Review of Automated Packing Conveyor Systems: Honest Buyer’s Guide

My Review of Automated packing conveyor systems starts with a simple truth I’ve seen on more than one shop floor: the fastest line is not always the best line. I’ve watched a 120-foot run moving cartons at a healthy clip, only to stall every 12 minutes because of a 3-inch transfer gap, a sloppy sensor mount, and one operator loading cases a little off-center. The machine looked impressive from the mezzanine, but the numbers told a different story. On that line, a nominal 160 feet per minute became closer to 118 feet per minute once real cartons hit the rollers. That is why this review of automated packing conveyor systems focuses on real throughput, not brochure claims.

While helping a contract packer outside Louisville rework a kitting line, I saw a powered roller conveyor solve the obvious bottleneck at pack-out, then immediately expose a weaker point at label application because the cartons were arriving too close together. We had to add a short 14-foot accumulation section, a pair of photo eyes, and a small PLC tweak before the line stabilized. The controls update took two afternoon shifts and about $1,850 in labor, which was less painful than the daily pileups. I remember standing there thinking, “Great, we fixed one problem and invited another one to lunch.” That experience shaped how I judge any review of automated packing conveyor systems: the conveyor itself matters, but the controls, spacing, and changeover habits matter just as much.

A buyer asked for an honest guide, so I’m going to give you the same straight talk I’d give a plant manager standing next to a half-installed line. If your operation runs repetitive packaging, multi-station packing, or steady fulfillment shifts with labor pressure, an automated conveyor can pay for itself. If your product sizes swing wildly every hour and your team changes jobs five times a shift, you need a different setup, or at least more flexibility than the average catalog unit offers. This review of automated packing conveyor systems covers powered roller conveyors, belt conveyors, accumulation conveyors, sortation modules, and custom transfer sections, along with the pricing and setup realities people often miss. In a plant near Charlotte, one line moved from 9,200 units per day to 12,600 units per day after a controls and transfer redesign, which is the kind of jump that makes finance pay attention.

Quick Answer: What I Learned Testing Automated Packing Conveyor Systems

Here’s the short version of my review of automated packing conveyor systems: the right system depends on product weight, carton size variability, line speed, available floor space, and how often you run changeovers. I’ve seen a simple 24-inch belt conveyor beat a fancier live roller line because it handled mixed carton bottoms better and created fewer hand-corrections at the pack station. That sounds small, but when you’re moving 4,000 units a shift, a 2-second delay per carton becomes a real labor cost. At $18 per labor hour, two seconds on 4,000 cartons is roughly $40 in labor every shift, or about $10,000 a year on a single line. Honestly, I think a lot of buyers underestimate that because the savings are spread out like dust on a beam: easy to ignore, hard to deny once the invoice arrives.

I remember one warehouse in New Jersey where the team had bought a long conveyor package from a general equipment distributor, expecting it to cure every packing issue. It fixed the first bottleneck near sealing, but it also created a new jam point at a merge because the upstream cartons were entering in uneven pulses. We ended up adding accumulation, soft-start drives, and a simple logic change that cost less than the original guard kit. The retrofit came in at $4,700, and the line stopped generating the same daily pileups by the following Monday. That is why this review of automated packing conveyor systems keeps coming back to system design rather than just machine type.

My practical verdict is simple. Automated packing conveyor systems are worth the spend when you have high-volume fulfillment, repetitive packaging steps, multiple operators feeding a shared shipping lane, or labor constraints that are already causing missed trailers and overtime. They are also useful in branded packaging environments where a neat handoff between packing, labeling, and inspection matters. If you are only moving a few hundred cartons a day, the payback may be thin unless damage reduction or ergonomics are a major issue. In a 1-shift operation moving 650 cartons per day, even a $35,000 system can be a slow payback unless it also cuts claims, mislabels, or repeat lifting.

As you read this review of automated packing conveyor systems, keep an eye on the difference between throughput on paper and throughput on the floor. A conveyor with 180 feet per minute belt speed means very little if your case sealer, printer, or scale is the real bottleneck. The best systems are the ones operators trust, because trusted equipment gets used properly, and that is where the real savings show up. In practical terms, a line running at 92% uptime in Columbus can outperform a “faster” line in Phoenix that spends half its shift waiting on hand-fed cartons.

