Accessorial Costs

This page is accessed via Contract and Rate Management > Power Data > Rates and Codes > Accessorial Costs.

Use this page to define when and what accessorial costs apply.

Accessorial costs can be assigned to a rate offering or rate record so that it includes any number of contingency rates for special circumstances. Accessorial costs are not included in the cost of a shipment unless it is required for shipping purposes. For instance, a surcharge for delivery to a construction site would not be applied if the shipment was scheduled for delivery to the main office but it would be applied if the shipment had to be delivered to a construction site.

Begin by assigning an ID for the accessorial in the Accessorial Cost ID field.

The Index Based Accessorial topic shows you how to base an accessorial cost on an index (rate factor value).

Conditional Rules

Use the Basis, Operator, and Values fields to define when Oracle Transportation Management should apply an accessorial cost.

1. Select the basis for your conditional rule from the Basis drop-down list. You may use up to 4 conditional rules for each cost.
2. Select an Operator to determine how Oracle Transportation Management evaluates this basis option.
3. Depending on what operator you selected, enter Values to define your conditional rule.
4. Combine your conditional rules with SELECTED, AND, or OR statements. If you choose SELECTED, Oracle Transportation Management first finds matches for your first conditional rule, and then passes only those matches on to the next conditional rule, and so on.

For example, you could select shipment.weight from the Basis drop-down list, and then select < from the Operator drop-down list. Next, enter the maximum weight this particular rate rule covers, and then select the unit of measure from another drop-down list that appears (pounds, kilograms, etc.). This conditional rule would cover shipments whose total weight is less than the value specified. You can then enter the actual cost in the Charge section.

If you are setting up rates using deficit rating, use the DEFICIT operand to define the intervals, for example weight bands.

Note: If you are setting up rates that include marginal cost calculations, the marginal cost condition should be the last basis defined if  Oracle Transportation Management is to render accurate accessorial costs.

Use the Effective Date field to specify the effective date of the cost. Use the Expiration Date field to specify the expiration date of a cost.

If the costs will be imposed based on calendar activity, designate a calendar in the Calendar ID field. If the calendar is to be used based on a particular activity, specify that activity in the Calendar Activity field.

The Active check box specifies whether a cost is to be considered for rating or not. When the accessorial cost is active it is considered for rating and when inactive it is not considered for rating.

Charge

This section defines what costs Oracle Transportation Management should apply when shipments meet the conditions you set up in the conditions section above.

Cost Type

You must select a cost type from the Cost Type drop-down menu. The type you select will determine which set of fields will display. You can enter a Minimum Charge and/or a Maximum Charge for each cost type.

Following are the cost types:

• Charge
• External
• Profile

Cost Type - Charge

1. Enter an actual cost per unit of a basis option, in the Amount text box.

   Note: Negative amounts can be entered. This is used when applying rebates as a secondary shipment.

2. Select the basis option for which the cost accrues from the Basis drop-down menu. This is also called a charge multiplier.
3. Enter the number of basis options that go with each amount in the Unit text box.
4. In the second row, you can use basis options starting with SEL_. This enables you to create costs per two different charge multipliers. For example, you can create a cost $100/( shipment.weight pound * shipment.sel_numshipunits 2). This charges $100 for every pound of shipment weight per 2 ship units.

To have Oracle Transportation Management apply a charge of $0, you must enter $0 in the Amount field. If you enter something else in the Amount field and Oracle Transportation Management calculates the charge to $0, Oracle Transportation Management will not apply the charge. An example of the latter is when you have a distance charge of $0.10 per mile, but the distance is 0 miles.

All additional charges (Accessorials, Min, Max, Stop-off, etc.) only apply to feasible base costs even if they are $0.

If you are setting up rates with a DIM factor, your basis must be a DIM basis. For example, the rate basis can be DIMweight but not weight. The conditional rule can contain any kind of basis and need not be a DIM basis.

Cost Type - External

Use this cost type if the rate will be determined by an external rating engine. Select a rating engine from the External Rating Engine ID drop-down menu and a fieldset from the External Engine Fieldset ID field.

Use the Minimum and Maximum Cost fields to define a absolute minimum and/or maximum for a specific rate record cost.

Note: The Minimum and Maximum Cost fields defined below are costs that apply across all costs.

Cost Type - Profile

Rate unit break profiles are very efficient when determining the cost of an item during the rating process, and is advantageous over defining a set of individual rate costs, both in terms of performance and storage space. Rate costs are good when defining a set of unrelated cost conditions, whereas rate unit break profiles are good when defining a table of costs based on a single cost condition.

After selecting a rate unit break profile from the Rate Unit Break Profile ID drop-down menus, click Edit Unit Breaks to open a page where you can enter the charge amount for each unit break.

Options

If you enter a cost in the Rate section above, you must select the type of rate you are creating. Create rules of several different types to accommodate various cost needs with one rate record using the following fields:

Select Normal Cost for any rate that is not minimum, maximum, or weighted.

The Minimum Cost is the absolute minimum rate that can be charged. If the total cost of shipping doesn't exceed the minimum rate, the minimum rate is charged for the shipment instead of the actual cost to ship. This allows you to set the lowest cost that can be applied, regardless of what is being shipped or the distance traveled to get there.

The Maximum Cost is the absolute maximum rate that can be charged.

Select Weighted Cost if you are using a weighted cost.

