A Carrier Account in MachShip stores the specific settings that exist that connect your company to a carrier. This includes the fuel levy, rates as well as any IT related information such as tracking usernames and passwords, booking usernames and passwords, consignment prefixes and number ranges. Though each Carrier Account has the same format, each Carrier requires there own unique set of options and setup. 

Creating a new Carrier Account for a new Carrier

If you are creating a new Carrier Account for a new carrier, then you will first need to ensure that you have created a Fuel Surcharge You will not be able to create and save the new Carrier Account without having created this Fuel Surcharge. 

In order to see how to create a Fuel Surcharge please go to this link.

How to navigate to create a new Carrier Account 

There are two ways to navigate to Create Carrier Account screen: 

• From the main menu: Admin > Carrier Accounts.
  

Then the Create Carrier Account button:

• From the direct link here.
  
  Note: If you do not have access to create carrier accounts you will not be able to access the above link.

Create a Carrier Account screen 

1. Carrier Account Information:

A carrier account requires the following information:

• Name: This is a free text field and it's simply used as a unique identifier 
• Abbreviation: It needs to be the account code that will be used on the invoice 
• Carrier: Carrier for which you wish to access the rates. Once the first two characters are entered MachShip will provide a list to select from 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Owning Company 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Fuel Surcharge: When you have entered the company and carrier combination a drop-down will appear with a list of all applicable fuel surcharges for that carrier. This is why you need to have created the fuel surcharge before you create the carrier account otherwise this list will be empty. 
  

There are also some optional fields. These will be left as the default for the majority of accounts. 

• Parent Account - If you have a series of accounts with the same rate setup but different sets of specific options the parent account can hold the rates which are accessible for all the children accounts. 
• Default Company Carrier Account - This is used when syncing the account with the Capital Transport system. This should remain blank unless otherwise told. 
  
• Disabled: This will switch off access to this carrier account
• Break up combined items for paperwork: Set this option if you want to print a separate label for each sub-item when using the combined item type. 
• Auto Manifest on Consignment Creation: For all non-courier servicing companies, MachShip has a defined consignment creation and then manifesting step. As couriers have services which are time sensitive as well as the industry expectation that courier deliveries are usually booked when the freight is ready, there are certain carriers for which there is no manifesting step. This is usually set when the carrier is integrated with MachShip. With the Auto Manifest on Consignment Creation button, you can choose to either manifest when the consignment is created (always) or to have the consignment creation and the manifest step. The default will use whatever was set at the carrier integration time.
• Ignore Sizing Restrictions - if there are any service sizing restrictions which will not apply to this account select this button - this is applicable mostly with Capital Transport. 
• Only Apply the Most Expensive Break Set: If this is set, only the most expensive set of breaks will be applied, and the rest will be ignored, otherwise, if there are multiple break types then they will be summed together. 
• Cost Consignments Manually: It allows broker users to modify the cost price of consignments.
• Auto Close Consignments: If these are consignments which will never need to be reconciled or invoiced out (i.e they have been created by a carrier the client has a direct relationship with) then by setting this flag to yes will automatically close these and set as externally invoiced.
• Hold Consignments for Invoicing: This will automatically set all consignments that are created against this carrier account as On Hold for Invoicing no matter if the sell price is higher than the cost price.  
• Hold Consignments for Reconciliation: This will automatically set all consignments that are created against this carrier account as On Hold for Reconciliation no matter if the sell price is higher than the cost price. 
• Use Ratecard Pricing When Present: This option would be utilised where the carrier is setup for external pricing and you wish for MachShip to price off an uploaded ratecard. 
• Pre-Authorise Consignments For Reconciliation: This option allows all created/pending consignment automatically give pre-authorization to just invoice out consignments.

2. Reconciliation Tolerances

MachShip enables you to reconcile a carrier’s charged invoice to the amount that was quoted through the rates. There are many times where it will cost more to investigate a discrepancy then it is to request a credit from a carrier.  

You can set a series of tolerances that are dollar or percentage values above and below the quoted cost, and MachShip will automatically accept the carriers' cost. Anything outside of these values will appear as unreconciled, and you can then investigate the discrepancy and request a credit from the carrier or pass on the difference to your client (if you are a freight broker). 

The Reconciliation Tolerance types are: 

• Absorb Above Total Cost ex Tax Tolerance $ and Absorb Below Total Cost ex Tax Tolerance $: These are tested against total cost before taxes are applied and the discrepancy is absorbed and not passed on. 
  
• Absorb Above Total Cost ex Tax Tolerance Type and Absorb Below Total Cost ex Tax Tolerance Type: can be set to select price type of Dollar or Percentage.
• Absorb Above Fuel Tolerance $ and Absorb Below Fuel Tolerance $: These tolerances are just tested against the fuel surcharge and the discrepancy is absorbed and not passed on. 
  
• Absorb Above Fuel Tolerance Type and Absorb Below Fuel Tolerance Type: can be set to select price type of Dollar or Percentage.
• Pass On Total Cost ex Tax Tolerance $: The Pass-on total is for brokers. Brokers offer transport rates from a portfolio of accounts which they have negotiated with the carriers. They then on-sell these accounts to clients at a charge and will manage the transport for that company. Brokers invoice out this transport and the above tolerance will immediately pass on, or on-charge any charge discrepancies to a client for which the tolerance applies. For non-broker customers, this amount can be left as zero.
• Pass On Total Cost ex Tax Tolerance Type: can be set to select price type of Dollar or Percentage.

3. Test Mode

 If you are looking to see how this particular carrier account will work and you dont wish to send any information to the carrier set the account in Test Mode through the button pictured below:

For more information on Test Mode please refer to the articles located at this link.

4. Carrier Specific Options

Carrier Specific Options will appear on the Create Carrier Account page once the company and carrier fields have been populated. The specific options are utilised to complete the integration which MachShip has with that transport provider. 

They can include (but are not limited to):

• Consignment Note Prefixes
• API Usernames and Passwords
• Tracking Usernames and Passwords
• Reference Pools

Please click here to see how to obtain and set up the various requirements for each carrier. 

5. Linking of Services

Services are utilized by carriers to differentiate between their product offerings. Services will often differ by price and transit. The linking of services on an account will allow a user to control what services they wish to offer. By default, all services on a ratecard will be automatically linked to a Carrier Account. 

The Linked Services section will appear as below by default:

If you wish to reduce the number of services which are available then you can set a custom Service Link on the Carrier Account

Please note that you will require an existing lane rate to be able to generate a route for a consignment even if you have the service linked. 

To set a custom service link to an account, simply select the service from the dropdown (shown below) and select the + icon. 

Alternatively, you can link all services a carrier has by selecting the Add All button.

Should you ever wish to remove a service you can select the X icon as below:

You can remove all the services by selecting the Remove All button. 

Should you have different fuel levies for particular services then you would set that fuel levy against the linked service. If this is left blank, MachShip will default to the fuel levy set against the Carrier Account.

 To create the Carrier Account simply select Save Carrier Account