Rate Offering

This page is accessed via Contract and Rate Management > Contract Management > Rate Offering.

The Rate Manager allows you to manage rates for inbound and outbound goods for all transportation modes, including truckload and less-than-truckload, vessels, rail and air. A rate is considered a contract between the user and a service provider or a user and their clients. The Rate Manager stores information about effective and expiration dates, freight limitations, accessorials, and the rates themselves. Rates can be defined or limited by weight, volume, distance and commodity. In addition, a rate can model most industry practices such as deficit ratings, base and excess discounts, minimums and surcharges.

Note: Alternatively, you may choose to enter rates automatically via integration. See the Integration Guide on the Oracle Help Center.

One or more rate records can be associated with a single rate offering. While the offering provides general contractual details, the record defines a cost for service between one location and another. A record relies on an associated rate offering for much of its information but can override some of the data in the offering, if necessary.

After you define a rate offering or record, you can use the data when qualifying an order. Once pickup and destination locations are provided, an itinerary is chosen and the order is released, the shipment is matched with one or more qualifying rates. Rates qualify when:

• Rate constraints for weight, length and other units are met for the order and the itinerary.
• Time constraints for the order are met.
• Optional constraints, such as those requiring special equipment or services, are met.
• Geographical requirements are met.

A rate offering is a general contract with a service provider. It may include multiple charges that provide for a variety of possible requirements. A single service provider may have several different rate offerings.

Once the rate offering is created, you can modify the data in any section without having to go through the entire step sequence.

Note: Settings in rate records override settings in a rate offering.

Rate Header

Note: Not persisting the depot stops, not selecting the check box, will mean that any actions run against the resulting depot shipment will be run without any visibility to the non-persisted depot stops. For example, if you re-rate a depot shipment that does not have the depot stops persisted, that shipment will be re-rated only considering the stops that are persisted on the shipment. So given a bulk plan created depot shipment with cost and time from Depot A to Stop1 then onto Stop2 then back to Depot A, the persisted shipment stops will only be Stop1 and Stop2. When this shipment is re-rated, only the Stop1 to Stop2 cost and time will be calculated. The cost and time related to going from Depot A to Stop1 and Stop2 to Depot A will be lost.

1. Enter an offering ID.

   Note: Use Offering IDs starting with ' PLANNING_' when creating simulated Planning Rates for multi-stop shipments. Oracle Transportation Management only uses such rate offerings for finding the best route for a multi-stop shipment.

2. Select an offering type from the drop-down list. The offering type need not reflect the transport mode of the shipment.
3. Enter a service provider for which this rate offering applies.

   Note: Unless you are defining a rate offering with an offering type of LTL-Base or LTL-SMC, specify a service provider.

4. Enter a region group.
5. Enter a domain profile if you want to specify a domain profile as a constraint on the rate offering.
   • If none of the rate offerings have a customer domain profile constraint, then all rate offerings are returned.
   • If some of the rate offerings have customer domain profiles, the rate offerings are grouped by service provider. For each service provider, only the offerings whose domain profile constraint is satisfied are returned. So, given two rate offerings, one with a constraint, and one without a constraint: if the order release domain list is compatible with the constraint, only the rate offering with the constraint is returned, otherwise, only the offering without the constraint is returned.
6. Enter a rate service to identify how transit times are calculated.
7. Enter a rate group to let you group together your rate offering and associated rates with other rate offerings and their associated rates.
8. Select a transport mode to define how goods will be transported.
9. Specify whether the Perspective is:
   • Buy: Set up rates for a shipment.
   • Sell: Set up rates for billing purposes. Typically, the sell perspective is used by Third-party Logistics (3PL) firms who are offering a package of several possible transportation legs at a single price to the customer.
   • All: Select this option if you are setting up rates for both shipping and billing.
10. Select the currency used for this rate offering to effectively compare rates. In order for shipments to show the shipments in the same currency as the currency used in the rates, you need to copy the existing SHIPMENT Manager layout and select the Display UOM as Entered check box on the first tab. Then you need to assign this Manager layout to the screen set you are using so that the changes will take effect. For pages that can be configured, such as Shipment, you need to copy the Manager Layout and select the Display UOM as Entered check box on the first tab.
11. Enter a version. A rate offering defines a rate or a cost for a particular period of time. Because a single service provider may have several similar offerings over a long period of time, you must specify a version that provides the offering's effective date and expiration date. When you enter a Version identifier, Oracle Transportation Management populates the Effective and Expiration Date fields - you cannot edit these fields. If a shipment falls outside the date range, the offer is not valid and a different rate offering may apply. You may also need to mark the Active check box.
12. Enter an equipment group profile determines the kind of equipment that can be used with rates attached to this offering.