Mark Calculate As Marginal Cost, if this is an excess cost that should be added on to another base cost. For example, you may want to charge a flat $100 per shipment but charge an extra $2/pound for shipments weighing over 500 pounds. To do this:

1. define a base cost of $100/shipment
2. define an excess cost (mark this check box) of $2/pound on the same rate cost definition.

Charge Multiplier Option controls how charge multipliers are applied against the specified cost.  

Example 1: A shipment has 3 ship units.

Ship Unit	Weight (pounds)	Volume (cubic feet)
ship unit 1	3	9
ship unit 2	5	1
ship unit 3	7	11

 

The cost is $1 per pound of SHIPMENT.SHIPUNITS.WEIGHT. Depending on what your Charge Multiplier Option is your results can be:

Charge Multiplier Option	Result with Sample Data ($)
Add individual multiplier values	3*1+5*1+7*1=15
Choose largest individual break comparator	N/A
Choose smallest individual break comparator	N/A
Choose greatest individual cost	max(3*1,5*1,7*1)=7
Choose lowest individual cost	min(3*1,5*1,7*1)=3
Choose costs separately	stores costs as individual records rather than as a single total

 

Example 2: If instead, you rate that same shipment against a rate unit break profile, you can use all the other options, too. For example, your cost is $NULL per pound of SHIPMENT.SHIPUNITS.WEIGHT and your charge break comparator is SHIPMENT.SHIPUNITS.VOLUME.

The rate unit break profile looks like this:

Break Max (cubic feet)	Charge ($/pound)
4	50
10	40
14	30

Depending on what your charge multiplier option is your results can be:

Charge Multiplier Option	Result w/Example Data ($)
Add individual multiplier values	3*40+5*50+7*30=580
Choose largest individual break comparator	{weight(max(9,1,11))=7}*{applicable charge=30}=7*30=210
Choose smallest individual break comparator	{weight(min(9,1,11))=5}*{applicable charge=50}=5*50=250
Choose greatest individual cost	max(3*40,5*50,7*30)=250
Choose lowest individual cost	min(3*40,5*50,7*30)=120
Choose costs separately	Does not affect calculation events

 

Charge Sequence controls in what order your costs are calculated. Cost 1 is calculated before cost 2.

DIM Rate Factor ID in combination with conditional rules allows you to define a separate Dimensional Rate Factor for, as an example, different commodities or locations. This enables you to share the same rate offering across a whole company but still vary the DIM rate factor for different business units or products. Compare this to defining the DIM rate factor in the rate offering where it is always one DIM rate factor.

You can define the rounding behavior of all numeric fields during the rating process using the fields described below. Rounding definitions at the more detailed levels override the rounding definitions at the higher levels. For example, the rounding definitions at the Rate Record level will override the rounding definitions at the Rate Offering level. The Rounding Type field dictates how numbers will be rounded. Select Ceiling to always round up, Floor to always round down, Nearest Interval to round up if it is 5 or greater and down if it is less than 5, or No Rounding to not round at all.

Use the Rounding Interval field to specify what interval you want to round up or down to. For example, if you want to round up or down to the nearest 1, enter 1 here. If you want to round up or down to the nearest tenth decimal place, enter .1.

Use the Rounding Fields Level field to specify which fields in the rating process should be rounded. For example, you may only want currency fields rounded.

The Rounding Application field defines when rounding should take place. For example, you may only want rounding to be done on cost calculations.

The Deficit Calculations Type field defines the way Oracle Transportation Management handles unit breaks. When there is a unit break defined for a rate, Deficit Calculations will make sure that the least expensive rate is selected. For example, if a rate break occurs at 1000 pounds, and an order weighs 999 pounds (with a rate of $15 per pound), then Oracle Transportation Management will look at the price of shipping at the next highest weight break (1001 pounds at $13 per pound) and apply the cheapest rate. In this example, the least expensive offer is to use the 1001 pound rate even though only 999 pounds are being shipped. For details on the types, see Rounding and Deficit Calculations.

Miscellaneous

Using any of the following fields is optional:

Use Defaults: If you ONLY want to use accessorial defaults for a rate offering - rate record combination, associate an empty accessorial cost to the rate and select the Use Defaults check box. Compare this to a rate with accessorial costs defined where Oracle Transportation Management always uses accessorial defaults.

Note: If you clear this check box and do not define any accessorial cost in the rate, no accessorial defaults will be used either.

Charge Group: One function of accessorial cost definitions is the ability to define accessorial costs at multiple rate levels. You can define the cost at the global level, by entering an accessorial default. You can override the accessorial default by defining the cost at the rate offering level. You can override the rate offering accessorial by defining the cost at the rate record level. The ability to override accessorials, and to define accessorials at higher levels without requiring low-level definitions is very useful.

You can arbitrarily assign a designation to related groups of accessorial cost definitions. This allows Oracle Transportation Management to determine which costs should be overridden, and which costs should be considered normally. Costs within the same group, but different levels in the rate hierarchy, will be overridden, whereas costs in different groups will be treated normally.

Payment Method Code ID indicates the payment method code to be applied to the shipment cost for that accessorial cost.

The Filed as Tariff check box indicates if this rate cost has been filed as tariff.

Notes: Summarizes the accessorial for reference.

Description: This description appears as the Shipment Cost Type on the Financial tab in the Shipment Manager if no description was recorded for the Accessorial Code to which this cost is assigned.

Cost Code: Select a cost code if this cost will be grouped with other accessorial costs.