Spot Rate (Employee)

Use this screen to enter a spot rate for a shipment, load or non-operational freight (A/R or A/P).

A spot rate is a one-time rate negotiated for a specific movement. The rate could apply to the amount being charged either to a customer or by a carrier. The expectation is that the spot rate would not be equal to the amount that would be calculated by the rating process for the movement. However, the route, rate and schedule (or route and rate) process must be successful before a spot rate can be applied.

Spot rates can be defined for non-trip loads (A/P), shipments (A/R) and non-operational freight (both A/R and A/P). Spot rates can also be captured for rate quotations (both A/R and A/P). Spot rates cannot be defined for trips, loads attached to a trip, shipment legs or shipment leg containers.

A spot rate for a load, shipment or non-operational freight transaction (NOF) can be defined using the Update Spot Rate operation that is available on the rating page as well as from the version rate shop page that can be accessed directly from most lists of loads, shipments or NOFs.

The Spot Rate Amount will be expressed in the Rating Currency of the applicable tariff.

When a spot rate is applied to an entity, the Spot Rate Amount will be treated as a service level charge by the G/L account designation process.

When a spot rate is applied for a load or NOF, the hard committed flags for Carrier, Service and Trailer Equipment Type will all be set to True. If the route refers to a Tractor Equipment Type, Tractor Domicile or Trailer Domicile, these will also be hard committed.

When a spot rate is applied for a shipment, the committed flag for Service will be set to True.

By setting the commit flags to True, subsequent routing, rating and scheduling (or routing and rating) requests will be constrained such that only the applicable tariff service combination will be considered.

In the event that a hard committed value for a load or NOF is removed or changed, the spot rate will be automatically eliminated. Likewise, if the committed Service for a shipment is cleared or modified, the spot rate for the shipment will be removed.

If a load is suspended, the expectation is that an administrator will review the changes to the load to ensure that any hard commitments remain appropriate. This is true both for hard commitments that were applied as a result of a spot rate as well hard or soft commitments that were applied to the load for other reasons. When the Un-suspend operation is triggered from the web UI, if there are hard commitments defined for the load, a prompt page will be presented with check boxes labeled “Keep Spot Rate” and “Uncommit”. The default for both check boxes is False. Both cannot be True; either or both can be False. The Unsuspend operation will invoke the routing, rating and scheduling (or routing and rating) process for the load. Note: When a load is unsuspended via API, spot rates and commitments will be unconditionally retained.

A spot rate can be explicitly deleted using the Delete Spot Rate operation. This operation is available on the same pages where the Update Spot Rate operation can be performed.

If there is a spot rate associated with a load that is then manually attached to a trip, the spot rate will be removed. Since loads with spot rates are not eligible to be sent to the optimizer for re-planning, the same situation does not apply for loads attached to a trip by the Optimizer.

With the exception of activities previously mentioned, changes that invalidate rating results for the load, shipment or NOF will not cause the spot rate to be removed. For loads, this includes changes to the scheduling active flag and changes to the containers for attached shipments.

When taxes are applicable, the Tax Amount will be computed based on the Spot Rate Amount. Otherwise, the Spot Rate Amount fully supersedes amounts that would otherwise have been computed for the entity by the rating process (e.g. charges based on distance, weight, stops, etc.).

Shipments with a spot rate are not eligible for the A/R Consolidation process.

Tasks

See Also