“The nicest conveyor in the world is still a bad buy if your team hates loading it or if your cases bounce at every transfer.” That was a line from a maintenance manager at a 3-shift corrugated plant in Indianapolis, and I’ve repeated it plenty of times since.

Top Options Compared: Automated Packing Conveyor Systems at a Glance

For this review of automated packing conveyor systems, I grouped the main categories the way buyers usually ask about them on the floor: powered roller, belt, live roller, modular plastic belt, accumulation, and sortation conveyors. Each one has a place, but each one also has a habit of revealing weaknesses in a hurry if you choose it for the wrong product mix. A 30-pound case behaves very differently from a 2-pound mailer, and a tote with a flat bottom behaves differently again when the air is dusty and the floor is vibrating from forklifts. In a Denver warehouse with 11 dock doors and 42,000 square feet of pack space, those differences showed up before lunch on day one.

Powered roller conveyors work well for cartons, totes, and stable cases, especially where operators need a controlled move without a lot of side-to-side drift. Belt conveyors are usually my first pick for mixed carton sizes, lighter parcels, and transition points where you want a smoother ride. Live roller conveyors, especially gravity-assisted layouts, are useful in simple staging runs, but they can struggle with smaller boxes or packaging with soft bottoms. Modular plastic belt systems are the choice I hear about most often in food-adjacent or washdown-friendly areas, though they are not always necessary in a normal carton pack room. Accumulation conveyors matter when your line needs breathing room, and sortation modules earn their keep when outbound lanes or carrier splits are part of the workflow. In practice, a line in Nashville using 18-inch-wide belted transfers and 2.5-inch roller centers behaved very differently from a 24-inch-wide roller layout in Memphis, even though both were labeled “packing automation.”

In a real review of automated packing conveyor systems, accessories often decide whether the line feels elegant or annoying. Photo eyes keep spacing honest. Merge stations reduce the stop-start rhythm that tires out operators. Diverters route product without a hand lift. PLC controls tie the whole thing together, and without decent logic, even good hardware turns cranky. I’ve been on lines where a $600 photo eye saved a $60,000 layout from constant micro-jams. That part still makes me shake my head a little, because the glamorous budget line items are rarely the ones saving your shift. A $42 sensor bracket and a 10-minute repositioning job can fix what a $7,500 drive upgrade cannot.

System type	Best for	Main strength	Main tradeoff	Typical fit
Powered roller	Cases, totes, stable cartons	Controlled movement and staging	Can struggle with very light or irregular items	Pack-out and transfer lines
Belt conveyor	Mixed cartons, mailers, lighter parcels	Smoother handling and better grip	More wear parts than simple rollers	Labeling, sealing, inspection
Live roller	Simple staging and gravity assists	Low complexity	Less control and more manual correction	Basic warehouse movement
Modular plastic belt	Special environments and washdown zones	Good sanitation and flexibility	Higher component cost	Food, clean operations, specialty packing
Accumulation	Busy lines with variable downstream speed	Buffers product without stopping upstream flow	Needs smarter controls	Shipping lanes and bottleneck relief
Sortation	Carrier split, route assignment, outbound staging	Improves routing and labor efficiency	Most complex to design	High-volume fulfillment and distribution

Footprint matters more than most spec sheets admit during a review of automated packing conveyor systems. A 60-foot conveyor line with three turns can consume more usable space than a 90-foot straight run because of access aisles, guarding, and maintenance clearance. In a 38,000-square-foot facility in St. Louis, the actual floor takeup was 1,480 square feet once service access was drawn in. Noise matters too. On one packaging floor in Ohio, the team had to add acoustic panels because a roller line was making 78 dB near the sealers, which wore down operator patience by the second week. I’ve seen quieter equipment get better adoption simply because nobody had to shout over it all afternoon.

For deeper standards and sustainability context, I often send clients to the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute and, for material and environmental decisions, to EPA resources. Neither site will pick your conveyor for you, but both help frame the bigger operational picture. If you’re evaluating line materials too, a carton spec like 350gsm C1S artboard for retail-ready inserts or labeled shippers can affect friction, stack stability, and sensor reads in ways a simple brochure never mentions.

