FREIGHT RATE MANAGER

A freight rate manager provides rules for calculating freight rates for use in delivering real-time costing information. The freight rate manager includes a rate sheet input module for accepting data describing a rate sheet. A rate sheet analyzer analyzes the rate sheet to identify potential errors and compares the rate sheet against rate sheet templates. If a template matches the rate sheet, then the rate sheet analyzer interprets the rate sheet according to the template. If the rate sheet analyzer does not find a matching template, a communications module sends the rate sheet to another location or otherwise stores the rate sheet for analysis. An accessorial charges module accepts information about accessorial charges. The outputs of the rate sheet analyzer and the accessorial charges module are provided to a rule generator which generates rules for calculating freight rates given the rates in the rate sheet and the accessorial charges.