The right rate, without anyone remembering it
Rates live in one place and resolve on their own — the customer's own price first, then a price for the group they belong to, then the default.
What anybody pays if nothing more specific applies to them.
| Effective Date | Pricing Method | Price | VAT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30/09/2025 | Price Per Tonne | £46.00 | 20.00% | in force today |
| 01/04/2025 | Price Per Tonne | £44.00 | 20.00% |
A rate for a group of customers. Tag an account and it picks the group price up.
| Tag Name | Effective Date | Pricing Method | Price | VAT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Framework | 01/07/2026 | Price Per Tonne | £43.50 | 20.00% | in force today |
| Framework | 01/01/2026 | Price Per Tonne | £44.75 | 20.00% | |
| Groundworks | 01/07/2026 | Price Per Load | £410.00 | 20.00% | in force today |
One account, one rate. It beats the tag price and the default price.
| Customer Name | Effective Date | Pricing Method | Price | VAT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fox Brothers (Lancashire) Ltd | 01/09/2026 | Price Per Tonne | £41.00 | 20.00% | in force today |
| Fox Brothers (Lancashire) Ltd | 01/10/2026 | Price Per Tonne | £42.25 | 20.00% | starts 01/10 |
| Mayo Stone Supplies Ltd | 01/06/2026 | Price Per Tonne | £42.00 | 20.00% | in force today |
Three tabs, three tiers. Move between them: on 10 September this product resolves to £41.00 for Fox Brothers because they have their own rate, £43.50 for anyone tagged Framework, and £46.00 for everybody else. The greyed rows are superseded rates, still on the record. Customers and rates are invented.
The rate card is the weakest part of the yard
Most operators price from a document. It is printed, it is out of date the week it is printed, and the person on the weighbridge is the one asked to apply it correctly at seven in the morning with a lorry waiting. When they get it wrong the error is invisible until the customer queries the invoice, by which point it has been applied forty times.
The version of this that actually bites is the agreed rate change. A price is negotiated to start on the first of the month, entered on the eleventh, and the ten days in between are billed at the old rate — or worse, the new rate is applied retrospectively to loads that were quoted at the old one.
How a rate resolves
Three tiers, checked in order, for every line on every ticket.
The customer's own price
Set against one account for one product. Used where a rate has been negotiated individually and should not move when anything else does.
The tag price
Set against a customer tag — trade accounts, a framework, a region. One change re-prices everyone carrying that tag, which is the point of it.
The default
The product's list price, used for anyone without a more specific arrangement. The floor under the whole thing.
The allowance, drawing down
A contract carries a tonnage allowance. Loads land against it, the balance falls, and each movement is logged with a note, a user and a time — so nobody has to reconstruct it from tickets at the end of the quarter.
What's in it
- Three pricing tiers resolved in order: customer, customer tag, then default
- Prices dated, so a rate change takes effect on the day it was agreed rather than the day it was typed
- Price per tonne or price per load, set per product
- VAT held per price rather than assumed
- Contracts with customers assigned to them, and a tonnage allowance that draws down
- Allowance movements logged with a note, a user and a timestamp
- Product groups for organising a long product list
- Customer tags for pricing a whole class of account at once
Questions we get asked
How does Heavy Tech decide which price to use?
In order. A price set specifically for that customer wins. Failing that, a price set for the tag the customer belongs to. Failing that, the product’s default price. The weighbridge operator raising the ticket does not need to know which one applied.
What happens when a rate changes mid-year?
Prices carry an effective date, so a rate agreed on the first of the month takes effect on the first of the month — not on the day somebody got round to typing it in. Historic tickets keep the rate that applied when they were raised.
Can we price per load rather than per tonne?
Yes, set per product. Some materials sell by weight and some by the load, and the pricing method is held on the price rather than assumed across the whole product list.
What is a customer tag?
A grouping you define — trade accounts, a particular contract, a regional rate. Tag a set of customers and you can price all of them at once, instead of setting the same rate against forty accounts individually.
How do contract tonnage allowances work?
A contract holds an allowance in tonnes. As loads land against the contract the allowance draws down, and every movement is logged with an amount, a note, the user who made it and a timestamp — so a dispute about how much of an allowance was used has an answer.
Is VAT handled per price?
Yes. VAT is held on the price record rather than applied as a blanket assumption, which matters when a product list spans rates.