Additional Services
OVERVIEW
TransVirtual allows users to set up and apply Additional Services which can also be known as extra charges, assessorials and other terms. These are services or events that often attract extra costs being applied to consignments. common examples include: hand unloads, tail lifts, wait time/demurrage, out-of-area deliveries, and more.
Additional services need to be setup and configured on this page first before charges can be added or adjusted on rate cards for specific customers if required
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
How to add an Additional Service
1. To set up an additional charge, go to Finance > Configuration and Setup > Additional Services, click on the Add Additional Service button as shown below.
2. A pop-up to create an additional service type will display as shown below.
3. Now, manually enter the Additional Service Name and then click on Update button as shown above.
Here, we are creating an Out of Area charge.
4. Once created, the newly created additional service will appear on the left, in the list of additional charges, as shown below.
5. Now, click on this newly created charge, and you will see its relevant details on the right side of the page, as shown below.
The blue question mark icons next to each of the headings are clickable and give you an explanation of what each field is used for/does.
6. On the additional service detail page, there is a long list of options you can configure. We suggest you click the ? icon against each setting to see context on how it work and when you should apply it.
a. Default Customer Rate: is one of the first fields many users configure. It sets the default price that customers will be charged. You can override this charge for individual customer on their rate card if required. You can also charge as a percentage of the consignment base if you don't want to charge as a flat rate, and this is done using the Default Customer % of Base Price.
b. If you wish, you can set this Additional Service to charge per freight item rather than per consignment. This may be a good idea for Hand Unloads per pallet (you could instead have the driver enter in the quantity of a Hand Unload charge using the 'Driver to collect Quantity' field-which has the same result). To charge per freight item, go to the Associated Freight Items section and select the service item with the help of the drop-down button as shown below.
If you wish, the driver can manually enter the quantity. To do it, enable the Driver to Collect Quantity toggle by clicking on it in the YES position, which is present on the details of the additional services page, as shown below.
For example, if you add pallets to this charge using this field, the consignment will now have this service added as many times as there are pallets; 1 and 1, 2 and 2, etc.
For example, if you add pallets to this charge using this field, the consignment will now have this service added as many times as there are pallets; 1 and 1, 2 and 2, etc.
7. Scroll down to the detail page, at the bottom, there is a Data Filter section that allows you to add in logic, which is useful if you wish to add additional service automatically to a consignment rather than manually via the admin tab of the consignment, etc.
Example: If you wish to add an additional charge for Out of Area then you have to specify what areas (suburbs or postcodes etc) you wish to add this charge for.
In this example, when the Receiver postcode is 3000 for a consignment, this out-of-area additional Service will automatically add the charges to that consignment. You could use Suburb names instead if you wish. So perhaps when the Suburb name is Melbourne, then the additional charges will automatically be added. There is a lot you can do with this data filter, using the drop-down bar, you will see a long list of possibilities.
If you wish to leave this data filter blank, the service will not automatically add and will have to manually enter the charges against a consignment (when required).
If you add a Service and give that service a rate/price using the 'Default Customer Rate', then this rate will only be used as long as there is no rate setup for this charge in the corresponding Customer's rate card. You can also have the ability to edit Additional Services in each Customer's rate card in steps 1 and 4. When doing it this way, you can customise a service to charge differently per service level/zone, etc.
Having an Additional Service set up in a rate card means that this price will be used before one set up in the Additional Services page.
Make sure that you have created the Additional Service before it is available in a rate card, and then go to the rate card page.
Rate cards can be found under Finance > Configuration and Setup > Rate Cards.
8. On the rate card page, use the expand button and click on the Additional services button in Step 1 or bottom of the page in Step 4 as shown below.
Charging for Equipment
In Transvirtual, you can charge for equipment on a consignment by setting up additional services and linking the equipment types to these services to auto-charge based on certain conditions.
You will need to have your Equipment Type List setup in order to charge for equipment. Instructions on how to do this can be found here.
Navigate to the additional services page (Finance > Configuration and Setup > Transport Additional Services or Configuration > Lists and zones > Additional Services). The additional service page will display as shown below.
