The framework for setting rates in DispatchDirect is based on a two dimensional matrix. The first dimension is Vehicle Class - the type of vehicles that your company services, such as motorcycles or medium duty trucks. The second dimension is Service such as towing or fixing flats. These two dimensions should be defined to cover the scope of your business - particularly “Cash” or Call-in“ business. Subsequently, pricing will be defined for the “cells” of the matrix which will become the “Default” pricing for Call-In business, and the starting point to define Account-specific variations

The configuration of Vehicle Classes and Service Offerings is in the menu branch for Pricing Set-Up

Vehicle Class - the type of vehicle being serviced

• Each Vehicle Class must be categorized in a Primary class and a Sub-class
• The Primary class is used to identify trucks that are appropriate to assign to service these vehicles - e.g., Light Duty, Medium Duty, or Heavy Duty
• Each Primary Class must have at least one Sub-class - Standard: which should be used for the most common vehicles serviced in the Primary Class
• A separate Vehicle Class should be configured when the charges are different from other Vehicle Classes
  

Examples of common Vehicle Classes (Primary class - Sub-class) include:

• Light - Standard : most cars and light trucks such as Ford Taurus, Chevy Malibu, VW Jetta, Toyota Camry
• Light - Luxury: premium vehicles such as Cadillac, Lexus, Acura, Mercedes
• Light - Motorcycles
• Light - Specialty: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche
• Medium - Standard: most commercial vans, contractor pick-up trucks, package delivery vehicles
• Medium - Class 4-5: Box trucks, walk-in trucks, beverage delivery trucks
• Heavy - Tractor/trailer: 18 wheelers
• Heavy - Construction: Dump trucks, cement mixers

Service Offering - the different types of services delivered to customers

• Each Service Offering must for be categorized in a Primary Offering and a Sub-offering
• Each Primary Offering must have at least one Sub-offering - Standard: which should be used for the most common scope of service in the Primary offering
• These categories (together with Vehicle Class) are used for organizing standard reporting
• A separate Service Offering should be configured when the charges are different from other Service Offerings

Examples of common Servcie Offerings (Primary Offering - Sub-offering) include:

• On-Scene Service - Standard: Including tire repair, out of gas, jump start
• On-Scene Service - Battery replacement: more expensive than typical service calls - higher labor and the cost of a new battery
• On-Scene Service - Lockout: a simpler, less expensive service offering
• Towing - Standard: Most breakdowns
• Towing - Emergency: Expedited service for accidents, or urgent customer needs
• Towing - Recovery: Overturned vehicles

Getting Started - Suggestions

1. Define vehicle classes and service offerings … keep it simple to start … its generally most helpful to get up and running quickly, recognizing that DispatchDirect has the flexibility for as much complexity as you are prepared to manage and maintain
2. Configure the Cash/Call-In Account in Accounts - this is the “default” for business that comes in over-the-transom
3. Begin defining pricing - in Pricing Templates - for the “cells” in the two dimensional matrix (vehicle classes and service offerings) where you do the most business
4. Start by defining Pricing Templates for the “Call-In”/”Cash Call”/“Over-the-transom Calls” – use these as the “default” pricing approach (“List Pricing”) for the business – in so doing any account that does not have a company-specific template for a cell in the matrix will be priced by the system using this default
5. Where a different pricing structure is appropriate for one or more accounts, start with the closest available Pricing template (e.g., for “Cash” business), adjust as necessary, give the template a new name, and “Save as a new template”. Part of the idea behind this approach is to make it easy to create an Account-Specific pricing template by starting with an available template (note: the list of templates – Rates” – can become quite long …. be prudent in creating just what you really need)
6. For the relevant Accounts, associate the new Pricing Template with that account …. The System will use the Vehicle Class and Service offering for pricing – using the Account-specific template when available, and the company default pricing (Call-in/Cash) when account-specific pricing has not been entered

Pricing Templates define rates and are one of the most powerful features in DispatchDirectTM. They are very easy to create, and even easier to then duplicate/modify to create additional templates. Use care in developing Pricing Templates - you need enough templates to reflect the pricing diversity of your business. But recognize that each template is likely to require some level of future “maintenance” as you change pricing. It would be easy to create more Pricing Templates than you really want/need.

The best place to start is to build the Pricing Templates for your “Cash” business - i.e., Call-In or Over-the-Transom requests - often from first-time and/or one-time customers (vs. repeat customers that would more typically be set up as established accounts with special pricing). It is helpful to think of the Pricing Templates for your Cash/Call-In business as the “List Pricing” for your company - what you typically charge. Building these Cash/Call-In templates as the company's “List Pricing”, makes the templates particularly useful for creating account-specific pricing - providing a starting point for setting more attractive rates for key clients or high-volume customers.

Technically, this concept of “List” pricing is defined by the templates you designate as the “Class/offering default”. There can only be one “default” pricing template for each combination of Vehicle Class and Service Offering. It is recommended that you set the Cash/Call-In template for each relevant combination of Vehicle Class and Service Offering as the “Class/offering default”.

To minimize complexity, it is advantageous to have multiple accounts using the same Pricing Template. You may have many repeat customers for whom you use “List” prices, or that share the same (discounted) Pricing Template.

