Buy and sell on the same line.
Air by weight break, ocean LCL by revenue ton, ocean FCL per container, contract and spot. Every table carries the dates it is valid for, and once those dates pass the table stops pricing — it does not quote yesterday’s number.
What it replaces
The rate desk usually runs on two files and one inbox.
Five screens, one of which states what the system does not have.
Buy and sell, side by side
One lane, one carrier, and both numbers on the same row. The margin is calculated from the two rather than typed in beside them. Air prices off the weight break, ocean LCL off the revenue ton, ocean FCL as a flat amount for the container — three different questions, so three different tables.
A PDF becomes a table
The carrier’s PDF, image or Excel file is dropped on the screen. The model extracts the lines, then reads the sheet a second time to check that none were skipped. Lines it is not certain of arrive with the tick already off. Nothing is saved until Create is pressed.
Dates the system enforces
Contract or spot, every table has a first day and a last day. After the last day it returns no price at all. The morning queue warns 30 days out, again at 14 and again at 7 — three warnings before the day a quotation stops working.
A floor per customer class
Each class of customer carries a minimum margin. A quotation below it is neither blocked nor waved through: it requires an approval, and the approval is recorded on the quotation with the name and the time.
Congestion, equipment, surcharges
A notice placed on a lane appears on every quotation that uses that lane, at the moment the desk is pricing it, rather than in a newsletter or in a message the sales desk read three weeks ago.
No live carrier feed
There is no rate API from a carrier or an airline behind this. Rates enter the system in two ways: a person types them, or the model reads them off a sheet and a person confirms them. An operation that requires a live feed is not served by this system, and AMC prefers to state that here.
Sheet, quote, floor, invoice.
The same numbers throughout. What the model read is what the quotation priced, and what the quotation priced is what the job is measured against.
Load the sheet
The carrier sends a PDF. It is dropped on the screen, the proposed table is reviewed, and Create is pressed. Two of sixteen lines may arrive unticked; those are the ones to read.
Price the quotation
The quotation finds the table that covers the lane, the basis and the date. Air takes the weight break, LCL takes the greater of weight and measure, FCL takes the flat amount for the box.
Check the floor
The customer’s class carries a minimum margin. Below it, the quotation requires an approval before it goes out, and retains the approval.
Hand it to SCM
An accepted quotation becomes the shipment. The sell line becomes an invoice line and the buy line becomes a cost, so the margin quoted is the margin the job is judged on.
Both numbers, and the date the row expires.
| Lane and service | Basis | Buy | Sell | Margin | Valid to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX → PUS · LCL | W/M | 62.00 | 88.00 | 29.5% | 30 Sep |
| LAX → PUS · FCL 40HC | Per container | 1,940.00 | 2,350.00 | 17.4% | 30 Sep |
| LAX → ICN · Air +100 kg break | Per kg | 3.85 | 5.10 | 24.5% | 14 Sep |
Why the row shows its own arithmetic
An ocean LCL tariff is filed as per 1 cubic metre or 1,000 kilos, whichever yields the greater revenue. For 8 CBM and 12,000 kilos the billed quantity is 12.000 W/M. Writing 12.000 CBM on the invoice instead contradicts the 8 CBM on the bill of lading — a bill inflated by half. Writing 8.000 gives away four revenue tons.
The line therefore carries its inputs: the charge proves itself, and the total need not be trusted on its own. FCL never passes through that branch — a container is sold per container.
46 U.S.C. 41104(a)(2) · 46 CFR 532.5 · 545.4. The pounds-to-kilos constant exists once in the repository.
What passes between systems — and what does not.
SCM
A quotation prices itself from the table. When the customer accepts, the sell line becomes an invoice line and the buy line becomes a cost on the same record, so the job’s profit and the quoted margin are the same arithmetic done twice.
Portal
A signed-in customer has a rates page. What appears there is the table the desk quoted from — not a second table kept in step by hand.
WMS
Storage keeps its own rules and its own rates, next to the warehouse. They do not come out of this table, and when a storage rule cannot compute an amount it says which input is missing rather than inventing one.
ABI and LiveTrack
Nothing passes. A customs filing does not need a price, and a push alert carries status rather than money. No path was built between them and there is no hidden one.
Asked on the first call.
Do you connect to carrier rate APIs?
What happens when a rate table expires?
Can we quote below the minimum margin?
Do air, LCL and FCL price the same way?
Difficult rate sheets are welcome.
The sheet is dropped on the screen during the call and the result is reviewed, including the lines the model would not vouch for. QMS is one switch, priced per company, on top of SCM.