Category · Rate grids & pricing
Carrier rate grid management: the four road-freight grid models
A carrier rate grid is a structured table that turns a shipment into a buy price. Road freight uses 4 models — weight_zone, pallet, mpl_bracket and hybrid_weight — and Cargavo is a TMS for freight brokers that maps all four from your own Excel sheets into structured grids, then applies taxable weight, roundings, fuel surcharge and margin rules on top.
6 guides Updated
This is the technical core of the site. Cargavo is a TMS for freight brokers, and its pricing engine is one engine, used twice: once without margins to get the buy price, once with margins to get the sell price. That is why the two numbers can never drift apart.
| Grid model | Prices on | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| weight_zone | Zone × weight bracket, with paying-for logic | General LTL and groupage tariffs |
| pallet | Number of pallets × zone | Palletized distribution networks |
| mpl_bracket | Linear-meter (LDM/MPL) bracket × zone | Part loads and bulky freight |
| hybrid_weight | Flat price below a threshold, rate above it | Small-shipment tariffs with a minimum |
Around those 4 models sit the rules that decide which cell of the grid is read:
- Taxable weight — the greater of the real weight, the volumetric weight at a configurable ratio, and the linear-meter floor.
- Roundings — configurable, because a tariff that rounds up to the next bracket does not price like one that does not.
- Fuel surcharge — an indexed percentage, kept separate from the base rate so it can be updated without touching the grid.
- Options — tail lift, ADR, ad valorem insurance, timed delivery, plus custom ones.
- Margins — percentage using p/(1-m), or an absolute amount, set per bracket and per customer.
Limits. A rate grid is only as current as the sheet it came from: Cargavo has no carrier API and no EDI, so nothing updates your tariffs automatically — you re-import when a carrier sends a new version. Amounts are stored with their currency, and grid management is included from 49 €/month; multi-currency pricing across 7 currencies starts on the Growth plan.
In this category
- 01 Pillar guide
Carrier Rate Grid Management: How to Digitize and Automate Freight Tariffs
Carrier rate grid management means converting the tariff sheets your carriers send you — usually Excel files — into structured pricing data, so every quote is computed instead of looked up by hand. Almost every road freight tariff fits one of four grid models: weight-zone (a rate per 100 kg by zone), per-pallet, linear-meter (LDM/MPL) brackets, or hybrid (a flat fee below a weight threshold, per-100 kg rates above it). A TMS like Cargavo stores grids in exactly those four structures, applies your margin per customer, per grid or per bracket on the server, and returns a margin-safe sell price in seconds — while buy rates and margins stay invisible to your customers. Plans start at €49/month, so this is no longer enterprise-only technology.
9 min read Read the guide
- 02
The 4 Types of Road Freight Rate Grids, Explained
Road freight tariffs come in four grid structures. Weight-zone prices a rate per 100 kg by weight bracket and destination zone. Per-pallet prices a total by pallet count and zone. Loading-meter brackets price by the metres of trailer floor occupied. Hybrid weight charges a flat fee below a weight threshold and a per-100 kg rate above it. Recognising which one you are holding is the whole job of digitising a tariff.
11 min read Read the guide
- 03
How to Rebuild an Excel Rate Sheet as a TMS Rate Grid
Rebuilding an Excel rate sheet as a TMS rate grid means translating a document written for humans into a structured table a pricing engine can compute on — by hand, in a grid builder, because nothing reads the file for you. Six defects cause almost every discrepancy: merged cells, zones written in free text, overlapping or gapped weight brackets, mixed units, missing validity dates and an implicit currency. Fix those six, then re-price five already-invoiced shipments and reconcile line by line.
10 min read Read the guide
- 04
Percentage or Fixed Margin? Freight Margin Rules That Hold
A percentage margin scales with the carrier buy rate; a fixed margin adds the same amount whatever the shipment costs. Percentage protects full loads. Fixed protects small consignments, where a percentage returns too little to be worth booking. The two rules cross at exactly one buy price: p* = f × (1 - m) / m. Cargavo, the TMS for freight brokers, applies whichever rule you configured — per bracket, per grid or per customer — server-side.
10 min read Read the guide
- 05
Loading Meter (LDM) Pricing in Road Freight, Explained
Road carriers price palletised groupage on loading metres because floor space, not weight, is what a part-load actually removes from sale. This guide is about what the formula does not tell you: where the 2.4 divisor comes from and when it understates a wide item, why stackability is the largest swing factor on a quote, and how loading metres convert into chargeable weight that selects a tariff bracket and sets your buy price. For the definition, the formula itself and the pallet conversion table, see the glossary entry.
10 min read Read the guide
- 06
Rate Grid vs Rate Engine: The Data and the Code That Prices It
A rate grid is data: the table of zones, brackets and prices a carrier hands you at contract signature. A rate engine is the code that turns that table into a price — resolving the zone, computing taxable weight, applying rounding, minimum charges, fuel surcharge, options, margin and currency in a fixed order. The grid holds the numbers. The engine decides what happens to them.
10 min read Read the guide
Questions people ask about this topic
What are the four types of road freight rate grids?
weight_zone (zone by weight bracket, with paying-for logic), pallet (price by pallet count and zone), mpl_bracket (linear-meter/LDM brackets by zone) and hybrid_weight (a flat price below a threshold, then a rate above it). Together they cover the tariff shapes road carriers actually publish.
How is taxable weight calculated in road freight?
Taxable weight is the greatest of three numbers: the real gross weight, the volumetric weight (volume × a configurable ratio such as 333 kg per m³) and the linear-meter floor (loading metres × a configurable kg per LDM). The grid is then read at that weight, not at the weight on the scale.
Should I use a percentage margin or a fixed margin?
A percentage margin uses the formula p/(1-m), so a 20 % margin on a 100 € buy price gives a 125 € sell price and keeps the ratio stable as costs move. A fixed margin adds a set amount per bracket and protects small shipments where a percentage would be too thin. Cargavo supports both, per customer.
Can I rebuild an Excel rate sheet into a TMS?
Yes — that is the intended path. You map the sheet once to one of the 4 grid models, and from then on the engine prices from it. Entry is structured manual work today — a guided grid builder is on the roadmap. From the Growth plan at 149 €/month, the Cargavo team does the first grids with you.
Stop quoting by hand. Start winning freight.
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