When to Use Break Pricing
Break pricing is used when your carrier applies a flat rate per unit (kg, piece, etc.) regardless of the total volume. This means the rate per kg stays the same whether you're shipping 10kg or 100kg.
Example: A carrier charges $0.22 per kg for all weights on a route. Whether you ship 50kg or 200kg, the rate is always $0.22/kg. This is break pricing.
How to Identify: Check your carrier's rate card. If it shows a single rate per unit with no weight breaks or tiered pricing, use break pricing.
Contrast with Accumulative Pricing: If your carrier's rate card shows different rates for different weight ranges (e.g., $0.25/kg for 0-100kg, $0.22/kg for 101+kg), use accumulative pricing instead (see 'How to set up a Rate Card for Accumulative Pricing').
Important Note: If your carrier offers multiple account types with different rate structures (some flat, some tiered), create separate services within the same carrier account for each structure type. This allows customers to select the appropriate service based on their account agreement.
Break pricing involves finding the pricing break, pricing the entire consignment (total kilo's, piece's or cubic metre's) on the highest weight, volume, pieces or Pallet Spaces break.
For example, if we had the below rates and an 11-kilogram consignment.
| From Zone | To Zone | Basic (inc 5 kg) | 0-5 | 6-10 | 10+ |
| NN1 | VV1 | 15 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.00 |
To compare the calculated difference between Accumulative pricing and Break pricing:
| Weight | 1 kg | 2 kg | 3 kg | 4 kg | 5 kg | 6 kg | 7 kg | 8 kg | 9 kg | 10 kg | 11 kg | Total |
| Accumulative | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.00 | 14.75 |
| Break Pricing | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 11.00 |
As can be seen with Break pricing the price is calculated by finding the break (based on the weight, distance, volume or number of items) and the total weight, distance, volume or number of items is priced in that break. Conversely, Accumulative pricing has each weight figure priced in the break that it falls no matter what the overall total is.
Break pricing will need to be utilised when your rate card prices like any of the examples below. The example rate card import file will be shown after the standard Carrier, Account, Service, From Zone, To Zone, Reciprocal and Cubic Conversion fields have been removed.
To understand how to fill these fields please read the article at this link.
Example 1: Standard Weight Rates
| From Zone | To Zone | Basic | Min | 200 | 500 | 1000 | 999999 |
|
NN1 |
VV1 | 10 | 15 | .5 | .35 | .22 | .15 |
| NN1 | QQ1 | 10 | 25 | .45 | .42 | .38 | .3 |
| From Zone | To Zone | Basic | Minimum | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price |
| NN1 | VV1 | 10 | 15 | WEIGHT | 0 | 200 | 0.5 | WEIGHT | 201 | 500 | 0.35 | WEIGHT | 501 | 1000 | 0.22 | WEIGHT | 1001 | 0.15 | |||||
| NN1 | QQ1 | 10 | 25 | WEIGHT | 0 | 200 | 0.45 | WEIGHT | 201 | 500 | 0.42 | WEIGHT | 501 | 1000 | 0.38 | WEIGHT | 1001 | 0.3 |
Example 2: Standard Pallet Rates
| From Zone | To Zone | Basic | Min | 1-2 Pallets | 3-6 Pallets | 7-12 Pallets | 13+ |
|
NN1 |
VV1 | 10 | 15 | 25.00 | 22.50 | 21.00 | 19.75 |
| NN1 | QQ1 | 10 | 25 | 25.00 | 22.50 | 21.00 | 19.75 |
In this example, it is important to find out what the carrier item type abbreviation is for Pallet for the carrier in question. To find this please use this link.
| From Zone | To Zone | Basic | Minimum | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price |
| NN1 | VV1 | 10 | 15 | PIECES | PAL | 0 | 2 | 25 | PIECES | PAL | 3 | 6 | 22.5 | PIECES | PAL | 7 | 12 | 21 | PIECES | PAL | 13 | 19.75 | |
| NN1 | QQ1 | 10 | 25 | PIECES | PAL | 0 | 2 | 25 | PIECES | PAL | 3 | 6 | 22.5 | PIECES | PAL | 7 | 12 | 21 | PIECES | PAL | 13 | 19.75 |
Example 3: Standard Volume Rates
| From Zone | To Zone | Basic | Min | 1-2 m^3 | 3-6 m^3 | 7-12 m^3 | 13+ m^3 |
|
NN1 |
VV1 | 10 | 15 | 25.00 | 22.50 | 21.00 | 19.75 |
| NN1 | QQ1 | 10 | 25 | 25.00 | 22.50 | 21.00 | 19.75 |
| From Zone | To Zone | Basic | Minimum | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price | Break Type | Item Type | Break From | Break To | Price |
| NN1 | VV1 | 10 | 15 | VOLUME | 0 | 2 | 25 | VOLUME | 3 | 6 | 22.5 | VOLUME | 7 | 12 | 21 | VOLUME | 13 | 19.75 | |||||
| NN1 | QQ1 | 10 | 25 | VOLUME | 0 | 2 | 25 | VOLUME | 3 | 6 | 22.5 | VOLUME | 7 | 12 | 21 | VOLUME | 13 | 19.75 |
Distance-Based Rate Cards - Limitation and Workaround
While MachShip supports break pricing based on weight, volume, pieces, and pallet spaces, distance-based rate cards are NOT natively supported. Carriers do not publicly share their actual driving distance tables, making true distance-based pricing impossible to implement.
WORKAROUND: To implement distance-based pricing, use suburb or postcode zones as your From/To zones instead of distance values. For example, instead of creating a break for "0-50km", create separate rate card lanes for specific suburbs/postcodes that fall within your desired distance radius. This achieves the same pricing outcome without relying on distance calculation. For assistance setting up distance-based pricing via suburb mapping, contact support@machship.com.
If you have any queries on the above, or how your rate card should be put together please contact support@machship.com