    Note: If the shipment requires a particular piece of equipment and the Equipment Group Profile does not include that equipment, the offering won't qualify for the shipment. If the Profile field is blank and the shipment requires a certain piece of equipment, the rate offering can qualify for the shipment.

13. If you select a corporation profile ID, it is used as a constraint during the planning process. A Corporation Profile ID is used to group corporations together that have something in common.
14. To effectively compare rates, you must select an exchange rates.
15. For Rate Maintenance, enter a Parent Rate Offering ID to track versions of your rates during the approval process.
16. Enter up to four descriptions for the rate.
17. The expiration mark ID identifies if the rate offering is flagged for a version change or expiration.
18. To create an Oracle Transportation Sourcing rate record template, select the Template check box on the rate offering.

    Note: When creating an Oracle Transportation Sourcing rate offering template, you should only associate a single rate record with a rate offering. A rate offering is an Oracle Transportation Sourcing rate template if you select the Template check box on the rate offering.

    Note: Once a rate record template is attached to a CRT configuration, you cannot edit either the rate offering or rate record.

    1. Then, you can create a rate record based on this Oracle Transportation Sourcing rate offering.
    2. You specify this Oracle Transportation Sourcing-specific rate record as the rate record template on the CRT configuration.
19. When viewing rate offerings created by the Oracle Transportation Sourcing upload bid response action or Rate Maintenance upload rates action, you see the Read Only check box selected. You cannot edit any rate offerings which have this option selected. Read only rates are used by Oracle Transportation Sourcing to cost bids or by Rate Maintenance to upload rates.

    Note: Rate offerings marked as templates or read only rates will ONLY be used for Oracle Transportation Sourcing and Rate Maintenance. They will not be used by Oracle Transportation Management for shipment building or execution. This includes any rate records associated with these rate offerings.

20. Select the Digital Freight Rates check box to fetch digital freight rates for step tender and retender. 

    Note: If you select the Digital Freight Rates check box, the rate offering is not considered for tender.

    When you select the Digital Freight Rates check box, the following new fields are displayed: 
    • Digital Freight Rate Threshold (%): Determines the threshold for the digital freight rates based on the planned shipment cost. If the digital freight rates are above this threshold value, this rate offering is not considered for tendering.
      
      For example, if the planned shipment cost is 1000 USD and threshold value set is 10, and the digital freight rate is more than 1100 USD (planned cost + 10% of planned cost), this rate offering is not considered for tendering.
    • Absolute Cost For Digital Freight Rates: If the digital freight rates are above the absolute cost value, this rate offering is not considered.
      
      For example, if the absolute cost value set is 1200 USD and digital freight rates is 1300 USD, this rate offering is not considered for tendering.
21. If you select a corporation profile ID, it is used as a constraint during the planning process. A corporation profile ID is used to group corporations together that have something in common.
22. The Active check box more efficiently evaluates if a rate offering is active than the effective and expiration dates. Ineffective rates are cached in memory and are still evaluated by the Planning logic (dates are compared) in order to determine if the rate is valid for a given shipment. This affects both memory and performance. The Active flag was added to allow an ineffective rate to be flagged as "Inactive". In this case the rate will not be loaded into memory.
23. For some time-based rates, the shipment cost calculated during bulk plan and build shipment process may not be accurate. You can use the Recalculate Cost check box to force recalculating cost after a shipment is built. This check box works in conjunction with the Rerate All Shipments After Bulk Plan parameter as follows. If the Recalculate Cost is set, planning logic will make sure to account for service time-based rating costs when making planning decisions, and that this has the potential for increasing run-time.
    • If Rerate All Shipments After Bulk Plan is TRUE, shipments will be re-rated regardless of the Recalculate Cost check box.
    • If Rerate All Shipments After Bulk Plan is FALSE and the Recalculate Cost check box is selected, then the system recalculates the shipment cost keeping the same service provider and equipment.
    • If Rerate All Shipments After Bulk Plan is FALSE and the Recalculate Cost option check box is cleared, then the shipment cost is not recalculated.
24. Select a capacity group to associate this rate offering with other rates that have the same equipment constraints. If you leave this field blank, the capacity for this rate offering is unlimited. The capacity groups in this list are limited to the ones that share the service provider entered above.
25. Use the Track Capacity Usage check box if you plan to run the Capacity Commitment report and you do not want the planning process constrained by capacity limit/capacity usage. This check box only has effect when Capacity Group field is populated.
    • If the Track Capacity check box is selected and the Capacity Group field has a value in it, Oracle Transportation Management tracks capacity usage during the planning process.
    • If the Track Capacity check box is cleared, or the Capacity Group field is blank, Oracle Transportation Management does not track capacity usage during the planning process.
26. The Contract Rate check box indicates that a rate is a client-specific rate and by configuring an Action check in User Access Manager, you can prevent users from booking (running the Secure Resources action) a sell shipment that uses a rate that has this check box selected. The Action Check must have a saved query to prevent the user from running secure resources on a sell shipment which does not have a client-specific rate.
    
