Setting up Rate Cards and configuring Site Group pricing for your customer Organisations
This article provides a guide to users responsible for setting Rate Cards and completing customer pricing setup in Hitrak, using the Site Group Pricing Model.
In this article:
Understanding the Site Group Pricing Model
Note 🔎To edit an Organisation's Pricing Setup, users will need to be assigned the Pricing Admin role.
Understanding the Site Group Pricing Model
This model allows for a pricing structure involving 'point to point' rates. Site Group Pricing can be applied only when both the Sender and Receiver of freight are set up as Sites in Hitrak. In order for pricing to apply automatically, each of these Sites must also be added to a Site Group for Collection and/or Delivery.
Site Group rates incorporate any linehaul charges involved in a consignment's journey.
If a Site is both a Collection and Delivery location for your business, it can belong to a different Site Group for sending and receiving, This provides extra flexibility on applying rates, by allowing you to price differently based on whether a Site is the Sender or Receiver of a consignment.
When it comes to pricing a consignment, along with the freight's weight/ volume/unit quantities, the system will resolve the consignment's origin Site to a Sending Site Group, and its destination Site to a Receiving Site Group, then apply rates as defined by the Site Group relationships.
Consignment pricing is applied when the consignment is Delivered.
Note 🔎 Although the pricing process is triggered by Delivery, the rates applied to a consignment are based on the rates effective on the date it was Staged. This is consistent for all rates (Freight, Delivery Extras and Surcharges) in Hitrak, to ensure that any estimated/quoted values are preserved.
Setting up Site Group Pricing
Some of your initial setup in Hitrak for a customer Organisation's pricing will be supported by the Hitrak team, while other steps can be actioned by you and your internal team directly.
To complete Site Group Pricing Setup for each customer, you must first define and provide the relevant pricing and Site Group information for the Organisation to the Hitrak team, then configure various settings in the Admin Portal.
This section provides the detail on the data and processes required to get a customer ready for Rating and Invoicing, using the Site Group Pricing model.
In this section:
Delivery Extras and Surcharges
Charge Types
Charge Types are the measurement used to price consignments, e.g., based on weight, volume, or by freight unit. These must be configured for all Pricing Models to support applying customer pricing.
Customer Organisations can have multiple Charge Types, in the case that you offer more than one method of pricing in your Rate Card. E.g., you may have a price per unit for each of a customer's Freight Types, but also have weight-based pricing.
In these cases, you choose which Charge Type has priority, or can simply set a preference for the highest or lowest price of all the Charge Types to be applied. The system will price for all Charge Types, and choose which to use for pricing, based on the priority or preference that has been set. Most operators choose to apply whichever rate is the highest of the two, and this is the default system setting. This can be changed in the Pricing Setup page.
Hitrak supports the following Charge Types:
Cubage: Priced by the consignment's total volume in cubic metres.
Weight: Priced by the consignment's total weight in kg.
Per Unit: Priced by unit rate x quantity of units. This requires Freight Item Types to be configured correctly in the customer Organisation, and each of those Freight Item Types to have a price in the Rate Card.
Flat rate: A flat rate for deliveries. This could be useful for customers with a specific type of freight which represents a consistent load on a truck.
Price Preferences and Service Type Settings for each Charge Type are configured in the Pricing Setup tab.
Site Groups
To enable Site Group Pricing, Site Groups must be created. These are typically applied to geographical regions, but could be configured for any price-based grouping suitable for your business.
The Hitrak team will enter Site Groups into the system on your behalf, and can add or make changes to these later if required.
Each Site under a customer Organisation must be linked to the appropriate Site Group(s). When setting up your Site Groups, you will need to define which sites belong to each Site Group for Sending and Receiving purposes.
-> To be priced for Collection, a Site must be linked to the appropriate Sending Site Group. If a Site is only ever used as a Collection point (e.g., a distributor) it does not require a Receiving Site Group to be set.
-> To be priced for Delivery, a Site must be linked to the appropriate Receiving Site Group. If a Site is only ever used as a delivery location (e.g. a business who orders goods from a distributor, but never sends anything), it does not require a Sending Site Group to be set.
Links to Site Groups are created when configuring the customer's settings in the Admin Portal. The next section outlines how to get started with pricing setup.
Pricing Setup
In the Pricing Setup page, settings are defined to enable the accurate pricing of consignments being sent between Sites.
This page is split into two tabs: Rate Card Setup and Service Type Settings.
