why does shipping work this way?

[webyourbusiness]

a client site using shipping by weight raised an interesting question... here is how their shipping works...

1. they sell a lot of lightweight items - straps, bungies, rubber tips for canes etc - these are very lights, to are put into the system at 0.1 lb

2. they sell walking sticks and canes, most of which weight a lb or two - these are generally shipped 1 or 2 in the same package for a single rate - 3 and more cause the shipping to move into another bracket, so we label them all 1 lb except the odd really heavy one.

3. other items which are heavier still.. these are not the problem.

So - shipping of up to 10 of these little straps equals 1 cane.

Shipping table a...

0.10 lb = $5.00
1.00 lb = $9.00
2.00 lb = $14.00

excess rule = 1lb = $4.00

So.... we expect a number of straps to be able to be in the cart as we will not have hit the 1lb limit until we either add a cane, or get more than 10 straps...

What we find is adding the second strap causes the table to exceed the 0.10 lb category, and enter the 1.00 lb category - even though we're only at 0.20 lbs...

The way round this is to add another entry at 0.99lb = $5.00

but why? I reason that the weight has not exceeded the 1.00 lb ($9.00) level - so why is it being charged?

cheers

Greg

[jont]

Hi Greg,

it is easier to think of it in terms of weight bands:

0lb to 0.1lb = $5.00

0.11lb to 1.0lb = $9.00

1.01lb to 2.0lb = $14.00

So if you add one strap at 0.1lb the cost is $5.00 .. a second strap makes the total weight 0.2lb which throws it into the 0.11lb to 1.0lb band and hence the $9.00 charge!

[webyourbusiness]

easier for you... to me, I look at the weight tables offered by the post office in England, and the USPS in the USA, and their tables appear to work as I imagined - ie, the price becomes $x.xx at weight Y lbs - not banded as you describe.

I fully understand HOW the bands work - I guess my questions is why was this method adopted when it's not how rate tables from carriers appear to work.

Anything that CAN be done to make Actinic more intuitive is a good thing - the current banding system is perfectly valid, but very counter intuitive in my opinion.

Of course, this came from a client who admits to hate reading manuals, and I'm their first call for anything Actinic related. I see their point completely though on this one... I was never that bothered about the shipping until it was pointed out that this is backwards to just about any rate table you get from a shipper.... now I'm thinking that it should default to the way that makes it easiest for an Actinic user to enter their shippers rate table without having to think, or refer to the manual (after all - who ends up supporting a lot of these clients - us poor resellers!).

just my 2c...

regards

Greg

[jont]

Just to add to the fun and games my carrier has now introduced volumetric charges - they charge by weight for a given standard size and then on a volumetric calculation (of which Einstein would be proud) for larger items.

I can see their point with this - if their vans are filled will boxes of feathers they will be charging a very small amount but the van will be full and hence not bringing in the monies. Quite a few of the carriers are now operating this system in the UK.

This makes pricing a nightmare if people select from a standard size product and then a larger but lighter product which is calculated on a volumetric basis. We took the decision to work on a average cost based on past experience and to cover say 98 per-cent of eventualities - of course there is the 2 per-cent of the time this fails and it costs us a bit more for which we have to stand the charge.

It is all about working to a standardised matrix - my carrier works the banding price (on regular sized items) so it works great for me - I guess every carrier has their own method of pricing to help disguise their like-for-like comparison with other carriers.

You are right - no matter what we do the customer will always want something slightly different to suit their own operation - which is fair enough but can push the "out of the box" beauty of Actinic to the limits.

[procheck]

Canada Post's shipping tables work as described by Jont and for the most part, they have been working very well other than the odd tweeking for larger products. We ship mainly within Canada & across the USA.

[webyourbusiness]

Canada Post's shipping tables work as described by Jont and for the most part, they have been working very well other than the odd tweeking for larger products. We ship mainly within Canada & across the USA.

Canadapost's web site is also one of the easiest I've found to use... however...

http://www.canadapost.ca/personal/of...an/rates-e.asp

These are up-to tables - so if you enter these as values in Actinic as follows:

0.030 kg = $0.50 CAD
0.050 kg = $0.85 CAD
0.100 kg = $1.00 CAD
0.200 kg = $1.70 CAD
0.500 kg = $2.45 CAD

It will work a treat - try finding the same on the USPS.GOV site - it's a nightmare...

[procheck]

We also used our own shipping experiences to create our Actinic table because Canada Post is not 100% accurate. We created a spreadsheet and logged our shipping costs over 2004 and then sorted them by destination & weight to help us to create our table. It is a bit of work, but it is worth it in the long run.

[webyourbusiness]

until the rate increases!