The Extend/VIA platform offers the ability to import lane cards in order to facilitate the expedited creation of lane rates from existing flat files. The import template can be used to import linehaul charges and accessorial charges at the same time. The import process is currently only available for carrier rates and supports Flat rating and Per Rates. At the time the documentation was created matrix rating is not supported.
Import Process
Prerequisite - Lane Board
In order to import lane cards into the System you must have a Lane Board Created within your VIA tenant. If you do not see a lane board in your home you and you have permissions to create a new board within the system, you will see a “+ New Board” button on the top right side of the home screen. When you press the button you can give your new board a title and from the board type field choose Lane. The category field is optional; however, if you would like to group your new board in with other boards, enter the board catagory (group name) in the category field and press create.
Once you have a lane board, you will need to make sure you have at least one list created in your board to import the lane cards into. If you just created your lane board, or if you lane board does not have any lists defined, press the + button at the top left side of the board and choose list on the left side of the box to create a new list. Give you list a name and press enter.
Now that you have your board and list(s) defined you can move forward with importing your lane rates.
Filling in the Lane Template
Below you will find a template you can use to import your lane rates into the system.
Let’s look at some of the fields in the template. Note that you should leave the fields in the template even if you are not going to be importing them into the system. If the field is optional you can just leave it blank:
Column | Field Name | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
A | Title | Yes | This will be the title of the lane card that is created. It will show up at the top of the lane card when you have it opened and it will be the name that you see when you are looking at the card within the lists. |
B | Description | No | This is the card description. When you have the card open, the description will appear at the top of the card just below the Title/List location section |
C | Destination Company Id | No | If you have a Consignee location card with a company ID that you want this lane rate to apply using then you can enter that information in here, or leave it blank for all |
D | Destination Company | No | If you have a specific Company Destination Name that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
E | Destination Address 1 | No | If you have a specific Destination Address 1 that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
F | Destination Address 2 | No | If you have a specific Destination Address 2 that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
G | Destination City | No | If you have a specific Destination City that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
H | Destination State | No | If you have a specific Destination State/Province that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
I | Destination Zip | Yes | This is the only required field for the Destination section. If you want the lane card to apply to any location then you can enter in * into this column and the lane card will apply to all destinations. If you choose to enter in and information from columns C to H then include a * into this field as well |
J | Origin Company Id | No | If you have a Shipper location card with a company ID that you want this lane rate to apply using then you can enter that information in here, or leave it blank for all |
K | Origin Company | No | If you have a specific Company Shipper Name that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
L | Origin Address 1 | No | If you have a specific Shipper Address 1 that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
M | Origin Address 2 | No | If you have a specific Shipper Address 2 that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
N | Origin City | No | If you have a specific Shipper City that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
O | Origin State | No | If you have a specific Shipper State/Province that you want to have the lane card apply using then enter it in here, or leave it blank for all |
P | Origin Zip | Yes | This is the only required field for the Shipper section. If you want the lane card to apply to any location then you can enter in * into this column and the lane card will apply to all origins . If you choose to enter in and information from columns J to O then include a * into this field as well |
Q | Miles | No | This is an informational field only; however, if you have a specific start and end location defined in the above fields and you want to record the miles you can enter them into this field. |
R | Reversible | Yes | If the lane card applies when the start and end locations are reversed (the order/segment/quotes start zone is the same as the lane cards destination zone and the order/segment/quotes end zone is the same as the lane cards origin zone) enter in True into this field. If the lane card start and end zones are not interchangeable. Then enter False into this field. Note you can also use Yes/No instead of True/False for this field. |
S | Expire Date | No | If this lane card has a defined expiry date then enter that value into this field. If you do not enter in an expiry date the system will default to today’s date. You can enter in a date with a format of 12/31/2024. If you do not want the lane card to expire you can enter in a date such as 12/31/2099 |
T | Unique Import | Yes | This field will determine if you want to group any of lines together onto 1 lane card. If you enter True into this field then the system will automatically create a new lane card for this line. If you enter in False into this field, the system will look for other rows in your spreadsheet where columns A-S match. If it finds any of those columns then it will group the rows together into 1 lane card. Fields U to AJ (the fields below) will be used to add new carrier rate lines within the card; however they will be grouped onto one lane card. This grouping will only happen if the information in the first group of fields match. |
U | Carrier Card Id | Yes | This field will link the rate defined below under a specific carrier card. Enter in the carrier ID into this field. NOTE: Your carrier must have a carrier ID defined in the card to import the lane rates |
V | Rate title | Yes | Enter in the title of the lane rate here. This title will be the information that appears in the Lane rates tab on the lane card under the carriers section. NOTE: this is not the title of the card but the title of the lane rate within the card |
W | Rate description | No | This is a description field where you can enter in the description of the carriers rate |
X | Rate | Yes | This would be the dollar value of the rate in this field. This field works in conjunction with columns Y and Z. If you enter Flat into Column Y then the rate would be whatever the flat rate is (500 for example). If Column Y is per then this field would be the per weight (1.75 for example) that will be multiplied by the value of the unit type field in the order/segment/quote |
Y | Per | Yes | This filed would either be Per if the the rate is to by multiplied by a freight detail unit type such as cube, hundred lbs or pcs. If you enter per in this field then you would have to enter in the type of unit in the Unit Type Field. |
Z | Unit Type | Conditional | This is a conditional field as you would only be required to fill in the field if your rate was a per rate, meaning if you entered per in column Y. For example, if the rate is 15.00 per CWT then in column X you would enter 15.00, in column Y you would enter per and in column Z you would enter CWT. If the rate is a flat rate then you would only need to enter in the flat rate into column X and the word flat into column Y and you can leave this column blank. Here are the entry options for this field
|
AA | Service Days | No | If you want to include the service days for this carrier then enter in the numeric value for how long the carrier will take to transport the freight between the lane start and lane end locations |
AB | Service Type | Yes | The service type if one of the fields that will determine what lane rate will apply to a quote/order or segment. The service type field can be found in the service details tab in orders and segments and it can be found in the pricing tab of a quote. These service types can be configured in the administration screen of Extend - Drop down options - Service Types section. |
AC | Rate Type | Yes | This field will accept either linehaul or accessorial as an option and it must be filled in. NOTE: If you choose accessorial then the following two fields will need to be filled in as well. |
AD | Accessorial Auto Add | Conditional | If you entered accessorial into column AC then |
AE | Accessorial Type | Conditional | |
AF | Cube Weight Multiplier | No | |
AG | Rule Type | Yes | |
AH | Rule Operator | Yes | |
AI | Rule Value | Yes | |
AJ | Rule Value | Conditional |