    After this is configured, when a user initiates the booking process by selecting a sell shipment that does not have a client specific rate, and running the Secure Resources or Secure Resources Manually actions, a message appears informing the user that booking must be initiated from the buy shipment.
27. If the rate offering applies to direct shipments only, then select this check box. This ensures the rate offering is only used for shipments with order releases that have no consolidation type specified.
28. Select the Route Execution Rate check box if the rate is used for the cooperative routing route execution.
29. Select one of the options from the Hazardous Rate Type list to specify whether the rate offering can be used for shipments with or without hazardous materials.
30. The Max Num of Shipment Segments field determines the maximum number of segments on a shipment. A segment is defined as starting when product is loaded on the equipment and ending when the equipment is completely emptied.
31. The Effective and Expiration Date fields are automatically populated with the dates defined in the Rate Version assigned to the Rate Offering.
32. Enter a description for the rate offering.
33. If the Depot Applicable option is selected, then the depot stops (source and/or destination locations) will be saved to the shipment  If it is not selected, the depot stops will not be saved to the shipment, but they will be charged and saved to the shipment financials if it is defined in the itinerary.
34. General guidelines for minimum and maximum weight and volume are used when trying to match offerings with shipments. If a shipment's requirements exceed the minimum and maximum values, this rate offering does not qualify for the shipment in question.
    These properties glog.business.rule.rate.RateOfferingVolumeRule.skipIfShipmentActualsPresent and glog.business.rule.rate.RateOfferingWeightRule.skipIfShipmentActualsPresent if true, tells OTM to skip weight and volume constraint checks if the shipment has actuals assigned to it,
35. General guidelines for minimum and maximum length, width, height, and dimensional girth are used when trying to match offerings with ship units. If a ship units' requirements exceed the minimum and maximum values, this rate offering does not qualify for the ship unit in question.

    Note: Dimensional girth is calculated as length + (2xWidth + 2xHeight).

36. General guidelines for minimum and maximum distance are used when trying to match offerings with shipments. OTM gets the source and destination address of the shipment and then calculates the distance between both the addresses and then compares it with the Minimum and Maximum Distance fields.
37. Ship unit weight maximum is used to match with ship units. If any ship unit on the shipment exceeds the maximum ship unit weight, this rate offering does not qualify for the shipment in question.
38. Ship unit line weight maximum is used to match with ship unit lines. This field represents the maximum value allowed by this contract for the weight of a single package.
39. Enter an average package weight maximum. Allows you to define the maximum weight allowed for the calculated average package weight of ship unit lines. The average package weight is determined by dividing the total weight of the ship unit line by the total number of packages.
40. Minimum tender lead time and maximum tender lead time define ranges for tender lead times. If the tender lead time of a shipment does not fall within this range, the rate is invalid and will not be assigned to the shipment. The tender lead time is the difference between a shipment's start time and the time the shipment is tendered to the service provider. The paperwork time for the shipment is also factored. When building a shipment, the system estimates start time based on the latest early pickup date of all the orders being picked up and the first stop. Subsequent re-rates of a shipment will use the shipment's actual start date to compare to tender lead time.
    
    Oracle Transportation Management adds the system time and paperwork time as defined by the parameter Paperwork Time After Batch End. It then checks the early pick up date on the order release. If the tender lead time of a shipment is in the range, the rate will be assigned.
    
    Additionally, you may define two rate offerings; the one with the shorter tender lead time being more expensive, to compensate for rushing to meet the earlier time constraint. For example, Rate Offering 1 has a minimum tender lead time of 6 hours and a maximum of 12. Rate Offering 2 has a minimum tender lead time of 12 hours and the maximum is null (no maximum defined). If a shipment's estimated tender lead time is less than 6 hours, neither would be assigned; between 6 and 12 hours, Rate Offering 1 would be assigned (the more expensive one); and after 12 hours, Rate Offering 2 would be assigned (standard rates).
41. Use the rounding and deficit calculation fields to define the behavior of all numeric fields during the rating process.
42. Select a flex commodity type:
43. • Flex commodity independent: the rate is based on something other than commodity. A commodity-independent rate can be based on a flat fee, a discount or some other rating scheme.
    • Flex commodity based: the rate is based on a commodity and you must select a commodity profile for the rate. The profile is comprised of one or more commodity classifications used to further refine the commodity. If you select Flex Commodity Based, any rate record associated with this rate offering includes choices for the commodity code based on the commodity profile you select.