Importing Lane Cards
- Joanna Miller
The Extend/VIA platform offers the ability to import lane cards in order to facilitate the expedited creation of carrier, internal (my rates) and bill to (location) based 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 available for carrier and billing rates and supports Flat rating, matrix and Per Unit Rates.
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 screen you will need to create one. If 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 category (group name) in the category field and press create. If you do not see the new board button you will need to reach out to your system administrator for assisstance.
Once you have a lane board created, 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. You can also get a copy of this template by opening the lane card, clicking on a list menu, choosing carrier lane import and then clicking download template from the resulting popup screen.
Let’s look at some of the fields in the template. Note that you should not delete 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. In the table below you will find field information for each of the columns in the import template:
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 list view |
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. It can be used to give more detailed information on the card but it is not required |
C | Destination Company Id | No | If you have a location card defined in your system with a company ID and you want this lane rate to apply to that location, you can enter that code here |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 information from columns C to H then include a * into this field as well |
J | Origin Company Id | No | If you have a location card defined in your system with a company ID and you want this lane rate to apply to that location, you can enter that code here |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 | The miles field is informational 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 that value into this field. |
R | Reversible | Yes | If the lane card applies when the start and end locations are reversed (the order start zone is the same as the lane cards destination zone and the order’s 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, 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. This field will accept True/False or Yes/No entries |
U | Carrier Card Id/Bill to Card ID | Yes | This field will link the rate defined below under a specific carrier card. Enter in the carrier ID or the Bill to Customer ID into this field. NOTE: Your carrier card or bill to card, must have an 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 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 rate, then enter in the numeric value for how long it 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 you will need to enter either True or False in this field. True - The accessorial charge you are defining will automatically add to the quote/order/segment if the rules and service level match False - The accessorial charge will not automatically add to the quote/order/segment but if you manually add this assessorial onto your card and the rule and service levels match then the rate you define in the lane card will apply. |
AE | Accessorial Type | Conditional | If you have entered accessorial into column AC then this field will require you to enter in the accessorial charge abbreviation as defined in the Administration menu, dropdown options, accessorial types screen. This field is case sensitive. |
AF | Cube Weight Multiplier | No | If you choose to convert the cube to weight for this lane rate you can enter True into this field. The calculation for this option would be the value of the cube multiplied by the cube to weight multiplier that is defined in the company settings within the administration screen. For example, if you had a cube of 64 and your cube to weight multiplier was 10 then your cube to weight amount would be 640. If your freight only weighed 500 lbs then the system would rate using the higher number of 640. |
|
|
| The Final Columns will determine the rules used to apply the |
AG | Rule Type | Yes | The following fields are all used to define the rules that the order/quote/segment card will have to match in order for the lane rate to apply. You MUST include a rule for the lane rating to work. Here are the options for Rule Type (note this field is case sensitive):
|
AH | Rule Operator | Yes | The following options are available for this field. Note that this field is case sensitive Equal To:
Greater Than or Equal To:
Less Than or Equal To:
|
AI | Rule Value | Yes | Enter in the comparison result into this field. For example, if the lane is dependent on a specific commodity code, you might enter in the commodity code into this field. If the lane rate is dependent on the freight being less that or equal to 100 lb then you would enter 100 into this field. If you are entering in a commodity code note that the field would be case sensitive |
AJ | Rule Value | Conditional | Depending on the rule operator you selected in column AH, the rule value may be required. Please see the list below to determine if your role operator requires a rule value. Note, these fields are case sensitive. When the select options are options that are defined in the administrative section of extend in the dropdown options menu section and the specific option. For example, for weight, your company might use the weight units of G, KGS, LBS, TON or any other value that you have defined in the Administration Screen - Dropdown Options - Weight Units Screen
|
Lane Card Import Process
The import wizard will work similar for carrier and bill to imports. This example will demonstrate using carrier rates. From within your lane board click on the list menu item and select the import carrier rates option from the context menu.
When the import wizard appears, either drag the file from your windows explorer onto the import wizard or click the choose a file button. You can also choose to manually enter in your data in spreadsheet form by clicking the manually import data button from this screen.
Once you have uploaded your csv file, the next screen will ask if your spreadsheet has a header row. If you have column titles in your file then select confirm selection and continue. If you have removed the column headers from your import file then select: The file has no column names button.
The system will attempt to match up the columns from within your spreadsheet with the expected columns that are in the lane cards. The next screen will give you the ability to map any fields that you might have added or changed from the original template. If the csv file has no issues then your screen will look like the screen shot below. NOTE: This check does not check the logic of the values within the field. For example, if you entered in a commodity code that does not exist in your system, this screen will not show that. It is intended to check the format and layout of the file your are importing to make sure the required columns are there.
When you are done press finish, confirm that you are ready to import and the cards will be created and appear in the list that you imported into. You will be notified if there are any errors in your import file.