How to calculate postage AND packing

Hi all

If anyone has any experience of calculating postage and packing for Royal Mail standard and recorded delivery, please could you let yourself be known to me.

Basically the priority for the Uk is thickness - under 25mm is one price, thicker packages over 25mm is a different charge. The next priority is weight. However, I need to take into account the thickness of the actual envelope/packaging and its weight as this makes a big difference.


Please could someone offer any insight as my brain is close to exploding.

Many thanks in advance. :woohoo:

OK Let me put it another way - the shipping weight range is pretty straightforward and I have manual shipping modules for both under 25mm and over 25mm height.

My actual question is how can I get the shipping module to incorporate the flat fee and weight for the postage based on quantity?

Please advise.

You can also put restrictions for weight in your shipping methods. And you can put a price for each shipping method. So you should be able to do what you want.

Could more than one shipping calculation be added at the checkout? For example delivering 3 items equals a flat fee of say 21p and a thickness of 5mm and a 200g package going to Belgium will cost 1.56?

Of course, you can add as many manual shipping methods as you need.
For example, if you have different prices for the weight and the volume of your products:

from 0 to 1kg and from 0 to 1 volume => €5
from 0 to 1kg and from 1 to 2 volume => €10
from 0 to 1kg and from 2 to 3 volume => €15
from 1 to 2kg and from 0 to 1 volume => €10
from 1 to 2kg and from 1 to 2 volume => €15
...etc...

during the checkout, the system will automatically filter the shipping methods and display only the relevant ones.

I need it calculable per unit rather than by volume. eg 3 books, 5 books, etc.

Is there a straightforward way of chargin say a flat fee, then 11p per 20g until 600g, 10p per 20g until 1kg etc?

Sorry but this is confusing. I did scout through your website for a good old-fashioned support documentation, but so far nothing.

There is no straight foward way for that.

You need one shipping method per price:
0 to 20g => flat fee
20 to 40g => flat fee + 11p
40 to 60g => flat fee + 22p
... etc ...

If you need different flat fees for different number of products, you will need to duplicate the shipping methods, so the first line I wrote above will become:
0 to 20g and 1 unit => flat fee 1
0 to 20g and 2 units => flat fee 2
0 to 20g and 3 units => flat fee 3
...etc....
Since you don't have number of products restrictions in hikashop, you need to restrict by volume. Just put a volume of 1 for your products (unit doesn't matter as long as you use the same everywhere) and then use volume restrictions like if it was for number of products since 1 product will equal to 1 "volume".

Oh dear, I think I shall stick to the assumption that I've currently got. I do need the volume field for the UK to measure the thickness of the final package.

Can the volume field just be one measure (eg height 25mm in this case) or does it have to be in mm³, etc

The volume restrictions in the shipping methods are for the volume (so the three dimensions). So you need to multiply height width and height.
If you want to use just one of them, you need to put 1 in the two others.

Ok. Concentrating on the Uk delivery. We would like to use more than one option (for exmaple, Standard Delivery, Next day etc) where the uk-based client can choose an option at the checkout. Can this be achieved using your shipping methods?

Sure.

Suppose that you have these shipping methods set at the moment:
0 to 20g and 1 unit => flat fee 1
0 to 20g and 2 units => flat fee 2
0 to 20g and 3 units => flat fee 3

You would do like this:
0 to 20g and 1 unit and standard delivery => flat fee 1
0 to 20g and 1 unit and next day => flat fee 1 + additional fee
0 to 20g and 2 units and standard delivery => flat fee 2
0 to 20g and 2 units and next day => flat fee 2 + additional fee
...etc...

Hmm Units are going to be a problem. I couldn just have one option for 1-4 units and 1 for 5+ units, but the thickness is vital as Royal Mail charges more packages over 25mm.

The books vary in thickness. Please help I am confused!!!!! :S

debharrison wrote:

Hmm Units are going to be a problem. I couldn just have one option for 1-4 units and 1 for 5+ units, but the thickness is vital as Royal Mail charges more packages over 25mm.

The books vary in thickness. Please help I am confused!!!!! :S

Sorry I signed into my alter ego account. I have set the quantity of 1 for the length and width and kept the height as it was. Is this the right thing to do?

Please advise.

Hi

I have had some thought over this and really its either use the min and max volume field as units (eg 1,2,3) or use the min and max volume field as dimensions (eg length, height and width)

Am I correct?

Yes. You're correct. There is no third parameter (only weight and volume) to distinguish products for shipping methods. So either you use the volume as volume, or you use it for unit count but you can't use it for both.

Thank you Nicolas (certainly for your patience :laugh:), that makes things a lot clearer.

Is it possible that a third parameter would be made available in any future releases of Hikashop, or would this just confuse matters?

I think that it's already quite complex for a lot of users
However, restrictions on the number of items in the cart has already been asked so we keep it in a corner...We might decide to do it after all...We'll see.

Hi Nicolas

Could you please confirm:

Hikashop can allow for both the weight and volume (height, width, length) to affect the postage of an order?

Also you can use 1 of the measurements in volume as criteria for the postage? For example, if I only need the height of an order to affect the postage - which is the case with UK shipping, which is not the same as US - I can use the height part and put 1 in width and length?

Thanks

Yes you can.

If you don't want to have a restriction on the volume for a shipping method, you should just leave the min and max fields empty.

That now works thank you.