Creating a custom shipping charge calculation

[advwebsys]

We're working on a catalog for a new customer who has a 'weird' shipping setup. Each item that they ship has a specific 'box-size' code associated with it. And, with very rare exception - which we were told not to worry about - each item is shipped in a separate box. The pricing table is a matrix of box size by FedEx zone based on three-digit postal code.

The table is quite small 8 sizes by 8 zones and doing a lookup to determine the zone is quite simple.

For a single item order, if one were to treat the box size as a 'weight', then actinic MIGHT be able to handle this, assuming I could define the proper zone mapping.

But this certainly would NOT work for a multi-item order as there's no way I can think of to code the 'weight' properly.

What I'm thinking I need to do is to find the place in the perl modules where actinic calculates the shipping cost and replace it with what I need.

Can someone point me to the correct module (or modules)?

Has anyone tired this before?

[wjcampbe]

If weight is box size and each box is a seperate shipment, and one product = one box = one 'weight' - why would this NOT work if you made all items "Ship seperately"?

[jont]

If you set to ship seperately if someone orders 3 of the same item or indeed 3 different items they would get charged 3 lots of carriage which is probably not right?

The only way to get Actinic shipping to handle multi-item orders and make it fit within the FedEx tables is going to be a fudge between very careful declarations of product weight and shipping bands and accepting that on some orders you may lose and on some you can gain... depending on how narrow you set your bands then you can minimise the discrepencies as far as possible. Just as they ignore the rare times that items are not shipped in one box.

Volumetric shipping is an oft requested feature for Actinic

[advwebsys]

If weight is box size and each box is a seperate shipment, and one product = one box = one 'weight' - why would this NOT work if you made all items "Ship seperately"?

The answer, sir, is simple. Not being a seasoned Actinic person, I did not realize that there is a checkbox on each product (in details) that says 'ship separately'.

I'm grateful to you for pointing this out to me.

You learn something new every day!

[advwebsys]

Well, now we go on to problem 2 - again based on my inexperience. How can I map a particular set of postal codes into a zone that i can create a shipping table for? After looking through everything i can find and trying all sorts of thinks within the shipping tab, it doesn't look like I can do this.

[wjcampbe]

It is do-able but a bit of a cludge. You would first need to set each postal code up as a location in Advanced | Locations, then set any tax requirements and finally create shipping tables.

If you want the postal codes to be 'states' of a country location (such as UK) each 'state' would need to use the same two letter country code as currently exists for that country, with a suffix (i.e. UK1, UK2 etc).

[jont]

there is a checkbox on each product (in details) that says 'ship separately'.

I trust you are aware with this feature ticked if 1 box is ordered and say the shipping is £10.00 then if 2 are bought it will be £20.00 and if 3 bought £30.00 etc etc.

Is this the way that FedEx are charging your client? It is usually not a simple straight line correlation like that - unless they have a special deal with them

[advwebsys]

Given the nature of the client's products, it is VERY rare that a customer will order a multiple of a single item, but common that they will order 1 each of multiple items. And, we obviosuly intend to state on the site that shipping charges may be adjusted, depending on the nature of the order.