Shipping Classes vs Shipping Zones

[thruss]

I am getting some strange options come up when I process orders to different destinations. My site is set to use shipping zones, and I would like to only have Europe, UK and Worldwide Zone 1 and Worldwide Zone 2 which I believe covers everywhere? Within each of these zones, right clicking and selecting properties shows the countries that are valid for that zone and their associated weights and shipping costs.

Then I get to shipping by class which totally confuses me and I think that my orders being processed might be picking up some information from the zone settings and some information from the class settings, is this possible?

Is there any relationship between these 2 or can I just delete everything to do with by class ?

I have looked at the knowledge base but it is not helping me understand the relationship between these 2

[Highlander]

I have looked at it as a matrix.

For instance within UK (A zone) I have two classes: Free Delivery or Special Delivery.

It is perhaps simpler to start with your shipping classes ( I have 11) and then allocate the appropriate zones to each class.
ie

ClassName ClassDescription
Special Delivery Royal Mail Special Delivery (1 Day)
Free Shipping Free Shipping in UK by Royal Mail First Class Post
Euro 48
International Datapost
International Scheduled
Parcelforce 24
Parcelforce 48
Parcelforce by 10am
Parcelforce By 9am
Parcelforce by Noon
International Datapost by 9am
International Datapost by 10am

Then allocate zones
For Instance
Free Shipping encompassesses Zone 1

and
Parcelforce by 10am encompassesses Zone 1 and Zone 3

and Parcelforce 24 encompassesses Zones 1 , 2 and 3

etc

Hope this helps