There are a number of reasons why you may need to make an Ad Hoc request. These can be that you have an existing quote that you want the price to be improved upon, you’re creating a quote from scratch or you’re making an Ad Hoc request to the airline without selecting a rate (e.g you may have prior knowledge that the rate is available but not published).
Within this article, we’ll focus on the instance where you have an existing quote but you’re looking for an improvement. However, Ad Hocs in the other scenarios can also be created using this method.
1. Make a general rate search
Click on the Air tab as you would to create a normal quote, then enter your flight details.
After you’ve entered your origin, destination and any available pieces of information, click on the ‘Add Pieces’ tab and enter your cargo information. Once you’ve entered this information, click on the Rates button.
Important: you cannot make an Ad Hoc request without indicating your pieces.
2. Select your rates
Once the search results have loaded, select the best suited options for you by clicking on the tick box next to them. You can select up to 20 quotes.
Click on the Request Ad Hoc rates symbol which is located at the top of the rates search results:
Once clicked, you will be directed to the page where you can enter your proposed rates to the airline.
3. Enter further details
You now need to enter and check all of the details of the requests which means including all of the mandatory fields. These are all identifiable by the red asterisk and are as follows:
Cargo ready date
Delivery date
Latest arrival date
Movement type
Pick up address
Delivery address
Incoterm
4. Negotiate your rate
Once you have entered your Ad Hoc information, you’re ready to start thinking about the proposed rate from the airline.
Select from the left-hand side which quotes you’d like to request an Ad Hoc for by clicking the respective boxes.
The Market Rate and Market cost are visible to give you an idea of how much you want to try and negotiate your Ad Hoc rate for. Enter your ‘Requested Rate,’ or the rate you want to negotiate with the airline.
Then, indicate the urgency of the request with the ‘Response Time.’ The minimum requested response time is 2 hours, but you can add an extra note if it’s more urgent.
Select who you want the email receiver to be for the request. You can choose an already existing contact from your account or can choose to enter an email address manually. If you have them, attach any supporting documents that can help negotiate the price by clicking on the paperclip symbol. These documents can be proof of a rate that was negotiated outside of your WebCargo account.
Once you’ve checked all pieces of information and clicked the terms and conditions box, click ‘Save and send.’ The Ad Hoc request will be sent to the indicated email address(es).
Tip: If you have a specific contact you want to send this request to but they’re not on the system, you can create a contact for them. Click here to find out how to add, edit and remove contacts.
5. Email responses from the airlines
After sending your request, the airline will receive an email with a link that will take them to the Ad Hoc proposal.
Clicking on this link, the airline will see a request form with the option to accept the proposal, reject it or add an alternative option.
The target or requested rate, a box to fill in the offered rate, and the current rate will all be visible. The airline contact can then add their offered rate as well as the flight details.
They can then click the Send button which will communicate with the WebCargo platform and give you an update within your account. Alternatively, if this Ad Hoc rate isn’t suitable, the airline can choose to reject it.
Finally, they can also add an alternative option, which will open up another tab in the negotiation box.
When either of these things happens both you and the airline or GSA will receive the answer back in a PDF form via email. Any of these situations will cause the status of the Ad Hocs on your WebCargo account to update.