The geographic hierarchy is the way by which Xeneta organizes ocean freight ports across the world into regional groupings based on their proximity and rate similarity.Note that our entire geo-hierarchy for ocean freight ports is available for download in Excel format (60 KB).OverviewXeneta organizes individual ports into groups based on shared properties. Some groups are based on geographic proximity, while others are based on both proximity and price correlation.An individual port is at the lowest level of the geo-hierarchy, while the highest level is the continent that contains said port.For example, the geographical hierarchy for the port of Oslo (NOOSL) in Xeneta looks like this:World → Europe → Northern Europe → Scandinavia → Norway South East → Oslo (NOOSL)When searching for rates, Xeneta always attempts to find direct contracted rates for your selected origin and destination pair.Note that you can browse through Xeneta's entire geo-hierarchy and manually select your origin and destination locations by clicking on thebutton.If Xeneta is unable to find rates at a lower level in the geo-hierarchy, it will move one level up and attempt to find rates for a larger area. If it cannot find rates at the new level, it will continue to move further up until it reaches a geographic level where it can provide a valid rate, or until it exhausts all available options and returns no results.As Xeneta moves up the geo-hierarchy, it considers larger and larger regions, and as a result it loses precision for its aggregated rates in favor of being able to provide any rate.Contracted and Regional RatesXeneta can display two types of rates in the search results on the Market Overview page:Contracted rates — aggregated contract rates between two specific portsRegional rates — aggregated rates between larger regions when exact port-to-port rates are not availableExample of a regular contracted rate on Shanghai to OsloExample of a regional rate on China East to North EuropeGeo-Hierarchy IndicatorMost regional rates come with a geo-hierarchy indicator that shows how far up the geo-hierarchy Xeneta had to move up to provide the displayed regional rate.With each step up the geo-hierarchy, the rate information becomes less precise, and the geo-hierarchy indicator changes color to reflect this.ColorPrecisionExample1 step upNorway South East → Oslo2 steps upScandinavia → Norway South East → Oslo3 steps upNorthern Europe → Scandinavia → Norway South East → OsloNot enough data availableN/AClicking on the indicator icon will open a dialog that explains how your selected origin and destination regions were affected by moving up the geo-hierarchy.Geo-Hierarchy Breakdown ExampleIn this example, we'll be looking at the Oslo–Hamburg trade lane.We can illustrate both ports using the geo-hierarchy approach — with the individual port at the bottom, followed by increasing regional scope with each step up, until the scope reaches the continent level:World  →   EuropeWorldNorthern EuropeEuropeScandinaviaNorthern EuropeNorway South EastNorth Europe MainOsloHamburgBoth ports are situated in the Northern Europe region, but diverge into distinct regions (Scandinavia and North Europe Main) as we go one level down. By default, Xeneta will first look for contracted rates directly between Oslo and Hamburg.If Xeneta does not have enough rate data to show the contracted rate between Oslo and Hamburg, it will proceed to move one step up the geo-hierarchy. The system can move up the hierarchy for either the origin or the destination, depending on data availability at the time of request.World  →   EuropeWorldNorthern EuropeEuropeScandinaviaNorthern EuropeNorway South EastNorth Europe MainOsloHamburgOne step up the geo-hierarchy will expand the potential candidates for regional rates to the Norway South East and North Europe Main regions. A single step up the geo-hierarchy (as indicated byin the application) will allow Xeneta to look at the following regions in order to establish a regional rate:Oslo — North Europe MainNorway South East — HamburgIf a single step up the geo-hierarchy does not yield enough data to reliably show a regional rate, the system will go two steps up the geo-hierarchy.World  →   EuropeWorldNorthern EuropeEuropeScandinaviaNorthern EuropeNorway South EastNorth Europe MainOsloHamburgTwo steps up the geo-hierarchy (as indicated byin the application) will expand potential candidates for a regional rate all the way up to the Scandinavia and Northern Europe regions.As before, the system will be able to take two steps up the geo-hierarchy across both the origin and the destination, meaning that Xeneta will look at the following regions in order to establish a regional rate:Norway South East — North Europe MainOslo — Northern EuropeScandinavia — HamburgThis process will continue until Xeneta finds a level in the geo-hierarchy that can provide a valid freight rate or until it determines that it does not have enough data.Note that Xeneta does its best to always provide a contracted rate by default, but it will offer a regional rate if no contracted rates are available in the system for the selected origin-destination pair.