Fedex And Ups Shipping Modules And Orders Over 150 Pounds

General General Questions
1

Hello,

The built-in FedEx and UPS shipping modules are still not capable of splitting orders into multiple boxes when requesting real-time shipping rates as of version 4.3.x. My primary concern is with Fedex since that is what our company uses, but it's a problem with UPS too. I am aware we could ship orders over 150 pounds via Fedex Freight (LTL), but this is not cost effective until the order is about 300 pounds or more. Shipping the orders in multiple boxes via ground is almost always significantly cheaper in the 150-300 pound range. This has been a problem since version 1 of CS-Cart, and I'm curious why it has not been addressed.

Fedex home delivery max weight is 70 PER PACKAGE. Fedex ground max weight is 150 pounds, but packages over 70 pounds incur an extra "overweight" charge. You can, however, ship as many packages to the same recipient as you want using home delivery or ground, as long as each package is below these max weights. So why can't CS-Cart quote rates that way?

We use Magento currently, and it is capable of splitting orders out into multiple boxes based on the "max package weight" you assign to the shipping method in its configuration. If I put 150 pounds in the "max package weight" and someone orders numerous products that add up to 200 pounds, it simply splits the order into two packages... One 150 pound package and one 50 pound package, and requests a combined quote for the entire order from Fedex as two separate packages. This allows my current cart to technically quote shipping on any total order weight for these shipping services.

I see that CS-Cart has a "Weight Limit" field under the general tab within the shipping method and a "Max box weight" under the configuration tab within the shipping method. However, the "Max box weight" doesn't appear to actually do anything, regardless of what you put in the field. If CS-Cart behaved like Magento, I would expect that whatever weight I put in the "Max box weight" would determine when CS-Cart should split the order into an additional box or boxes... but it doesn't do that.

I know this has been an ongoing complaint since CS-Cart started, and even the way Magento handles it isn't perfect, but it's pretty close, and in 5 years of using Magento, it has never been more than a dollar or two off from our actual cost on very large/heavy orders. It has been a good compromise for a complex shipping situation, and has meant that we weren't turning away customers because our cart was unable to quote ground shipping rates, or push them to expensive freight rates on orders over 150 pounds but under 300 pounds.

I understand there were a couple of custom third party shipping modules that addressed this problem at one time, but it appears the developers have both closed down their businesses, so there is no solution presently for this issue.

Does CS-Cart intend to address this problem in the near future? It's holding me back from a 1 base and 2 additional storefront licence purchase at this time.

Thanks for any input.
:)

2

i shipped orders over 200lb, we use UPS, it calculated it fine.

I use "Items in a box" set to 1-1 - for heavy products for example for item that is 55lb, and it works just fine.

3

i shipped orders over 200lb, we use UPS, it calculated it fine.

I use "Items in a box" set to 1-1 - for heavy products for example for item that is 55lb, and it works just fine.

Unfortunately, that won't work for us. We need to be able to ship lots of small items... For instance, 200 one pound widgets. However, cs-cart won't break that out into multiple boxes for a ground shipping quote.

4

We have the same issues. Headache.

5

We'd be willing to do a custom extension that would split packages based on a max-weight per package (specified by carrier) in addition to the max number of items/package (I.e. which comes first). Feel free to ask for a quote by clicking the link in my signature.

6

Same issue. We have multiple products that go into a box. For example, if a box has (4) ea. 11 lbs items, we set the UPS ground max box weight to 44 lbs. However, 20 of these items (5 boxes) is 220.0 lbs and UPS ground fails to return even though the box max weight is set. We can't say items in a box = 4 because we could put 8 items in the same box (half the size but the same total weight.)

Respect Tbirnseth; but this should be addressed by CSC and not require a custom solution. it's a matter of saying "Hey we have 220 lbs / 44 lbs = 5 boxes UPS API... what is our rate?

7

No disrespect taken. If you've properly defined the "packages" then the order should contain 5 X 44lb packages and each package should be priced individually and you end up with a "shipment" total of 220lbs at a rate of $x * 5.

If cs-cart is calculating the "packages" as one package at 220lbs and getting a quote on that (or a fail due to exceeding the 150lb max package weight) then either the package definition of of the product is incorrect or the info being sent to the carrier is incorrect (I.e. a bug). But current cart should be quite capable of seeing 4 items per box being split into 5 packages. (however, it won't give you dimensional weight).

There are two ways to see what's going on.

1) cut/paste the http request/response into an online xml formatter and see what's being sent and what the response is.

2) View the results of an fn_get_order_info($order_id) and look at the 'package_info' array.

I'd suggest #1 first to see what's actually being sent/received.

8

thanks here is what is sent with the package information. Maybe there is something here?

XXX
XXX
XXX
Rate Request
1.0
Rate
shop
01
32809
US
XXXX
02
IN
13
13
13
LBS
174.0
02
IN
13
13
13
LBS
43.5

and then the response.
Rate Request
1.0
0
Failure
Hard
111035
The maximum per package weight for the selected service from the selected country is 150.00 pounds.
The issue is let's say we have water and you can buy it in a 500mL, 1 Liter and 4 Liter sizes. These are all options for the product and setting the number of units/box does not work. Hopefully this XML may help figure out what the issue is.
We have the UPS Ground method "Max Box weight" set at 40 lbs. The above is with the product showing 1-4 and 13x13x13 box but that is not really reasonable since the product options have different sizes. Tried with and without the product shipping options and the same response.
9

Please use 'code' tags when publishing data so word-wrap doesn't cut things off....

The Request is for 2 packages.

1) 13x13x13 @ 176lbs

1) 13x13x13 @ 43.5lbs

The response is that max package weight has been exceeded.

So again, either the package definition is bad or there is a bug in generating the proper request to UPS. Suggest you look at the raw order_info to see what the 'order' has defined for the packaging.

10

ok, I see that now. So, if we put 1-1 on the product then we get no failure.

Maybe it's a translation issue on CSC's description and instructions but wouldn't putting 1-1 on each product with so many size options basically try to ship every product in it's own box (a separate box for 1L and 500mL for a total of two boxes when both can fit into one box?) If no, then it's a simple fix.

I'm hoping the answer is: "1-1 on each product will allow us to blend multiple products into a box and then the shipping method will divide the total weight of the order by the "max Box Weight" defined in the shipping method."

If it will consider each product option it's own box, then we may need a custom mod to the options to specify these things.

Thoughts? I'm still not sure how it split it into two separate instead of 5.

Appreciate you taking the time to look at this.

11

No clue. Suggest you either submit a bug or open a ticket with the helpdesk. I certainly can't speak for cs-cart nor for language issues related to instructions....

12

Thanks for your help!