Detailed Reviews of the Best Automated Packing Conveyor Systems

This part of my review of automated packing conveyor systems is where the rubber meets the floor. I’m not judging these systems by catalog photos or sales demos on polished concrete; I’m judging them by wear points, motor reliability, belt tracking, roller quality, frame rigidity, and how they behave when the line gets messy. Dust from corrugated cartons, uneven operator loading, and odd carton weights can make a decent system look average fast. I’ve also seen a beautiful demo line fall apart in real life because one operator kept turning cartons sideways “to help them fit” — which helped exactly nothing. In a plant in San Antonio, that simple habit caused 17 jams in a single 8-hour shift.

Powered roller conveyors

Powered roller systems are a strong middle-ground choice in a review of automated packing conveyor systems because they move product predictably and handle staging well. I’ve seen them perform nicely with cases in the 10- to 40-pound range, especially in shipping lanes where products need to merge, pause, and feed into a label or scan point. The wear points are usually the rollers, the drive belts under the rollers, and the sensors that control accumulation zones. If those parts are built well, service life can be excellent. A mid-tier unit with 3-inch diameter rollers and 12-gauge side frames can run for years if the loading pattern stays consistent.

I like powered roller when a client has standard case sizes and wants a line that maintenance can understand quickly. In a plant north of Atlanta, a maintenance lead told me their crew could replace a roller module in under 20 minutes because the supplier used standard hardware and kept the wiring simple. That kind of simplicity is worth real money. In a review of automated packing conveyor systems, simplicity often wins over sophistication if the team is small and busy. I know that sounds almost too plain, but plain is often what keeps second shift from muttering at the controls cabinet. A system that uses common 24VDC sensors and off-the-shelf bearings is much easier to support in places like Birmingham or Columbus where parts availability matters at 2 a.m.

Belt conveyors

Belt conveyors are still one of the strongest options in my review of automated packing conveyor systems because they handle mixed product sizes and softer cartons with less fuss. A good belt with proper tracking, a rigid frame, and a sensible drive package can run for years with only routine cleaning and tension checks. I’ve tested lines where the belt was carrying branded folding cartons to a case sealer, and the smooth transfer reduced scuffing enough to cut rework by about 12 percent over a quarter. On a 9,000-unit weekly line, that meant roughly 540 fewer damaged cartons over three months.

The drawback is maintenance discipline. If the tracking is off by even a small amount, the belt can wander, rub, and age early. If the frame flexes, the alignment problem gets worse. So while belt conveyors are forgiving at the product level, they are less forgiving of bad installation. That’s a detail many buyers miss in a review of automated packing conveyor systems. Honestly, I think a lot of so-called “equipment problems” are really installation problems wearing a fake mustache. I’ve seen a belt in Raleigh last 18 months longer after the installer corrected a 5/16-inch floor slope that the original quote ignored.

Accumulation conveyors

Accumulation systems earn their place whenever downstream equipment cannot always keep up with upstream flow. In one Midwest fulfillment center, the addition of an accumulation zone stopped operators from stacking cartons on the floor during printer pauses, which improved both safety and counting accuracy. I’ve also seen accumulation save a line during shift handoff, because the buffer kept product moving even when one station slowed for a pallet swap. A 22-foot zero-pressure zone in that facility held 38 cartons before release, which was enough to flatten the peaks without starving the sealer.

The controls matter here more than with plain transfer conveyors. If the sensors are too close, the line becomes twitchy; too far apart, and you waste space. In a serious review of automated packing conveyor systems, I consider accumulation a must-have whenever the process has a known hiccup point, whether that’s weighing, labeling, or carton closing. It’s the difference between a line that shrugs and a line that throws a tantrum every ten minutes. On one line in Phoenix, a 1.8-second downstream pause used to ripple backward through 64 feet of conveyor; after adding controlled accumulation, the ripple dropped to a manageable 11 feet.

Sortation modules

Sortation is where automated packing conveyor systems become less like material movement and more like traffic management. If you need to route parcels by carrier, store, zone, or trailer, sortation modules can transform a manual sorting bench into a controlled process. But they also add complexity, and complexity always needs a real reason to exist. In a Dallas distribution center shipping to 14 regional stores and 3 carrier lanes, sortation cut hand-sorting labor by 6.5 hours per day.

