Setting up Rate Cards and configuring Zone pricing
This article provides a guide for users responsible for setting Rate Cards and/or completing customer Pricing Setup within Hitrak, using the Zone Pricing Model.
Note 🔎 To edit an Organisation's Pricing Setup, users will need to be assigned the Pricing Admin role.
For instructions on using the Site Group Pricing Model, see Using Site Group Pricing. For an overview of customer Pricing and Rating, see Introduction to Pricing & Rating.
In this article:
Understanding the Zone Pricing Model
Charge Types
Charge Types are the measurement used to price consignments, e.g. weight, volume, freight unit. These must be configured for all Pricing Models to apply customer rates. Hitrak supports the following Charge Types:
Cubage: Charged by the consignment's total volume in cubic metres.
Weight: Charged by the consignment's total weight in kg.
Per Unit: Charged by unit price x quantity of units in the consignment. This requires Freight Item Types to be configured correctly in the customer Organisation, and each Freight Item Type 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.
Using Multiple Charge Types
It's possible to set more than one charge type for a customer's consignments if required. For example, you may offer a price per unit for each of a customer's freight types, but also have weight-based pricing.
For these cases, you can define a Price Preference for either the Highest or Lowest value rates to apply to the Organisation's consignments when multiple rates are available. Most operators choose to apply whichever rate is the higher of the two.
The system will price based on both charge types, and choose which to use based on the price preference that has been set.
Charge Type Minimums and Limits
Minimums and Limits can be set for the Weight, Cubage and Unit Charge Types. These can be further refined by Service Type.
The Price Preference and Service Type Settings for each Charge Type are configured during the customer's Pricing Setup. See Organisation Settings below for full instructions.
Understanding the Zone Pricing Model
Zone Pricing enables different geographic areas (Zones) to have varying price levels applied for freight costs, based on factors such as distance, operational costs, or market demand. All delivery locations within a defined zone are charged the same rates; the further away a delivery location is from a central point, the higher the rates.
Hitrak's Zone Pricing model enables Zone-based pricing within a city or other area defined by you (known in Hitrak as Pricing Areas), plus Inter-region rates for consignment movements between the regions within which your business operates.
When it comes to pricing a consignment, the system finds a Pricing Area matching the consignment's Sender location, calculates the Inter Region rate (where applicable) and the Zone rate for the delivery suburb in the Receiver Pricing Area, based on the preferred Charge Type set for the customer.
Note 🔎 Pricing is calculated based on the rates effective when a consignment is Staged, and applied when it is Delivered. This is consistent across Freight, Delivery Extras and Surcharges rates, to preserve any values estimated or quoted to the customer.
Zone Pricing Example
The following example outlines how pricing is calculated on a consignment, using Zone Pricing and including Inter-region rates.
- A Freight company services Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and Central Otago. They use the Cubage Charge Type.
- Inter Region Rates per m³ are configured for delivery between regions.
- Zone Rates per m³ are configured for Zones 1-5, with a Base Rate + a Rate for each m³.
- A consignment is being sent from a distribution centre in Auckland, to Somerfield, Christchurch.
- The consignment volume is 0.30m³.
- An Inter Region Rate of $130 per m³ applies to consignments from Auckland to Canterbury.
-
- Somerfield is in Zone 1 of the Christchurch Pricing Area.
- Inter Region cubage Rate of $39.00 ($130 x 0.3)
- Zone 1 cubage Rates for the Christchurch Pricing Area of $47.55
($37.00 Base Rate +($35.15*0.3)). - The consignment has no completed Extras, so the total price is $86.55.
- Somerfield is in Zone 1 of the Christchurch Pricing Area.
In the next section, learn how to get Zone Pricing set up for your Organisations.
Setting Up Zone Pricing
Some of the initial setup in Hitrak for your customer Organisation's pricing will be supported by the Hitrak team, while other steps can be actioned by you and your internal users directly.
To complete Zone Pricing Setup for each customer, you must first define and provide the relevant Pricing Area and Zone 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 Consignments and Invoicing customers using the Zone Pricing model.
In this section:
Defining Pricing Areas and Zones
To get started with Zone Pricing, each Pricing Area must be defined, with Zones identified for each Pricing Area. The Requesting Sites within a customer Organisation must be linked to the relevant Pricing Areas. This is configured in the Organisation's Pricing Setup page.
Pricing Areas do not have to match regions and can be defined at a more granular level. For example, the "Auckland" region may have a Pricing Area for North, East, South, West and Central Auckland.
Note 🔎 Regions are defined by default using the standard regions of New Zealand, however these can be refined to an extent during System Setup if required.
Zones can be configured based on the same central point for all customers, or as custom zones for specific customers. For example, two customers may operate within the same Pricing Area, but have different sized zones applicable to their Rates.
Tip💡We recommend keeping zone sizes or ranges consistent across Pricing Areas, to ensure rates make sense to customers who operate in more than one of your Pricing Areas. However, not all Pricing Areas need to have the same number of zones; a large Pricing Area may require 5 Zones, but a smaller one may only use 3 out of 5 possible Zones.
