Rates are used to price transport orders, and are used as the basis for generating invoices.
You can set rates that are applied globally or per transport order. Using the cover feature allows you to automatically set profitable prices for your orders.
You can set global rates in System -> Rates
Global rates can be thought of as your base pricing, and a fallback in the event that no other rate is set, either on a route or an individual transport order.


You can set rates that apply on a specific route. These will override global rates, and are often used to honor a specific price agreement.
You can read more about route specific pricing here
You can price an individual Transport order, rates here will override all other prices and is most commonly used in exceptional circumstances, or a one time client.
You can read more about transport order specific pricing here here,