Product
Pricing Engine
Price every shipment accurately with a powerful rule-based engine that handles any tariff structure, including dynamic fuel surcharges.
10+
Pricing module types
TQL
Query language
Excel
Import support
Live
Fuel index updates
Pricing in freight is complex: zone-based tariffs, per-pallet rates, fuel indices, minimum charges, volume discounts. Transportial's pricing engine handles all of these with a flexible rule system and TQL (Transportial Query Language), a SQL-like syntax for building data-driven pricing rules without writing code.
Key highlights
- Multiple pricing module types: Fixed, per-unit, formula-based, zone-based, percentage, highest/lowest value, time-based, subscription, and more. Mix and match modules per customer or service type.
- TQL (Transportial Query Language): A SQL-like syntax for building data-driven pricing rules. Write conditions like "IF cargo.weight > 1000 AND zone = 'BE' THEN rate * 1.15" without involving IT.
- Import pricing tables from Excel: Paste in zone matrices, weight-break tables, and tariff schedules directly from Excel. Transportial maps the columns and imports automatically.
- Dynamic variable price indices: Define indices such as a diesel fuel surcharge that auto-updates daily. Every calculation using that index is updated automatically, without manual re-entry.
- Full cost and revenue ledger: Every price calculation is attributed from transport order down to individual consignment and trip, giving finance teams a complete picture of profitability.
- Customer-specific tariffs: Maintain separate pricing agreements per customer or customer group, with effective dates and version history.
How it works
Model your tariffs once
Recreate your existing pricing agreements in Transportial using pricing modules: fixed rates, per-unit rates, zone matrices, formulas, percentages, or time-based charges. Paste zone and weight-break tables straight in from Excel.
Add rules with TQL
Where a tariff depends on the data, write a TQL condition instead of a spreadsheet workaround, for example a surcharge that only applies above a weight threshold or within a postcode zone.
Connect dynamic indices
Link surcharges such as a diesel floater to a variable index that updates automatically. When the index moves, every price that references it moves with it.
Generate the price per order
When a transport order is created, the engine evaluates the customer's tariff against the actual order data (distance, zones, weight, load metres, pallet counts) and produces the calculated price with a full breakdown.
Quote with margin visibility
Turn the calculation into a quote or spot quote. Costs and turnover sit side by side, so you see the net profit of the job before you send the price to the customer.
Why freight pricing breaks spreadsheets
Almost no carrier has one price list. A typical operation runs dozens of customer-specific agreements at once: a zone matrix for one shipper, a per-pallet rate with weight breaks for another, a minimum charge here, a volume discount there, and a diesel surcharge that changes with the market on top of all of it. Each agreement lives in its own spreadsheet, each spreadsheet has its own author, and the person quoting has to find the right one, read it correctly, and apply the current fuel percentage by hand.
That process fails quietly. A quote calculated from last quarter's fuel index or the wrong tab of a zone matrix does not look wrong, it just erodes margin on every order it touches. And because the calculation happens outside the system that runs the transport, nobody can later reconstruct why a specific order was priced the way it was.
Transportial moves the entire tariff structure into the platform. Every agreement is a set of pricing modules attached to the customer, evaluated automatically against the real order data. The quote, the calculation behind it, and the order it belongs to are one record.
TQL: pricing logic without custom development
The hard part of any pricing engine is the exceptions. Standard rate tables cover the regular flows, but real agreements are full of conditions: a surcharge for deliveries into a city centre, a different rate above 1,000 kg, a weekend multiplier. Traditionally these either become manual corrections or a change request to a software vendor.
In Transportial they become TQL rules. TQL (Transportial Query Language) is a SQL-like syntax for expressing conditions against any field on the order: cargo weight, zones, dates, customer attributes, equipment type. A pricing manager writes "IF cargo.weight > 1000 AND zone = 'BE' THEN rate * 1.15" once, and the engine applies it consistently on every calculation from then on. No IT ticket, no release cycle.
Because rules are data-driven, they are also inspectable: every calculated price carries its breakdown, so a dispute about an invoice line can be answered by opening the calculation instead of reverse-engineering a spreadsheet.
From price to profitability
Pricing is only half of the commercial picture; the other half is cost. Transportial attributes both revenue and cost from the transport order down to the individual consignment and trip. Driver hourly rates, vehicle costs, toll and fuel feed the cost side, while the pricing engine feeds the revenue side.
The result is margin visibility at the moment it matters: when you quote. A spot quote in Transportial shows subtotal, VAT, total and net profit in the same panel, calculated from the same data that will later drive the invoice. Unprofitable lanes and customers stop being a year-end accounting discovery and become something a planner can see per order.
Technical details
TQL is compiled to a structured calculation tree and evaluated server-side at price calculation time. Variable indices are fetched from external APIs on a configurable schedule by the Worker backend node.
Frequently asked questions
Can Transportial handle zone-based tariffs with weight breaks?
Yes. Zone matrices and weight-break tables are standard pricing module types, and you can import existing tables directly from Excel. The engine picks the correct cell based on the order's zones and weights automatically.
How do fuel or diesel surcharges work?
You define a variable price index, for example a diesel floater, that updates automatically from an external source on a schedule. Every tariff that references the index uses the current value at calculation time, so surcharges never need manual re-entry.
Can each customer have their own pricing agreement?
Yes. Tariffs are maintained per customer or customer group, with effective dates and version history. When an order comes in for that customer, the engine applies their agreement automatically.
Do I need a developer to change pricing rules?
No. Pricing modules are configured in the interface, and conditional logic is written in TQL, a SQL-like rule syntax designed for pricing and operations staff. Changes take effect immediately without a software release.
Can I see the margin on a quote before sending it?
Yes. Quotes and spot quotes show costs and turnover side by side, including subtotal, VAT, total and net profit, calculated from the same driver, vehicle and route data that runs your operation.
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