1. To charge for equipment, simply first add an additional service as described in the above paragraph and then click on the applicable service to see the details of the selected additional service as shown above.
Here, we are using Skid as an additional service name.
2. On the additional service detail page, you can update the details as described below.
a. Additional Service Name: Update the Additional Service Name (If needed).
b. Default Customer Rate: Manually add the charge in this field.
c. Additional Service AKA: Scroll down to the page, add the Additional Service AKA field the corresponding AKA name for that equipment type.
To see the AKA name, go to the equipment type list page (Configuration > Lists and Zones > Equipment Type). You will need to have this AKA field, as this is what the system uses to link that particular equipment type to this new Additional Service you have created.
The AKA for Skid is EquipmentType4Count.
3. Scroll down the page and go to the Data Filter section and enter logic to ensure that Additional Service auto-adds correctly.
In this example, we want to add the Skid Additional Service automatically when the EquipmentType4Count is greater than 0. This means that if any consignment has been created and that has 1 or more skids assigned against it, it will be charged for whatever the amount is multiplied by the Customer Default Rate. So, if there are 2 Skids and the Default Rate is $1, then an additional service amount of $2 will be added to this consignment.
Make sure that the AKA name is correct for the equipment type you want to charge for, and that this is then reflected in the data filter. So, if Skid is EquipmentType4Count you must make sure that this is the logic used in the corresponding Additional Service.
4. Once you finish setting up, when you create the next consignment and add Equipment Count into the equipment counts section, you will notice that an additional service price has been automatically added to the price of the consignment, as shown below.
5. This amount (Additional Charge) will vary depending on what you have entered in the default customer rate.
Importing Custom Additional Service Prices for Customers or Suppliers
In Transvirtual, there is the ability to import Additional Service prices to rate cards.
To import additional service prices, you will still be required to create the Additional Service manually, as described above, but once created, you have the ability to do an import that nominates pricing unique to each customer rate card/customer for each of your setup Additional Services.
This concept is handy for situations where you might be required to update your pricing for all chargeable items at once - an example might be a yearly price increase or the like.
How to Import Additional Services
1. To begin, you will need to ensure that all applicable Additional Services have been created under the Additional Services page (Finance > Configuration and Setup > Additional Services or Configuration > List and Zones > Additional Services).
Use Add Additional Service button to create more if needed!
2. Once your Additional Services have been created, go to Finance > Configuration and Setup > Rate Cards, go to Customer Rate Cards, and click on the Global Actions button. A pop-up for Rate Global Actions will display as shown below.
3. Now enable the Export Step 1 Additional Service with the help of the toggle button, and then click on the Action button. Now, you will get a file that looks similar to the one below when opened.
Ensure to open the file that is downloaded when you click on the Action button.4. The details of the columns in this file are as described below:
Rate Title: The name of the rate card in your account. Relates to the title listed against the rate card.
Rate Service Title: The Service Level in step 1 of the relevant rate card.
Additional Service: The Additional Service name/type.
Rate Flat Value: The price associated with the Additional Service as a flat $ amount (e.g. every hand unload you do might be a flat $25 charge).
Rate Value Percentage: The price associated with the Additional Service as a % of the base price amount (e.g. Re-Delivery charges may incur a 100% of the base price charge - because you are essentially doing the delivery again, etc).
Rate Min Charge: The minimum price associated with the Additional Service is a flat $ amount. Handy if you need to set a 'base' amount for an Additional Service, at which point the charge/price for that Additional Service cannot come under. Any Additional Services added with prices lower than the Min Charge will have the price for that Additional Charge increased to the nominated Min Charge amount.
5. From here, simply enter the relevant prices into your file as shown below.
Note: If entering a value into the Rate Value Percentage column, the value must be entered as the decimal equivalent. For example, if you want to enter 20% you need to make the value 0.2, 10% would be 0.1 and so on.6. Once you have adjusted the prices, you are able to import the file to update the prices for the additional services. To do so, navigate again to the Customer Rate Card page, and click on the Global Actions button again and here enable the Import Step 1 Additional Service with the help of the toggle button and upload the file and then click on the Action button as shown below.
When uploading the file, ensure you save your file as a .csv if it is not in that format.