Any account-specific pricing (pricing that is different than “List” (i.e., the “Class/offering default”) needs to be established in a separate Pricing Template. There are two major advantages of setting up account-specific pricing as a template. First, as noted earlier, it may make sense to apply these same templates to multiple accounts. For example, you may choose to use the same pricing for all auto dealers served. In addition, the template can be used to create other templates with similar characteristics. For example, the template for one motor club may be similar to another. A new account-specific template and be created by changing the description of the template, making whatever changes are needed, and saving it as a new template.

Unless account-specific pricing has been defined and associated with an Account, the appropriate pricing for the Accounts is assumed to be “List” pricing - the designated default template for the combination of a Vehicle class/Service offering. For example, in pricing a new call for Account ABC, DispatchDirectTM will use, if available, an account-specific template for the Vehicle Class/Service Offering that has been associated with Account ABC. If Account ABC does not have a different Pricing Template for the Vehicle Class/Service Offering, it will be priced at “List” (i.e., whatever template has been designated as the “Class/offering default”).

A Pricing Template defines a specific rate structure and rate levels. The rate structure includes the applicable components to be priced (e.g., Tow charge, Mileage, Labor, Extras) and the appropriate formulas (e.g., free miles, fixed or hourly rates). The rate levels specify the specific amounts to be charged within the structure - e.g., $2.50 per mile.

Before setting up Pricing Templates, you must first complete two, pre-requisite configurations:

• Definition of Classes/Offerings - which defines the overall pricing structure or pricing “matrix”. Vehicle Classes and Service Offerings should be thought of as the “rows and columns” of a two-dimensional pricing matrix. Pricing Templates are defined for the relevant “cells” within this matrix. There could be just one (the “List” pricing template) , or many (different templates for a number of different accounts). If you find that a required pricing template does not fit into the two-dimensional matrix - then you will need to add a new Vehicle Class and/or a new Service Offering (see Classes/Offerings). When a Call Taker enters a new call, she/he will be required to enter a Vehicle Class and Service Offering. DispatchDirectTM will automatically choose the appropriate pricing template for the account (from the two-dimensional matrix) using these two inputs. If there is not an account-specific Template associated with the account, DispatchDirectTM will apply the default pricing for this cell (“Class/offering default”).
• Definition of Shifts/Commissions - which defines available options and influences rate decisions within a Pricing Template (see Shifts/Commissions). For example, pricing can be varied for each operational “shift” that has been defined. The choices from Shifts/Commissions are shown for reference on the Pricing template. The appropriate commission for the type of work (e.g., “base” rate for Standard Tow, Luxury Vehicles) as defined in each Pricing Template should be set in consideration of the decisions made for commission increases based on tenure or skills (“incentive rates”). For example, if “incentive” rates for tenure and skills are relatively high, then the “base” rates as defined in the pricing templates would probably be relatively low (see Shifts/Commissions).
  

Pricing Templates are identified by three variables - the combination of which must be unique

The first two variables relate the Pricing template to the overall two-dimensional pricing matrix as defined by Classes/Offerings. The third variable is the “description”, which makes each Template unique. Most customers find that it is helpful to use the “description” to define the customer segment. A customer segment could be the Cash/Call-in business, or body shops, or auto dealers, or even an individual account like Liberty Ford or Cross Country.

To create a new template “from scratch”

1. Choose the Vehicle Class and Service Offering from the drop-down lists (if the desired choice is not available, define a new Vehicle Class and/or Service Offering in Classes/Offerings)
2. Check the Class/offering default box if this template is intended to be the “List Pricing” for the Vehicle Class/Service Offering (will be used for pricing when account-specific templates are not available)
3. Complete the specification of rates in the Pricing Parameters section (see Pricing templates - Pricing Parameters)
4. Push “Save as new template”
5. DispatchDirectTM will confirm “Save successful” - note: the Template can not be edited in this state; to edit - navigate away and then re-select
   

To create a new template from an existing template

1. Select the template to be used as the starting point from Existing Templates
2. Change the Template Identifiers as appropriate - e.g., change the description from Cash/Call-in to Body Shops or Allstate
3. Check the Class/offering default box only if this template is intended to be the “List Pricing” for the Vehicle Class/Service Offering. DispatchDirectTM will permit only one default (“List” pricing) template for each combination of Vehicle Class and Service Offering
4. Make modifications to the rates in the Pricing Parameters section (see Pricing templates - Pricing Parameters)
5. Push “Save as new template”
6. DispatchDirectTM will confirm “Save successful” - note: the Template can not be edited in this state; to edit further - navigate away and then re-select
   

To modify an Existing template

1. Select the template to be modified from Existing Templates
2. The Template Identifiers can be changed as appropriate - e.g., to correct a typo in the “description”
3. Make modifications to the rates in the Pricing Parameters section (see Pricing templates - Pricing Parameters), as needed
4. Push “Save” - the previously Existing template will be replaced with the new modified template
5. DispatchDirectTM will confirm “Save successful” - note: the Template can not be edited in this state; to edit further - navigate away and then re-select