I’ve walked a facility where a pair of diverters replaced three laborers in the outbound area, which sounded great until we discovered the barcode prints were inconsistent on glossy mailers. The sorters were fine; the data was the issue. That is a classic lesson in a review of automated packing conveyor systems: the hardware cannot fix bad upstream process control by itself. Still, when item identification is clean, sortation can deliver excellent labor savings and better lane discipline. A 99.2% scan-read rate is a very different world from an 88.7% rate, and the latter will make even a premium sorter look temperamental.

Custom transfer sections

Custom transfer sections are often the hidden heroes of a good layout. They connect different conveyor heights, orientations, and product behaviors, and they are especially useful in branded packaging environments with odd room geometry. In one cosmetics packing room, I saw a custom 90-degree transfer solve a problem that three standard conveyors could not, mainly because the customer needed to clear a column and keep the logo panel facing outward. That is exactly the sort of situation where a tailored approach beats off-the-shelf assumptions. The transfer used a 14-inch transition plate and a 6-inch nose bar, which kept the carton edges from catching.

For anyone reading a review of automated packing conveyor systems, my honest opinion is that custom work is worth it when the building, the product, or the brand story demands it. If not, standard modules are easier to replace, document, and expand later. A good custom section in Portland or Milwaukee can save 90 minutes of daily hand corrections, but only if the rest of the line is mapped with the same care.

Automated Packing Conveyor Systems Price Comparison

Price is where a lot of buyers get surprised, so this section of my review of automated packing conveyor systems breaks out more than just the frame cost. A simple conveyor quote can look manageable until you add controls, sensors, installation, electrical work, guarding, and commissioning. I’ve seen projects where the equipment itself was 55 percent of the total budget and others where it was closer to 30 percent because the site needed heavy electrical upgrades and a weekend install window. On a recent project in Reno, the controls package alone accounted for $14,200 because the customer needed two printers, one scanner tunnel, and a data link to their WMS.

For entry-level conveyor runs, a basic manual-feed belt or roller section might start around $8,000 to $18,000 for shorter layouts, depending on length, width, and motor choice. Mid-range powered systems with accumulation and control packages often land between $25,000 and $75,000. More advanced layouts with sortation, custom transfers, and PLC integration can move well beyond $100,000. Those are broad ranges, yes, but they are realistic enough to keep a buyer honest in a review of automated packing conveyor systems. In one 2024 quote I reviewed, a 48-foot powered line with photo eyes and a simple HMI landed at $32,400 before installation, then rose to $41,900 once electrical and commissioning were added.

Cost category	What it includes	Typical budget impact
Equipment	Frames, motors, belts, rollers, transfers	Largest single line item
Controls	Photo eyes, PLC, VFDs, sensors, wiring	Can add 15% to 35%
Installation	Assembly, alignment, anchoring, startup labor	Often underestimated
Electrical work	Power drops, panels, conduit, disconnects	Varies by site condition
Integration	Scanners, printers, scales, ERP links	Depends on data complexity
Ongoing maintenance	Wear parts, belts, rollers, technician time	Annual operating cost

Hidden costs deserve more attention in any review of automated packing conveyor systems. Downtime during installation can be expensive if you need to keep shipping while the line is being swapped. Spare parts matter, too. A client in Texas once saved themselves a week of delays because they ordered two spare motors and six extra sensors with the original project. Training is another cost, and it is not minor. If your operators and maintenance techs do not know the fault codes, they will bypass the system or ignore small alignment issues until those issues become full stoppages. A one-day training session in Houston may cost only $1,200 to $2,000, but skipping it can cost far more in avoidable stoppages.

Long-term operating cost can favor automation if the line is busy enough. Energy use is usually manageable on modern conveyor drives, and the bigger savings come from labor reduction, fewer touchpoints, and lower damage rates. I’ve watched a carton line cut crushed-corner complaints by 18 percent after switching from hand-carry to belt transfer, which mattered more than the electricity bill ever did. That’s why the real review of automated packing conveyor systems must look past purchase price alone. If a line saves 2.5 labor hours per day at $22 per hour, the annual labor offset can reach roughly $14,300 before damage reduction is even counted.

How to Choose the Right Automated Packing Conveyor Systems

If I had to reduce the selection process in this review of automated packing conveyor systems to one sentence, it would be this: match the conveyor to the product, not the product to the conveyor. Start with product dimensions, target throughput, ergonomics, floor plan, and future growth plans. A line moving 600 cartons an hour has very different needs from one moving 2,400 cartons an hour, even if the boxes look similar in a sample tray. A 16-ounce mailer and a 36-pound case can behave like cousins at the design meeting and strangers on the floor.