In the Rate Card Setup tab, pricing settings for each of a customer's Sites are defined. This setup can be done as soon as your Sites and Site Groups have been created.
To configure Site Group pricing settings:
- Click Configure.
- In the Pricing Model field, select Site Group Pricing.
- Select the applicable Charge Type(s).
- When these changes have been saved, set up the Site Group links:
- Click the line for the relevant Site.
- Choose the Sending Site Group and/or Receiving Site Group for the site.
- Click Accept to confirm.
In the Service Type Settings tab, some optional settings for each of the customer's Service Types can be defined. All Service Types configured during the Organisation's setup will be available to edit here. Each Service Type can have:
-> Minimum and Maximum amounts priced for their Charge Type(s).-> A Price Preference, to define whether the Highest or Lowest of two rates should be applied to consignments with more than one valid Charge Type.
To set Minimums and Maximums, or change the Price Preference for a Service Type:
- Click the relevant Service Type
- Enter Minimum and Maximum values where applicable
- Edit the Price Preference if required (the default value for this field is Highest).
Check out the video below for a walkthrough of the Pricing Setup page configuration.
When this page has been configured, the customer's rates can be added. The following sections detail the requirements for Site Group Rate Cards, and how to import these into a customer's Organisation.
Rates Cards
A Rate Card with the relevant rates for each customer between each Site Group must be created. The Hitrak team will support this process by providing a template for importing Rates into the system.
Hitrak supports considerable flexibility within the Site Group Pricing model, offering the following options:
-> Service Type-based rates, e.g., if a customer offers both B2C and B2B deliveries, distinct rates can be applied to each Service Type.
-> Various Charge Types for pricing consignments. This may differ based on the customers' freight and the rates offered, and can be further refined by Service Type.
-> Base rates, to apply to each consignment before its incremental weight/volume/unit rates are added.
-> Minimum prices for all Charge Types (excluding Flat Rate).
-> Banded rates to enable pricing based on a quantity or range, for all Charge Types (excluding Flat Rate). E.g., if one rate applies for 1-4 items, another for 5-8 items etc. These can be in the form of a base rate for each band, or a per unit rate for each band.
-> Date-based rates. Different rates can be defined in advance for a particular date range, e.g., if an upcoming increase is planned. Hitrak can hold multiple Rate Cards simultaneously to support this.
-> Unlimited Delivery Extras, to enable fees for additional services, e.g. furniture assembly or extra time required for delivery.
-> Surcharges for FAF, Hireage (e.g. CHEP pallets) or Exports.
Rate Card Requirements
To maximise your use of this Pricing Model, please keep the following in mind when setting up customer Rate Cards:
- A list of Site Groups must be provided.
- A Start date must be defined for all rates.
- A rate must be provided for all variations by:
- Service Type
- Charge Type
- Sending Site Group
- Receiving Site Group
- Rate Band(s)
- Start Date
- If making use of Base Rates, Minimums, Caps or Priorities, these must be included.
- Extras and Surcharges may also be included here for reference, but as these are managed separately to Rate Cards, they can be defined and updated at another time, directly in the Admin Portal.
Limitations
-> Banded Rates are not available for an Organisation's Delivery Extras or Surcharges.
Note 🔎Rates cannot be backdated. Rate Start Dates (and End Dates, where applicable) must be set to a future date; they cannot be earlier than the day after the import is being completed. For full specifications on Rate Card restrictions, see Managing Dates.
Importing a Rate Card
For customers using Site Group Pricing, an Import/Export function allows Rate Cards to be added and updated via the Admin Portal. This step can be completed for the first time as soon as the Organisation's Pricing Setup has been configured.
The Hitrak team will provide a csv file template to use for importing rates. Alternatively, if rates have previously been imported for a customer with similar pricing, an Export of their rates can be used as a starting point and modified.
To import rates for a Site Group Pricing customer:
- Complete the Rates csv file, ensuring it will meet system requirements. We recommend using the Rate Card Requirements above and our article on Using the Site Group Rates File as references while completing this step.
- When the file is ready, click Import Rates.
- Select the file from your device to upload it.
- The system will validate the file, and provide feedback in the case of any errors.
- When successful, rates should be visible in the Site Group Rates tab.
- Check that the rates have imported correctly using the page filters as required.
Tip 💡To view rates which were set for a future date, ensure to filter by the Effective Date field.