Hitrak requires a spreadsheet with the list of the suburbs in each Zone for importing into the system. A template can be provided with a list of the suburbs for each district within New Zealand's regions.
If the preferred suburbs for each zone are not yet known, some operators find it useful to visually define their zones for each Pricing Area, by working outwards on a map from their chosen central point. This will determine the suburbs to be included in each Zone.
In this example, 5 Zones have been mapped for a Christchurch Pricing Area:
Rate Card Setup
Once Pricing Areas and Zones have been defined, a Rate Card with the relevant rates for each customer must be provided. The Hitrak team will support this process by providing guidance when required, and entering your Rate Cards into the system for you. If multiple regions of the country are serviced, Inter Region rates must also be provided, to allow consignments being transported between these regions to be priced automatically.
Once Rate Cards have been entered, all rates are available to view in the customer Organisation's Rates page.
Options
Hitrak supports considerable flexibility within the Zone 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.
-> Inter Region Rates for deliveries with a linehaul component.
-> Base rates, to apply to each consignment before the incremental weight, volume or 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.
-> Pricing Area-based rates. If required, different rates can be defined for each Pricing Area within the same Rate Card.
-> Date-based rates. Different rates can be defined in advance for an effective date range, e.g., if an upcoming increase is planned.
-> Multiple Rate Cards held simultaneously.
-> 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 Export consignments.
Requirements
The Hitrak team will provide a Rate Card template during the onboarding process.
To ensure we have the right information to maximise your use of the Zone Pricing model, please be aware of the following requirements for customer Rate Cards:
- Inter region rates if multiple regions of the country are serviced.
- Start dates for all rates.
- Rates for all variations by:
- Service Type
- Charge Type
- Zone
- Start Date
- Pricing Area
- Rate Bands
- Base Rates and Minimums, if applicable.
- Extras and Surcharges may be included here. As these are managed separately to Rate Cards, these can also be defined or updated at another time.
Limitations
- Banded rates are not available on Delivery Extras, Surcharges or Inter Region Rates.
Organisation Settings
On the Pricing Setup page, settings are defined to enable the accurate pricing of consignments based on their Requesting Site.
This page is split into two tabs: Rate Card Setup and Service Type Settings.
Rate Card Setup tab
These steps can be completed once your Rate Card(s) are imported to Hitrak.
In the Rate Card Setup tab:
-> The Pricing Model and Charge Types are configured.
-> The Requesting Site settings are defined.
To configure Rate Card Setup for the first time:
- In the Organisation page, navigate to Pricing Setup. This will open on the Rate Card Setup tab by default.
- Click Configure.
- In the Pricing Model field, select Zone Pricing.
- Select the Charge Type(s) for the customer.
🚧At this time, it is not possible to change the Pricing Model or Charge Types for an Organisation once these have been set. It's important to ensure the correct model and charge types are chosen during customer setup.
For accurate Zone Pricing, each of the customer's Requesting Sites must have the following specified:
-> Pricing Area
-> Rate Card
-> Charge Type(s)
To add or edit the Requesting Site settings:
- Click the relevant Requesting Site line.
- Choose the Pricing Area for the Site.
- Choose the Rate Card, if more than one Rate Card is available.
- Choose the Charge Type(s), if only some Charge Types should apply. "Inherited" will make all of the customer's Charge Types available to consignments with this Requesting Site.
- Click Save to confirm the changes.
Service Type Settings tab
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 line
- 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.
Viewing and Updating Pricing
There are two pages in a customer's Organisation where the majority of pricing can be viewed: Rates and Pricing Setup.
Delivery Extras and Surcharges can be viewed and configured separately on their respective pages within the Organisation.
In this section:
Updating Site and Service Type Settings
Understanding the Rates Page
The Rates page displays the rates for each Rate Card available to a customer. This page is split into 3 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 Zone Pricing, all configured rates will be shown in the Rates page, as per the Rate Card(s) provided.
-> The Zone Rates tab allows users to filter by Rate Card, Service Type, and Requesting Site.
-> 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 page. See Delivery Extras and Surcharges for full details.
In this example, results have been filtered by the Rate Card 'June 2023 Zone Pricing', Service Types 'B2C' and 'B2B', and all Requesting Sites.
Updating Rates
For Organisations using Zone Pricing, the Hitrak team will support loading new or updated Rate Cards to any customer Organisation. At this time, it is not possible to modify rates in a Rate Card directly in the Admin Portal.
To add a Rate Card to a customer Organisation, get in touch with us via the Hitrak Helpdesk.
Updating Site and Service Type Settings
If Pricing Areas have changed, or a Site needs to be moved to a different Pricing Area for some reason, these settings can be edited as per the initial setup. See above instructions for Requesting Site Setup and Service Type Settings.
Delivery Extras and Surcharges
All configured Delivery Extras for an Organisation can be viewed and modified on the Delivery Extras page. Here, you can assign Extras to the Organisation, specify their Default Instructions, and adjust their Rates and Rate Start Dates, if different to the default pricing.
Surcharges are system-wide, but these can also be customised by Organisation as required.
For full instructions on the assignment of Delivery Extras to an Organisation, applying custom pricing to Extras, and applying Surcharge overrides, see Delivery Extras and Surcharges.