Weight based shipping

[eeore3]

Hi all.

Firstly, we are only looking at the UK for now. We'll address export at a later date!

The weight based system would work well for us up to a point. Ideally, we would like to be able to 'tag' specific products to force the whole shipment into a particular shipping method.

For example:
We set up mail rates up to 1kg then carrier rates of up to 5kgs (courier pack), then 5Kgs to 15Kgs (parcel rate), 15-30, 30-50, etc.
A customer buys a series of items that total under 1Kg, but one of the items is too large to send by mail. We would like to have a 'tag' on that item to force the appropriate carrier rate on the shipment.

We are not willing to apply artificial weights to large light weight items because if a customer buys several of these, it sets the carriage charge way too high.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Steve

[Mike Hughes]

We are not willing to apply artificial weights to large light weight items because if a customer buys several of these, it sets the carriage charge way too high.

Too bad, because that's the way to make it work. It doesn't have to set the carriage charge too high.

Mike

[eeore3]

Hmm.... thought that might be the case!

We sell automotive parts. If, for example, we set a front wing and front panel (both large light weight items) at 6Kgs each to push them into the 5-15Kg carrier charge it would exceed the 15kg rate if someone bought 2 wings and a front panel. In reality, it would still be sent at the 5-15 rate in one box, so we would be overcharging the customer which we don't want to do!

[Mike Hughes]

The way I would do this is along the following lines:

Lets assume in this example that the heaviest legitimate order will be 100kg.

1. Set up the normal shipping tables by weight ignoring size.

2. Set up a duplicate set of shipping tables, but with everything starting at 100Kg. For this set don't allow RM.

Repeat as many times as you're likely to get large but light weight items in a single order (say 10 maybe)

3. Do this again from 1000kg, this time not allowing RM or courier pack as a shipping option (and repeat at 1000kg intervals to allow for multiple large items)

Then set each Item that's too large for RM to be 100.5kg or whatever (i.e. 100kg plus it's actual weight).

Items that are lightweight but too large for courier should be given a weight of 1000kg plus their actual weight.

By doing this we're forcing the shipping to select the shipping class based on size, but still basing the shipping charge on the actual weight.

A bit of work to set up, but once it's done that's it.

Mike