason Code, if enabled).