Routing & Rating
Cogent’s system of routing and rating products is organized into three categories, illustrated and described below. These components can be deployed individually or collectively as a system, depending on the needs of the customer.
Cogent Rail Tools and Integration Components
Integration Components & APIs (Cogent Rail Connectors)
How can we help you? Check out the Benefits & Uses and see for yourself.
Want to know more? Contact us for a demo and pricing.
Web User Tools
Browser & Email based
Rail Routing/Mileaging – Cogent’s Rail Routing tool provides a web-based user interface for rail routing/distance calculations. It offers users comprehensive rail routing and mileage functionality in a web-based environment. Rail Routing is available as a hosted solution for users with secure login credentials or as licensed software to run in your organization.
Rail Fuel Surcharge Calculator – The Rail Fuel Calculator enables users to dynamically calculate accurate fuel surcharge amounts. This web-based tool automatically computes fuel costs using current rail carrier fuel surcharge rate schedules and the appropriate fuel price index level.
RateSmart Rail – RateSmart provides advanced contract modeling and rating, including fuel calculations and accessorials. The rating engine can model both private contracts and public tariffs and identifies the rail routing options and rates eligible for a given shipment. RateSmart supports weight and distance based rates, flat charges, deficit rating, plus commodity and equipment based contracts. Expected transit times can be modeled with each route and lane. This system can be configured for interactive rate inquiries or integrated with our transportation management system (TMS) for automated shipment rating
Batch Mileaging – Cogent offers web-based batch processing functionality as part of its Rail Routing software. Users may provide a spreadsheet of rail lanes as input and the system will automatically calculate distances for those lanes. Results can be emailed back to the user when ready. Additionally, users can email the spreadsheet data to an account monitored by the batch processor and automatically get results when complete.
Integration Components
Cogent Connectors for .NET & XML Svcs
Rail Connector
Cogent’s Rail Connector products are native .NET integration components designed to extend and stabilize rail routing engines like ALK’s PCMILER|Rail. These simplify .NET integration and provide scalability for web-based deployment. Cogent’s Rail Connectors are available for multiple rail distance engines, enabling customers to choose their rail data source.
Web Service
Each Rail Connector has an optional web service to allow the rail routing requests to be made from any technology platform which is XML Web Services capable. A multi-source service is also available which allows users to access multiple routing engines through a single service / API.
Routing Engines & Data
Routing Engine – Cogent’s Routing Engine models transportation network data and generates routes and distances based on a minimum-path algorithm. For enhanced flexibility, the system maintains network data in a relational database and supports custom networks. The Routing Engine supports multiple routing types, including shortest & practical, plus defined stop routing and auto-routing. Rail geo-coding assistance is built-in.
Rail Data Sources – Cogent’s Rail Routing products work with a variety of data sources, which offers customers flexibility and choices while leveraging a single API and user interface. ALK’s PCMILER|Rail is fully supported as an external data source that comes with its own routing engine. Data sources which can be loaded directly into the Cogent Routing Engine include the publicly-available, ORNL rail network plus custom networks as defined by customers. For example, a rail carrier could run both ALK and their own internal network(s) with the Cogent Routing products and distribute to users via the company’s intranet.
Benefits & Uses
Existing ALK PCMILER|Rail Users – Through Cogent’s Web Tools, PCMILER|Rail users can access their existing routing/mileaging functions anywhere with a browser and secure login. IT deployment is dramatically simplified. Plus they can add new capabilities for fuel surcharge calculations, rail shipment rating and batch mileaging.
Existing ALK Connect Users – Cogent’s Rail Connector API will simplify integration with your internal applications and will provide stability and scalability for multi-user environments. Coupled with Cogent’s Web Tools, this solution provides seamless integration and functionality needed for full web deployment.
Rail Shippers & Car Owners – Cogent has the routing, mileaging and rating functionality needed to help manage rail transportation. All products can be accessed via the internet with a secure login, so there is no IT requirement. Let us help determine which products make sense and form a solution for you.
Rail Carriers & Intermodal Operators – Cogent’s products offer rail carriers a single API and user interface to support multiple data sources (e.g. ALK and internal networks) and to deploy routing/mileaging functionality using the organization’s intranet. The Routing Engine allows carriers to model internal networks and calculate optimal routes by distance, costs or other factors. Batch mileaging using the spreadsheet template can be a useful customer service feature.
Third Parties – Cogent’s Rail products are ideal for deploying web-based functionality to your customers and for straightforward integration with your applications.
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