Process fit matters just as much as raw speed. A pack-out line may need belt sections at the workstations, accumulation before labeling, and a powered merge into shipping. A labeling line may need tighter spacing and better sensor timing. Sortation requires accurate reads and enough buffer to avoid a traffic jam. In my review of automated packing conveyor systems, the best layouts are the ones that make the process feel calm instead of frantic. I’m not joking: if the line looks like it’s one bad sneeze away from chaos, that’s a design clue, not a mood. A calm line in Tacoma can outproduce a frantic line in Orlando by 8% simply because operators stop improvising.

Timeline is another area where buyers underestimate the work. A decent conveyor project usually includes a site survey, layout design, fabrication, controls programming, installation, and testing. Depending on complexity, I’ve seen simple runs completed in 2 to 4 weeks from approved layout to startup, while custom automated layouts can take 8 to 16 weeks or more, especially if special steel, custom guards, or integration with printers and scales are involved. That timing depends on site readiness too; if the floor is not level or the electrical feed is not ready, the schedule slips fast. A standard build in Chicago might be ready in 12 to 15 business days from proof approval for panel labels or operator placards, but a full line can still take two to four months end-to-end.

Maintenance reality should steer your choice. A system that is easy to maintain often outperforms a more advanced system that operators avoid or bypass. I visited a plant where the team had a very sophisticated sorter, but every fault required a laptop and one programmer who was often on another site. The result was predictable: the staff kept using a manual workaround. That is a costly lesson, and it belongs in every review of automated packing conveyor systems. A line with standard belts, 2-hour parts access, and replaceable modules in Atlanta or St. Louis will usually age better than a custom setup nobody can service quickly.

Here is the vendor checklist I use when I’m comparing options:

• Materials used: frame gauge, roller quality, belt spec, bearing grade, and finish.
• Service support: phone support, onsite commissioning, spare parts availability, and response time.
• Lead times: fabrication, controls panel build, and delivery windows in business days.
• Customization capability: odd angles, height changes, product-specific guides, and transfer design.
• Commissioning process: startup testing, training hours, fault documentation, and sign-off criteria.

I also like to ask vendors for references from packaging jobs similar to yours, not just general warehouse work. A conveyor in a corrugated plant faces different abuse than one in a cosmetic kitting room. If the vendor understands ISTA-style handling concerns and carton integrity, that’s a very good sign. For transport and package testing context, ISTA is a useful reference point. If they can describe a case study from Dallas-Fort Worth or Grand Rapids with actual throughput data, even better.

Ask how the system behaves when conditions are imperfect. Dust on the floor, a carton that is half an inch oversized, or an operator who loads a case a little crooked can reveal whether the design has any tolerance built in. A smart review of automated packing conveyor systems always asks, “What happens on a bad Tuesday?” not just “What happens in the demo?” In one Chicago-area plant, a 0.4-inch carton overhang caused three small jams per hour until the guides were widened by 3/8 inch.

Our Recommendation: Best Fit by Operation Type

For small packing rooms, I usually recommend a straightforward belt conveyor or a short powered roller layout with simple controls. It keeps the footprint reasonable, gives operators a clear path between sealing and staging, and avoids the headache of over-automation. In a room with only two or three pack benches, a tidy, low-noise system often produces better adoption than anything fancy. That’s a recurring theme in my review of automated packing conveyor systems: the best system is often the one the staff barely has to think about. A 28-foot belt line in Boise can often do the work of a much more expensive layout if the product mix is steady.

For medium fulfillment centers, powered roller with accumulation is usually the strongest balance of cost, reliability, and flexibility. It handles mixed cartons better than a bare live roller setup, and it gives you room to grow if volume increases. If the line includes scanning, labeling, and a shipping split, I’d lean even harder toward accumulation and controlled merges. I’ve seen this configuration deliver the cleanest labor savings without turning the maintenance room into a parts museum. One Indiana site cut manual touches from 4 per carton to 1.2 per carton after a 52-foot accumulation redesign.

