The new FRETLY grids comparator has arrived, and as you may have noticed, we have made a new fonctionality to facilitate your choice of the most suitable carriers!
How does the FRETLY grids comparator work?
It's really easy and the access is totally free.
You import your grids on our online platform and you immediately visualize your comparison! The submitted grids will be modeled in a few days.
In order for your grids to be modeled correctly:
A rate grid is a tabular representation of conditions, prices and additional information from a carrier.
For example, think of it as an Excel file that contains a table where you can find the prices of a shipment according to its weight or quantity of parcels/pallets, from a given location and geographical destination.
Warning: At FRETLY, a grid is a set of different routes and volumes for a single carrier, a single period, a single unit, a single transport service, a single account...
If your carrier offers several services(e.g. Express or Premium service) this will be counted as one grid per service. Same thing if you have several units in your file.
A few examples of rate grids:
Much more than a simple price comparison, many KPIs are also provided to facilitate your decision-making. The compared grids are analyzed and displayed in the form of graphs for a better understanding.
Here are the conditions:
👉On our platform, you have the possibility to submit 10 rate grids .
👉You can compare up to 5 grids simultaneously .
👉With 10 submitted grids, you will be able to make no less than 627 comparisons .
👉Every semester, the counter resets. So you will have again the possibility to upload 10 grids and start new comparisons. The modeling credit not used during the previous semester will be "lost", it is not cumulative.
👉 You will still be able to view your old grids on the platform.
You cannot upload a file containing more than 10 grids, you will have to choose which grids you really want to model in order to not exceed your free credit. Of course, you can also subscribe to a paying offer to model all your grids!
An excel file will not be billed as a grid if the same file contains other grids.
How to analyze your grids?
Once the modeling is done, you can start the analysis of your grids.
You will find four elements: the common scope, the ranking, the filters and the results.
Here's how to analyze each element:
👉The common scope: It represents the similarity of the elements present on your grids. Therefore, if you are comparing two grids with totally different road, your scope will be 0%. All analyses of the four elements presented here will be done on this common scope.
👉Ranking : It helps you to order the carriers according to their prices.
Example: Carrier 1 appears at 78% and carrier 2 at 22%. This means that C1 is cheaper on 78% of the common scope.
👉Filters: they are used to configurethe results. You will find all the variables that define your grids (weight, country of departure, country of arrival...) Filters are presented as a selectable drop-down menu.
Please note: depending on the number of unselected filters, a different graph will appear in the results.
Several results are then possible depending on the different filters chosen:
💡 2 variables not selected = a Heatmap appears.
The graphical representation named Heatmap allows a macro analysis of the comparison, in 2 dimensions, one variable on the x-axis and a second on the y-axis.
Each box represents a set of prices with respect to the variables set and the conditions associated with the row and column of the graph.
The color of the box corresponds to the cheapest carrier according to the set of variables previously set/selected. The box will appear gray if there is an equality.
By moving the cursor over a box, you will be able to see the prices of all the compared grids.
The Heatmap allows you to analyze a large number of roads at a glance and identify which carrier is the cheapest under which conditions and trends.
Let's take the example below:
We can quickly notice that grid 1 is the cheapest in a majority of zip code below 10 units sent, especially in Paris area. Moreover, for 1 unit, whatever the destination, grid 2 remains the cheapest. For the zip code 30 / 31 / 33 / 34, grid 1 will be the cheapest.
Multiple analyses can be done with this type of representation.
💡 1 variable not selected = a Bar Plot appears.
The graphical representation named Bar Plot depends on a single variable fixed on the x-axis of the bar chart (the y-axis will always be the price).
By setting an additional variable to the Heatmap, it allows to have an additional level of detail and thus reduce the scope of the analysis.
Let's take the example below:
Previously, we noticed with the Heatmap that grid 2 is the cheapest for 1 unit. We can imagine that the price difference with grid 1 is minimal. To be sure, we set the unit variable to 1 and leave the zip code variable unfilled. The latter thus appears on the x-axis.
We note that the difference between grid 1 and grid 2 is quite significant, with the exception of zip code 38, 73 and 74.
We can imagine a second analysis on a specific zip code. A shipper sends his goods mainly in the zip code 94. In this case, we fix the zip code variable (94) and we observe the variation of prices with the appearance of the Bar Plot:
Thanks to the Heatmap, we were able to see that grid 1 was the cheapest below 10 units. The Bar Plot allowed us to refine our analysis, especially for the 3 to 8 unit range, where grid 1 is the cheapest, for a minimal price difference with grid 2. It is then legitimate to wonder if it is worthwhile to solicit a second carrier for so little difference.
Finally, we also notice that as the units increase, the gap between grid 1 and grid 2 widens. If our flows are composed mainly of many parcels, grid 2 is more advantageous. On the other hand, if our activity is composed of less than 10 parcels per shipment, other elements can be taken into account to facilitate the decision making. For example, think about the management of a panel of several carriers on the operations side, the relationship of trust established with the service provider already in place...
💡 No variable selected = a price table
Note that the more variables you select, the more focused your analysis will be.
Of course, our teams remain available if you have any questions.
Do not hesitate to contact us 😉
