Kleinschmidt recently developed a web application for a railroad client that allows their customers to receive real-time online rate quotes and book space for intermodal freight movements.
The intermodal origin and destination ramp pairs are predefined on the web portal. The shipper chooses the origin and destination ramps, the date and time they want to ship, and enters the specific pickup and drop-off addresses to get all-in pricing for the shipment.
Designed to target transactional intermodal freight opportunities, pricing within a fixed mileage radius of the origin or destination ramp is included in the daily price quote displayed on the main page. If the origin or destination is outside the predetermined radius, mileage based pricing is applied to the difference and added to the base rate. Rates can vary by day of the week depending on available space.
After the shipper has selected the day and entered the required information, they can purchase the service online. Once purchased, the portal will provide a receipt and automatically transfer the information they entered to an existing rail Bill Of Lading (BOL) web application. Once the BOL information has been validated, the shipper can enter any special instructions and the entire BOL is transmitted to the railroad.
All Kleinschmidt web applications are custom developed and based on the business rules as defined by our customer. In the case of this web application, some of the business rules included are to prevent shippers from requesting delivery dates before the train's arrival and capacity limits based on the number of intermodal slots that are available per day.
To learn more about how we can design and build a custom web application for your company, please contact your Kleinschmidt sales representative by filling out our online information request form or calling our office at 847-945-1000.
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