In order to enable the MachShip system to provide you with a price, you will need to have your carrier rate cards and then convert them into the MachShip format for upload. 

Below you will find a step by step checklist to ensure that you can upload your rate card first time, every time. 

1. Set up the MachShip rate import in the MachShip format 

The MachShip rate card needs to be uploaded as a csv in the template below:

Please note that if you have multiple Breaks then you would add the five columns Break Type, Item Type, Break From, Break To and Price again and again as below. 

Note that there must be one line per Carrier, Account, Service, From Zone and To Zone combination. 

2. Populate the Template

To populate the template you will need to set all of the fields in the template itself. Below we will run through what these fields mean and how to obtain the correct values.

Note: All fields are to be filled with the MachShip abbreviation. 

Carrier

To obtain the carrier abbreviation go to Admin - Carriers.

You will be provided with a list of all of your accessible carriers. By typing in the search bar, the name of the required carrier will be filtered in. 

The abbreviation will be shown in the second column of the grid. In the example we will be using the abbreviation field will be TNT. If you cannot find your required carrier please contact support@machship.com. 

The import spreadsheet will look like the below:

Account

In order to populate the Account field, you will need to ensure that you have created a Carrier Account. The instructions on how to do this can be found at the following link.

Once the Carrier Account has been created we will need to get the abbreviation. To do this go to Admin and Carrier Accounts.

Use the Company or Carrier filters along with the Search bar in order to find the created Carrier Account.

The Account Code will be shown in the second column of the grid.

The import spreadsheet will look like the below:

Service

To obtain the carrier service abbreviation go to Admin - Carriers.

You will be provided with a list of all of your accessible carriers. By typing in the search bar, the name of the required carrier will be filtered in. 

Select the drop-down cog of the applicable carrier and select view services.

You will be provided with a list of all of the services which have been integrated into MachShip. You can use the search bar to filter to your desired service option. If you cannot find your valid service option please contact support@machship.com.

The Service Abbreviation will be shown in the 2nd column of the grid. 

The import spreadsheet will look like the below: 

From Zone and To Zone

As it would be impractical to provide a customer with a price from every suburb in Australia to every suburb in Australia, carriers will collect suburbs into groupings known as zones.

These zones will be set based on a similar cost for the carrier to deliver there or if they are a similar transit time. In order to complete the rate card template, you will need to ascertain the from zone abbreviation and the to zone abbreviation.

MachShip has endeavoured to match the zone abbreviations that are used by the carriers in their rate cards. That being said, we have seen that some carriers and sales representatives will provide customised rate card templates which may not conform to other rate cards provided by that carrier. In this circumstance, you will be required to ascertain exactly which zone on your rate card is which zone in MachShip. This link will outline how this can be achieved.

Once you have ascertained the From Zone and the To Zone your rate card may appear like the below:

Reciprocal

Reciprocal rates will indicate that a particular consignment can be priced either way. For example, if I had a reciprocal rate from Sydney to Melbourne then that would mean that MachShip could price a job with the same rate from both Sydney to Melbourne as Melbourne to Sydney. 

If a rate is reciprocal it will likely be made very obvious in the rate card provided. An example of how this is shown on a rate card is below:

The MachShip import template is expecting this to be either be a Y or an N. If you are unsure if a rate is reciprocal, then this field should be set as N.

The rate card template should now appear like the below:

Cubic Conversion Factor

The cubic conversion factor allows for a transport provider to be able to correctly charge for freight which is either cubic or dead weight. The total space and total weight on the truck is one of the large limiters and costs for a transport provider, therefore, being able to create a charging mechanism which can compare large, light freight to small, heavy freight is very important. 

The cubic conversion factor should be made quite clear on the rate card and needs to be inputted into MachShip with the units of kg/m^3. 

The units are important as a carrier may say to you that the cubic conversion is for example 4 cubic per tonne. What you would do is convert this to kg/m^3 by dividing the weight (1000kg) by the cubic metres (4) to get the cubic conversion of 250kg/m^3. 

Commonly used cubic conversion factors are:

250 kg/m^3 or 4 cubic metres per tonne

333 kg/m^3 or 3 cubic metres per tonne

1000 kg/m^3 or 1 cubic metre per tonne

The rate card template should now appear as below: 

Break Type

There are 4 different pricing types in MachShip:

Pieces -  Pricing based on the number and type of item sent. An example of this would be a pallet or carton based rate. If this is your rate type then the break type needs to be PIECES.