Delivery Extras
Extra services your business offers can be created in Hitrak as Delivery Extras, to be added to customer consignments and charged as separate items to freight and fees. When creating a new Organisation, the Delivery Extras available to the customer must be assigned.
Rates for assigned Delivery Extras can be adjusted for a customer if required. You may choose to do this as part of the Organisation's Pricing setup. For instructions on creating and assigning Delivery Extras, and updating their pricing, see Delivery Extras.
Surcharges
Hitrak's Surcharges function can be used for any fees to be applied to customer invoices on top of their freight charges, e.g., Fuel Adjustment Factor (FAF).
Surcharges are system-wide, so cannot be assigned to or removed from an Organisation, but their Rates can be adjusted by customer as required. For details on creating and customising Surcharge Rates for Organisations, see Surcharges.
Viewing and Updating Pricing
There are two pages in a customer's Organisation where the majority of pricing can be viewed and edited: Rates and Pricing Setup.
Extras and Surcharges can be viewed separately, on their respective pages within an Organisation.
In this section:
Updating Site and Service Type Settings
Understanding the Rates Page
Once Rate Card(s) have been entered in Hitrak, the Rates page displays the current Rates available. This page is split into 2 tabs. In the case of different rates being applicable for future or prior dates, rates can also be filtered by the Effective Date field.
For customers using Site Group Pricing, all configured rates will be shown in the Rates page, as per the Rate Card(s) provided.
-> The Site Group Rates tab allows users to filter by Service Type, Freight Type, Sending Site Group and/or Receiving Site Group.
-> The Delivery Extra Rates tab provides a view of all assigned Delivery Extras. Rates for Extras can only be viewed in this tab. To edit the Delivery Extras settings for the Organisation, navigate to the Delivery Extras tab. For details on Managing Extras, see Delivery Extras and Surcharges .
In this example, results have been filtered by the Service Type 'Chilled', Sending Site Group 'Christchurch', all Receiving Site Groups and all 7 Freight Types:
Updating Rates
At this time, it is not possible to modify individual rates directly in the Admin Portal, but the Export/Import function allows for the current Rates file to be downloaded, modified and imported back in.
To update the rates for a Site Group Pricing customer:
- In the Rates page -> Site Group Rates tab, click Export Rates.
- This produces a csv file of all rates for the customer. Any filters used while viewing the Rates page will not be applied to the download.
- Make the required changes to the rate fields on items in the file, such as the Base Rate, Rate Increment, Bands and Minimums.
- If the purpose of the update is only to add new Rates - e.g. rates which weren't previously configured for a Sending and Receiving Site Group combination, or rates which did not previously exist for the Charge Type - a file with only the new rates can be created.
- If the purpose of the update is to set rates for a future date range, but the current rates should still be used until then, ensure the Start Date field has been modified accordingly before importing the file. The system will preserve the existing rates, but automatically set their End Date to align with the Start Date of the new ones.
Note 🔎 Rate Start Dates must be set to a future date; they cannot be earlier than the day after the day the file is imported. For full specifications on Rate Card restrictions, see Managing Dates.
- When finished, click Import Rates to upload the new file. The system will validate the file, and provide feedback in the case of any errors.
- If the import is successful, the updated rates should be visible in the Site Group Rates tab. Check that the rates have imported correctly, with the intended changes or additions.
- To view any rates which were set for a future date, ensure to filter by the Effective Date field.
Tip 💡To view rates which were set for a future date, ensure to filter by the Effective Date field.
For full specifications on Rate files, see Using the Site Group Rates File.
Updating Site and Service Type Settings
If Site Groups have changed, or a Site needs to be moved to a different group for some reason, settings can be edited as per the initial setup.
To edit the settings for a customer's Sites:
- Click the Site to be updated.
- Choose the Sending Site Group and/or Receiving Site Group for the Site.
- Click Accept to confirm the changes.
In the Service Type Settings tab, some optional settings for each of the customer's Service Types can be defined. All Service Types configured during the Organisation's setup will be available to edit here. Each Service Type can have:
-> Minimum and Maximum amounts priced for their Charge Type(s).-> A Price Preference, to define whether the Highest or Lowest of two rates should be applied to consignments with more than one valid Charge Type.
To set Minimums and Maximums, or change the Price Preference for a Service Type:
- Click the relevant Service Type
- Enter Minimum and Maximum values where applicable
- Edit the Price Preference if required (the default value for this field is Highest).
For further assistance on Site Group Pricing, get in touch with our Support team by raising a ticket here or through the Hitrak Helpdesk.