Configuration: Distance-Rated Movements

The distance-rated movements archetype is for businesses that sell a trip rather than a thing: a quoted unit is one load, and its price is a rate over a distance, worked out from the size and weight of the pieces riding on it. This article lists what the archetype declares, what your tenant layer must add, and where each setting is read. How the layers fit together is in How Quote Generator Is Configured.

A unit is a load: one trip of one trailer. Its lines are the pieces riding on it, each with its own length, width, height and weight. A piece carries no price of its own, because a packing list prices nothing. Pieces are grouped under one section, Pieces.

Prices are worked out from cost, as on the base layer. A load’s cost is not the sum of its pieces: it is computed from them.

1. The load’s governing width, height and length are its widest, tallest and longest piece, and its weight is the sum of its pieces’ weights. These are worked out on every recompute, never stored, so they cannot disagree with the pieces.
2. The trailer class follows from height and weight. An estimator’s Trailer Override on the load wins over the derived class.
3. The rate per mile is the base rate plus a width adder plus a trailer adder, and the mileage charge is the lane miles times that rate.
4. The load’s cost is one of three, in this order. A load wide enough that the route, not the rate, sets the price is reported with its trailer and axle count and priced at zero. A superload takes a fixed setup charge plus its miles at the superload rate. Every other load takes the greater of its mileage charge and its equipment minimum.
5. That cost is written onto the load’s one Load Rate line, which is how it reaches the quote total and the per-load price.

Configuration key	What it declares	Where it is read
line_types	Piece, the freight, which costs nothing and is not billed; Load Rate, the one line per load that carries money; and Accessorial, Permit, Escort / Pilot Car and Pass-Through Cost at the quote level.	Every line on a quote. Catalog → Line types.
product_families	Legal Freight Load, Heavy Haul Load and Superload: the three kinds of load the rate model treats differently.	Each load belongs to one. Products.
quote_sections	One section, Pieces, with no labor placement.	The load schedule.
specifications	On every family: Lane Miles, Ships From, Ships To, Why This Load, and Trailer Override, a choice of Flatbed, Stepdeck, Low-profile stepdeck, Double drop or Mini-deck lowboy.	Each load on the quote. There is no mileage source, so the estimator enters the lane miles.
formula_slots	Per piece: its four measurements, whether all four are known, whether the shipper excluded it. Per load: the governing dimensions and weight, piece counts, lane miles, trailer class, whether it is routing-dominated or a superload, the rate per mile, the mileage charge and the computed load cost.	The load’s price, and its drill-in on the quote. Pricing → Formulas.
prompt_blocks	What a load is, so that a packing list’s crates become pieces on loads rather than one unit each.	The document reader.

The archetype declares that the ladder exists and what each step means. The numbers are your equipment and your rates, so your tenant layer supplies them as formulas and constants:

• item_trailer_class_derived and item_axle_count: the class and axles a load’s height and weight call for.
• item_base_rate_per_mile, item_width_adder_per_mile and item_trailer_adder_per_mile: the three parts of the rate per mile.
• item_equipment_minimum and item_superload_setup_charge.
• The constants routing_dominated_width_in, superload_min_axles and superload_rate_per_mile.
• Margin tiers, and the accessorial, permit and escort lines you price at the quote level.

Prices are worked out from cost, so every Admin box applies. Pages whose rows all come from the archetype, such as Line types on a tenant that adds none, show them read-only.

It is routing-dominated: its governing width is over your tenant’s routing_dominated_width_in, so the route, not a rate, sets its price. It reports its trailer and axle count instead. Price it by hand.

A piece on it is missing a measurement and was not excluded by the shipper. Until every piece has all four measurements, the load’s geometry is a floor, not a fact. Fill in the piece.

• How Quote Generator Is Configured
• Tuning Quote Generator
• Quote Generator Help