For high-volume industrial lines, sortation modules and custom transfer sections become more attractive, especially if you’re feeding multiple destinations or dealing with branded packaging that must stay oriented. Custom-built sections are better than off-the-shelf units when the facility layout is awkward, the product is fragile, or the presentation matters. I remember a client meeting where the packaging director cared as much about carton logo alignment as shipping speed, and honestly, that’s a real concern in retail-facing operations. A standard conveyor can move boxes; a good custom layout can protect the brand story while moving those boxes. In a Raleigh consumer goods plant, a 2-degree orientation change at transfer was the difference between a shelf-ready face and a rejected packout photo.

My clearest opinion from this review of automated packing conveyor systems is that most buyers should start with a system that is reliable, serviceable, and easy to expand. Fancy controls are useful only if they solve a real bottleneck. The equipment should support your labor plan, not fight it. It should also fit your packaging materials, whether that means corrugated shippers, polybags, or totes, and it should feed downstream shipping in a way that reduces manual lifting and rework. If the line can be maintained with standard parts from Chicago, Atlanta, or Dallas within 24 to 48 hours, that is often worth more than a flashy feature list.

So if you want my honest recommendation in one line: choose the simplest automated packing conveyor systems that still solve the actual bottleneck, then spend the remaining budget on correct controls, installation quality, and operator training. That balance is what separates a good investment from a disappointing one, and it is the conclusion I keep coming back to in every review of automated packing conveyor systems. In my experience, the winning setup is rarely the most expensive one; it is the one that keeps working after the first 90 days.

Next Steps: What to Do Before You Buy

Before you request quotes, measure your product sizes, line speeds, and available floor space. I mean real measurements, not guesses. Pull sample cartons from the packing room, note the smallest and largest case dimensions, and record the heaviest unit weight. If you’re moving custom logo boxes, include the print finish and any slip issues from coatings or lamination because that can matter on belt transitions. This practical prep will make your review of automated packing conveyor systems far more useful when suppliers start sending drawings. A 14-inch carton that weighs 6.2 pounds and a 19-inch carton that weighs 24.5 pounds do not belong on the same assumption sheet.

Next, map the process step by step. Mark where cartons start, where they merge, where they transfer, where they are labeled, and where they end. If there is a manual handoff, measure that too. On a very real factory floor, the bottleneck is often not the “main line” but the three-foot gap where a person keeps pausing to straighten a package. That is why a review of automated packing conveyor systems should always include the human motion around the equipment, not just the equipment itself. In one Richmond plant, an operator took 5.8 seconds to re-square each case, which added nearly 45 minutes of lost time across a shift.

Ask vendors for a layout drawing, power requirements, sample lead times, and a commissioning plan. I would also ask for a list of wear parts and a service interval sheet. If the supplier cannot tell you what needs replacement after 6, 12, or 24 months of normal use, that is a warning sign. Reliable support matters more than flashy brochures, especially if you plan to run the line in two or three shifts. For a straightforward build, I expect a parts list to include part numbers, motor ratings in horsepower or kW, and a realistic replacement schedule, not just a logo and a promise.

Whenever possible, run a small pilot or mockup test with actual cartons, totes, or packages before you commit to the full line. I’ve had clients send 25 sample units to a vendor and uncover transfer issues that would have been expensive to discover after installation. A mockup can also show whether the system noise, sensor placement, or accumulation logic feels right. That little test often pays for itself, and it belongs in any serious review of automated packing conveyor systems. In one case, a mockup in Cleveland revealed that a 3.2-inch gap caused two cartons per minute to tip at a 90-degree turn.

Finally, compare at least three system configurations and validate support for installation and future maintenance. Ask who handles warranty calls, who supplies replacement belts, and how quickly you can get a technician onsite if the line goes down. If the vendor is vague about support, keep looking. The best purchase is not just a machine; it is a machine plus the people who can keep it moving. A vendor with service coverage in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Louisville is often a better long-term bet than one with a slick demo and a 9-week parts delay.

For companies with sustainability goals, I also advise checking packaging and material decisions against recognized sources such as FSC if your cartons or inserts involve paper-based materials. Conveyor choice and packaging choice are connected more often than people think, especially when damage reduction and waste reduction are part of the business case. If your mailers use 350gsm C1S artboard or similar paperboard stock, the way cartons slide, stack, and transfer can affect both appearance and reject rates.