There is no requirement to map the file as with other import types in Transvirtual! Doing in the method as above ensures the columns and formatting of the file are correct for importing.7. Once imported, you will see that the prices have been updated as per your file, as shown below.
Automating Wait Time/Demurrage Charges
If needed, you can automatically charge for 'Wait Time' based on the time duration. The delivery driver was on-site, either performing a delivery/or a pickup (The process for delivery/pickup is very similar as described below).
1. To begin this setting, you will need to enable the Ask driver to Confirm Onsite with the help of the toggle button in the Yes position, as shown below.
1. To begin this setting, you will need to enable the Ask driver to Confirm Onsite with the help of the toggle button in the Yes position, as shown below.
To navigate this setting, go to Configuration > General > Global Setup, scroll down and go to delivery section.
2. This setting can also be found against each device in the device list, where you can change the setting against a device to be different to your global default (if required).
3. Here, creates an additional charge (or series of charges) with an appropriate name.
In this example, we are suing 'Demurrage Charge (Delivery)'4. Once an additional charge is created, you need to go to the data filter section located at the bottom of the additional charge detail page. The data filter section helps you to add additional charges automatically to the applicable consignments.
5. To do so, from Step 1, select either of the two fields below, depending on whether this is to apply to pickups or deliveries.
In this example, the top option for Delivery will be chosen.
6. First, Select Field and click on Next button to select the Logic and then click on Next button to Select the Value, Click Next and proceed to Step 2.
In this example, we choose Total minutes on Site (Delivery) as field, Logic will be Greater Than and then finally select the Value i.e., 2.
7. Once you select the value, click on the Add Rule Button, the data filter will then populate with the logic you have added as shown above.
8. In the above example, the additional charge will be added automatically to any consignments when the driver has been at the delivery location for longer than 2 minutes.
Make sure to set a price against this Additional Charge!
IMPORTANT
1. The time charged will be the number of minutes between the driver confirming onsite and delivery completion minus the time value specified in your Additional Service data filter.
For example, if your data filter starts applying after 2 minutes onsite and the driver is onsite for 10 minutes in total (between arrival and delivery completion), the charge would be for 8 minutes if using a setup like the above example.
2. The driver does not have to choose this additional charge on their device; it automatically applies to the relevant consignment. It will auto-add as expected if the driver is prompted to confirm they have arrived on-site and does so accordingly.
2. The driver does not have to choose this additional charge on their device; it automatically applies to the relevant consignment. It will auto-add as expected if the driver is prompted to confirm they have arrived on-site and does so accordingly.
3. For this to work properly, the driver must be at the receiver location. Transvirtual uses GPS information with this setup to automatically add wait time. This process will not work if the driver confirms being on-site but isn't actually at the receiver location.
4. It is possible to set the Additional Charge to apply in increments, like the example below:
5. You can add a time in brackets after the additional service name as shown below. If you do, the price you list will be what the system charges for that period of time.
6. As shown above, every 5-minute increment that the driver is on-site will incur a $1.50 charge.
For example, if the driver has been on-site for 10 minutes, then the charge quantity would be 2, and the price would be 2 x $1.50 = $3.
7. For this to work as expected, the formatting MUST be like (5 Mins) or (10 Mins) or (15 Mins), etc.
7. For this to work as expected, the formatting MUST be like (5 Mins) or (10 Mins) or (15 Mins), etc.
8. If you want to set these charges up for both pickup and deliveries, you MUST have separate Additional Charges, like below as an example.
9. Your data filter for the delivery charge could look like the following (you need to use the delivery option).
10. Your data filter for the pickup could look like the following (you need to use the pickup option):
11. You CAN'T have one Additional Charge with a data filter like the one below:
12. The reason for this is that there may be times where a driver is onsite for more than 30 minutes for the delivery but not for the pickup component - if this were to happen, then the system would calculate the charge amounts for both components and possibly provide a negative value (if the negative pickup amount 'out-weighed' the positive delivery amount).
Instead, each Additional Demurrage Charge MUST be separated by the type of consignment it would apply to - pickup or delivery.
Instead, each Additional Demurrage Charge MUST be separated by the type of consignment it would apply to - pickup or delivery.
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