| Audience | Logistics provider |
| Task | Managing freight rates |
| Application | eCargo Web |
A rate card is used to specify freight rates for different scenarios. Rate cards can be created or updated by importing data in a specific comma separate file format (CSV).
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Rate cards
To calculate rates for a freight job, you need to import rate cards into eCargo. Rate cards are sets of rates which specify what rate should apply for a job, depending on factors like zones, dates, products and customer.
You can import and download rate cards in the Invoices section of eCargo Web.
Formatting a rate card
File format
Rate cards need to be in a .csv (comma separated values) format. CSVs can be created in Excel - just be sure to save the file with a .csv extension.
To obtain a sample rate file you can either download existing rates from the Find rate cards page, or download the rates csv template file from the Import rate cards page.
You should also make sure that there are no spaces before or after values, as these will be interpreted as part of the data.
Text is encoded using windows-1252 (the format preferred by Excel).
Column formatting
The first line in your rate card CSV is made up of the column headers, as seen in the table below.
Not all columns may be relevant for your company. You still need the columns in your rate card, but leave the values blank and eCargo will ignore it.
| Column | Format | Notes |
| Rate card type | Rate card type name | Either 'Customer' or 'Supplier'. |
| Charge type | Charge type name | Charge type as seen when viewing rates. For example 'Road Charges - New Zealand'. |
| Customer | Business name | The freight job owner. |
| Carrier | Business name | The name of a carrier as seen when viewing rates in eCargo. Optional. |
| Supplier | Business name | The name of a supplier as seen when viewing rates in eCargo. |
| From zone | Zone name | The name as it appears in the 'Zone mappings' page in eCargo. |
| To zone | Zone name | The name as it appears in the 'Zone mappings' page in eCargo. |
| Rate product | Product name | The name of the product as seen when viewing rates in eCargo. Related to the consignment item. |
| Effective from date (including) |
Date (DD/MM/YYYY or D/M/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD) |
The rates will take effect at midnight in the morning of this date. |
| Effective to date (including) | The rates will not apply after midnight at the end of this date. Leave blank to never expire. | |
| Minimum |
Decimal (monetary, 4 d.p.) |
The customer will be charged at least this value for the entire load. |
| Maximum | The customer will be charged no more than this value for the entire load. | |
| Unit of measure | Unit of measure code | The unit of measure as seen when viewing rates in eCargo. For example: KG. |
| Charge per | Number (quantity, no decimals) | How many units of measure the rate is charged per - this is usually just 1. If you charge by each 100kg, for example, this would be 100 instead. You can only have one 'charge per' per group of tiers. |
| Tier from (including) | Decimal (quantity, 4 d.p.) | The lower limit of this tier (e.g. enter 3.5 if you want the rate to apply for 3.5+ of the specified unit of measure). Leave blank if there is no lower limit. |
| Tier to (excluding) | The upper limit of this tier. Leave blank if there is no upper limit. | |
| Rate | Decimal (monetary, 4 d.p.) | The charge per unit for quantities in this tier. |
| Currency | Currency code | The currency the rates are expressed in (e.g. a standard currency code like NZD). |
| Sold to | Business name | Used by specific customers only. Refers to the sold-to business on the consignment. |
| Order line rate product | Order line rate product name | Used by specific customers only. Refers to the product type of the order line items. |
Different types of rates in the CSV
Expiring rates
If a rate has a blank 'Effective to date', you can expire the rate by re-importing the rate card. To immediately expire the rate, the updated rate card needs to have an 'Effective from date' that is after the 'Effective to date'.
Changing 'effective' dates
The 'Effective from'-'Effective to' date range of an existing rate card can't be changed just by importing an updated card.
To change the 'effective' dates, first delete the existing rate card in eCargo, then load the new rate card with altered 'effective' dates.
Minimum and maximum charges
You can specify a minimum or maximum if it applies to all the rates in the same group. Rates are in the same group if they have the same 'Rate table type', 'Charge type', 'Customer', 'Supplier', 'From zone', 'To zone', 'Order line rate product', 'Carrier' and 'Sold to'.
An example of two rates in the same group:
| Rate table type | Charge type | Customer | Supplier | From zone | To zone | ... | Minimum | Maximum | Unit of Measure |
| Customer | Road charges | Bob's Burgers | Ted's Trucking | Cambridge | Hamilton | ... | 100 | 1000 | KG |
| Customer | Road charges | Bob's Burgers | Ted's Trucking | Cambridge | Hamilton | ... | 100 | 1000 | M3 |
Tiers (breaks)
Breaks (referred to as tiers in the CSV) are used to specify a range of quantities which you want the rate to be charged for.
If a job's quantity is outside of the tier, an error will be shown on the invoices dashboard. It can be useful to set the higher limit as the error will alert you if a large number has been entered accidentally.
To indicate no lower or higher limit, leave the respective lower or higher tier blank.
For a flat rate for all quantities, leave both lower and higher tiers blank.
Groups of breaks/tiers
You can group breaks by giving them the same 'Rate table type', 'Charge type', 'Customer', 'Supplier', 'From zone', 'To zone', 'Order line rate product', 'Carrier', 'Sold to' and 'Unit of measure'
Sets of breaks/tiers
You can create sets of tiers to cover all quantities that you could expect to occur. There should be no gap or overlap between the tiers. You can use multiple rows to do this, for example:
| Break from (inclusive) | Break to (exclusive) | Rate | Minimum | Maximum | Unit of Measure |
| 40 | 10 | KG | |||
| 40 | 80 | 8 | KG | ||
| 80 | 6 | KG |
Note: you can only have one set of breaks per group.
Flat rates
If you want to set a flat rate for all quantities (rather than have the charge calculated by multiplying the rate and the quantity), set the Minimum and Maximum to be the same value.
A flat rate can be set for jobs that have the same 'Rate table type', 'Charge type', 'Customer', 'Supplier', 'From zone', 'To zone', 'Order line rate product', 'Carrier', 'Sold to' and 'Unit of measure'.
Zero rates
To specify a rate with no charge, set the Rate value to 0.
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