OTM Contract & Rate Management Data Structure

Service Provider

Service Provider/Carrier is the party who provides transportation services. Service Providers typically own the trucks, equipment(containers), trailers, other resources like drivers, etc.  They receive tender offer request from customers specifying the freight details(source location, destination location, weight and volume, shipment date ranges - start time, end time, etc). Once shipment is delivered, they issue invoice to the customer for freight cost settlements.

Tables:
SCAC - every Service Provider in OTM should be associated with a SCAC code - usually a four letter code standard code associated with that Carrier
SERVPROV - Service Provider details like Service Provider name, SCAC code, transport modes, cost allocation rules, invoice approval rules, etc. A LOCATION record is also created for every SERVPROV record.

If you are manufacturing company or any business not having your own infrastructure to move freight from one location to another, you will negotiate a contract with these carriers on the:

• Transport Mode(mode of transport like TL,LTL,PARCEL)
• Rate service(like 2 day shipping, 3 day shipping etc)
• Lanes to be covered(source/dest region combinations to be served)
• Rates and discounts on these lanes depending on your volume and so on

You create a Rate Offering, Rate service, Rate Record in the OTM with above details.

Rate Service

Rate Service defines how much time it takes for shipment to reach from source to destination location. For TL and LTL rate service type  is usually defined as SIMULATION with assumption that average truck speed would be - say 50 Mile per hour, etc. For PARCELS, rate service type may be defined with type as DAYDURATION specifying number to days for your lanes. For example FedX 1 DAY service, FedX 2 DAY service, etc. All these configurations would depend on your business needs.

Tables:
RATE_SERVICE_TYPE
RATE_SERVICE_PROFILE
RATE_SERVICE
RATE_SERVICE_SPEED
SERVICE_TIME: This is to see service times associated to a particular Rate Service ID.

Rate Distance

This is used to configure how you calculate distance between source/dest location on your shipment.
You can either use standard LOOKUP/ESTIMATE or you can use external(third party) distance engine like MILEMAKER or PCMILER to calculate distance between two zip codes, cities, etc

Tables:
RATE_DISTANCE
DISTANCE_EXTERNAL_ENGINE
DISTANCE_EXTERNAL_ENGINE_PARMS

Rate Offering

Rate Offering is the contract defined with carrier confirming below details :
Service Provider
Service times(Rate Service)
Transport Mode(TL, VESSEL, etc)
Base Rate Service and Distance Service engines(for LTL)
StopOff  Charges, Accessorial costs(like fuel surchage, etc)
Currency
Contract Expiration Date, etc

Tables:
RATE_OFFERING_TYPE
RATE_OFFERING
RATE_OFFERING_STOPS
RATE_OFFERING_REMARK
RATE_OFFERING_ACCESSORIAL
RATE_OFFERING_INV_PARTY

Rate Record

Rate record holds the cost details associated with the services provided by the carrier. Depending on the business requirements costs can be defined at container level, lane based, weight/volume, etc

Tables:
RATE_GEO
RATE_GEO_COST
RATE_GEO_COST_UNIT_BREAK
RATE_GEO_COST_WEIGHT_BREAK
RATE_GEO_COST_GROUP
RATE_GEO_ACCESSORIAL
RATE_GEO_REFNUM
RATE_GEO_REMARK