There may be situations where you cannot connect to your carriers via an API connection. Your carrier may not be capable of sending rates using API or the system may not yet be integrated with your particular carrier. You also might want to store your internal rates in VIA® so that you can pull them along with your carrier rates. To generate rates in VIA® outside of an API connection, you will use a board with a card type of Lane. From within these cards you can define the from a to location and then assign rates based on a per customer, carrier or internal situation. Let's take a look at setting up a lane board, and the lane card features:
Creating a Lane Board
You will need to have permissions to create boards in VIA® to complete this step. If you do not have these rates speak to your VIA® administrator.
From the main VIA® screen, click on the add board at the top right section of the screen.
Once you have created the board you can create lists to organize your lanes. Each lane card will represent a from/to combination these combinations can represent any level of detail; for example:
- Ohio to Georgia
- Toledo, OH to Alpharetta, GA
- 43601 zip code to 30022 zip code
- Bob's Manufacturing Facility in Toledo, OH to Sam's Distribution Center in Alpharetta, GA
When you are designing your board keep in mind how you want to see the cards. Let's take a look at a lane card:
Much of the card is similar to other card types in VIA®. Across the top you can see the card name, and the list that the card currently resides in. Under the card header is the members, labels and conversations as well as an additional description field. The last three tabs on the card are found in most other cards. The attachments tab where you can add any emails, or copies of the rates provided. The Linked cards tab if you choose to attach another card to your lane and the activities tab where you can see all the changes that have been made to your lane card.
The tabs on a lane card include the Lane Details where you will outline the from and to locations of the lane. The lane rates tab where you can define the carrier specific, customer specific or internal rates for this particular lane. The Lane Preferences Tab where you can define preferred carriers, customers and drivers.
Creating a Lane Card
Let's create a lane card to explore how rating in VIA® works. For this example we will create a rate card using the lane combination mentioned above. From Ohio to Georgia. To Start, open your lane board and click the + button on the top right side of the list (or the Add a card button on the bottom of the list). When the new card appears, give it a meaningful name. For this example we will call the card Ohio to Georgia. When you are done, press the enter button. To edit the card you just created click on the new card in the list. When the card is open, you can add any labels, or descriptions from within the card header.
In this example, I want the rate to apply anytime a load goes anywhere in Ohio to anywhere in Georgia; so from within my lane details tab I will define that combination:
If, you wanted to narrow this rate sheet down to a specific city within either of these states you can define that as well. You can define a shipper city, destination city, or both if you like. In the screenshot below the lane is defined as the city of Toledo, OH to the city of Alpharetta, GA.
We can also narrow down to specific zip codes for either or both sides of the lane. In the screen shot below the shipper is still defined as Toledo, OH; however, for this lane rate card to take effect the destination must have the zip code of 30022.
Finally, the lane card can be configured right down to the company. In the below example, the lane rate will apple when the load originate at Bob's Manufacturing in Toledo
If the lane rate applies both exiting OH for GA and exiting GA for OH you can set the reversible field at the bottom of the screen labelled Reversible to Yes to allow this.
Setting the Rates for the Lane
To assign rates to our new lane click on the lane rates tab on the rate card. Within this tab there are three additional tabs. The first lists all carrier rates (not including any API configured carriers). The second tab lists and rates that you want to apply to a specific customer. The final tab will hold any internal rates for movements where your equipment handles the shipment.
Let's set the rate for our carrier ABC Trucking. Click on the + button on the top left side of the lane rates tab and select Carrier (Pay Rate) option:
The following screen will appear:
Fill in the title for the specific rate. This title will be one of three fields the are displayed in the carrier summary list so ideally include the carrier's name. Click on the search button beside the carrier field and find the carrier that you want to attach the rate to. Under rate, enter in the rate that you want to apply and then in flat/per select an option from the drop down box. If you select flat then the rate you defined will apply to the orders/quotes or segments. If you choose per you will also have to define the unit. If you choose per then you want to set the rate to the price per unit. Enter in any service days that you want to include for this specific rate and any description. If this rate is for an accessorial charge you can select it from the rate type drop down field. If you have any rules that you want to apple to this specific rate then you can define them in the add rules section. For example, if this rate will only apply to orders that are more than 500 lbs you can enter that in as a rule and then press the + button to apply it:
If your carrier has multiple rates for the same lane you will have to enter them in one at a time. For example, if our carrier charges a rate of $3.50 per lb when the weight is under 500 lb but a rate of $2.50 per lb when the weight is over 500 lb you will have to define two rates for the carrier. Your screen should look similar to below:
This card will work for any carrier rates so you are not limited to one carrier per card. For example, I could add another Trucking Company to the same card as long as the rate if for the same lane:
To test our rates we can enter a quote/order or segment with the lane information that matches our card:
