Forum Moderators: buckworks
Since our company sells very big items that need Freight and we also sell small items that need regular shipping, we will need 2 types of calculators, a Shipping Calculator and a Freight Calculator.
For the Shipping Calculator we will be using Federal Express, and for Freight we will be using FreightQuote.
The dilemma we are facing is, how will we work when combining items. Lets say a customer buys a quantity of 2 from A. Does FedEx have a feature that automatically calculates the size and weight of the items to be able to give an accurate shipping quote? I would guess that probably not, since how can they know how the item can be stacked when shipped. Another dilemma that we are facing is, that lets that up to quantity 5 of item A can be shipped using FedEx but once it’s 6 item and up it already has to be shipped with freight, how will the system know when to use the freight calculator and not the FedEx calculator?
The option we are considering now is, that at the admin when listing a product onto the site there should be a few options 1) where the admin can enter the weight and size of each item for up to a quantity of 48 2) the admin should be able to choose at each product which calculator should be used 3) there should be an option at the admin that the company should be able to set a $$ where at this amount the FedEx Calculator stops and the Freight Calculator takes over. The problem with this is that it’s very much time consuming.
Does this setup make sense?
Does anyone know where I can read up on this topic?
I would really appreciate anyone’s help!
At checkout if any items were freight, everything was sent via freight.
As for having 5 itesm qualify for FedEx but not 6+ items, I'd probably just send out 2 packages. Or you could do weights for everything and once an order totals 150 pounds you switch to frieght. However wouldn't it still be cheaper to send 2 FedEx boxes than use frieght?
Either way it's all custom programming but not really all that difficult.
[edited by: BradleyT at 10:02 am (utc) on Mar. 23, 2007]
since how can they know how the item can be stacked when shipped.
This is a really good topic and hope you get some brainstorming here. The above question has been a personal quest for me, but one I think I've got resolved.
The answer lies in your server-side programming I think. We are currently using UPS and USPS, and for both it's important to get an accurate idea of the final package somehow to avoid oversize boxes. If you have an 8" cube item and just stack it, when someone orders 10 that's a box 8" X 8" X 80" tall! As we know that won't work.
The way I work this is calculate the total volume, take the largest width and length, begin adding the volume of the packages to that width and length of one of the items, then offset the total by a padding value entered into adminstration. (It's a little more complicated than that, in the above example, I shift some of the 8" boxes out to the maximum width and length under "oversize".) Over the last 2 years we've found this formula works pretty well with about 5% padding, we don't make any money on shipping but it covers our costs. If the volume exceeds the "oversize" constraints of any shipping service, the volume over the oversize constraints gets lopped into successive boxes.
I also think the solution to your multiple shipping lies somewhere in the same lines: using the volume of the order, your programming should decide if it's going to use one service or the other. I haven't worked with the Fedex online calculators, but other shipping services accept weight, final box dimensions, and origin/destination zip codes or descriptions. Your programming should figure out which service to use and post the appropriate query.