Weight - Pricing based on the cubic weight (cubic volume x cubic conversion factor) or the dead weight of the freight. If this is your rate type then the  break type needs to be WEIGHT.

Volume -  Pricing based on the cubic volume. If this is your rate type then the break type needs to be VOLUME.

Pallet Spaces-  Pricing based on the number of Pallet Spaces taken up. If this is your rate type then the break type needs to be PALLET SPACES

Distance - Pricing based on the distance (in kms) that freight needs to travel from pickup to delivery. If this is your rate type then the break type needs to be DISTANCE. 

How your rate card is priced should be very clear to you but if you have any queries please contact support@machship.com.

Note: You can have a rate card which is priced on multiple sets of break types. For example, a distance-based rate might also charge you for the number of objects sent. In this instance, MachShip will price both break types and sum them together unless you have set the flag on the carrier account to Only Apply the Most Expensive Break Set. 

This will price the job based on the most expensive option.

For our example, the break type will be weight. This means our import sheet will look like:

Item Type 

The item type field will be utilised when a set of rates needs to apply based on the dimensions and weights of the items you are sending. This will usually be defined by the carrier as the name of the item type being sent. For example, carton, pallet or skid.  

A Carrier Item Type in MachShip is how the system will be able to compare what one carrier considers a standard pricing item to what another carrier considers a standard pricing item to be. 

For example, a carton with the carrier VicTas may be considered to be 20cmx20cmx20cm and 15kg but with the carrier Toll Ipec this may be 30cmx25cmx30cm and 11 kgs. 

If your price break is to apply to a set item type you will need to put the Carrier Item Type abbreviation in the Item Type column. To find the carrier item type abbreviation you will need to:

Navigate to Admin and Other Options. Under the Advanced section select Carrier Item Types.

Type the carrier in the filter or the search bar:

The Carrier Item Type abbreviation will be shown in the brackets:

For the instance of weight breaks, it will apply to any Item so we will just leave the field blank. 

Break From and Break To

The Break From and the Break To will be the lower and upper bound for which the price figure will apply. The break will be a count on the Break type which has been used, for example:

Weight -  The break will be a count on the total kilograms charge weight of the items on the consignment.

Volume - The break will be a count on the total cubic metres of the items on the consignment.

Pieces - The break will be a count on the number of the set Carrier Item Type on the consignment.

Pallet Spaces - The break will be a count on the number of Pallet Spaces on the consignment.

Distance - The break will be a count on the number of kms which the consignment will travel.

Rules for Breaks

1. The lowest Break from on the import template can be set at whatever the user would like. You do not need to start at 0. 

2. Once the first Break is placed on the rate card the next Break from needs to be exactly 1 unit higher than the previous Break to. 

For example, if the rate card is:

200kg - 500kg 

3. Each Break needs to be a whole number.

4. You do not need to have a maximum on your final Break from. If you leave the column blank the system will calculate up to infinite. 

Price, Basic, Minimum

To finalise the rate card you will need to put in the actual pricing. All of these numbers need to be placed on the spreadsheet formatted as numbers, for example, no dollar signs, otherwise, MachShip will not import them. If you have no Basic or Minimum then you will just need to set the column as 0. 

To complete our example we will put the rates below into our import template:

Once you have completed the rate card import template then you can import it following the instructions at this link. 

Below you will find links to articles on how to set up the import template:

1.  Accumulative Pricing

If you have rates whereby the pricing is a flat rate for a set weight, or there is a weight amount included in the basic or the pallet rate is a different amount for each number of items.

Example below:

 Or

 Or

Or

Or

This is known as Accumulative pricing. Accumulative pricing is set up at a service level. In order to check if a service allows for accumulative pricing please follow the below instructions.

Go to Admin - Carriers.

Search for your applicable carrier.

Select the cog and view services. 

If the service allows for accumulation then the breaks which have accumulation will have their tags set to yes.

To understand how to set up the rates cards for examples above please see this link. 

2. Break Pricing

If you have rates where the pricing is completely charged based on what break you fit into, for example:

or

or

This is known as Break Pricing. For Break Pricing, the accumulation flag will be set to No. 

To understand how this can be set up in MachShip please see this link.