UPS rates are *VERY* expensive (even with group packages)

-- HikaShop version -- : 3.0.0
-- Joomla version -- : 3.6.5

Hi All,

Thanks for the great component.

My question is with regards to shipping through the UPS plugin. I have set all the correct parameters (see image) in the plugin and the plugin does seem to be working fine. However, the rates are through the roof. How can I ensure the rates are the actual rates in UPS shipping? The main issue seems to be the grouping of packages, Hikashop UPS plugin groups the items in too many packages (boxes) as opposed to the UPS website which actually asks me how many boxes I need for my packages.

Am I missing something?

Edit: Bigger picture here i.imgur.com/YW5YUHf.png

I've made some discoveries. In essence it seems like the reason why my shipping rates are expensive in HikaShop is because HikaShop thinks I need more than 1 package to ship my items.

Using the "Exclude Dimensions" option helps lower the total shipping amount to something more reasonable yet it still doesn't match what is on UPS's website. The reason why is because on UPS.com I can selected how many packages (boxes) I want to use but on the HikaShop plugin I cannot select how many packages to use.

For example, on UPS.com I can ship 96 quantities of X product inside 1 package (I know 96 items will fit inside 1 box). However, in HikaShop, when I add 96 items to my cart HikaShop calculates that I need 3 packages (I have group packages selected).

How does HikaShop calculate how many packages I need? And why does HikaShop think I need more than 1 package for 96 products?

Note that all my products have the Length, Width, Height and Weight information set correctly.,

I made further discoveries, please see the UPS shipping calculator image here: i.imgur.com/P5tsJnD.png

Notice how I have set 96 quantities of products that each weigh .250 lb, adding to a total of 24 lb. As you can see from the screenshot I used 1 box to insert these 96 items (1 package) and the price is 23.89$ USD for UPS Ground.

The same 96 quantities on HikaShop, when inserted into cart and checked out are calculated to use 3 packages instead, which come up to a total of 50.78$ USD for UPS Ground. Screenshot here: i.imgur.com/Au8lYDa.png

My question still stands, after an extensive amount of research, how and where does HikaShop UPS plugin calculate how many packages to use? Reading through this forum it looks like the Canada Post plugin actually has variables we can set for package info, does the UPS plugin have this information somewhere too?

Thanks.

Hello,

The problem is that before sending order informations to the UPS platform , we firstly calculate the minimum number of packages that UPS can send based on :
- The number of products on your order
- Your products size/weight
- UPS package limitations

And then we send these informations to the UPS platform which will respond by sending back available rates that the plugin will display through the checkout workflow.
So the only thing that I could advise you to do will be to change the value of the "Group package" / "Negotiated rates" / "Exclude dimensions" options of your UPS shipping configuration page to directly test it.

How does HikaShop calculate how many packages I need? And why does HikaShop think I need more than 1 package for 96 products?

The UPS "group package" algorithme will try to group your products in the MINIMUM number of package based on their restriction because most of shipping platforms will return an higher price if we "send" them a lot of packages. So in our case we actually can't group products in one package because it will probably reach one of UPS limits.

Also most shipping plugins generally set 1 package per product and send that information to the UPS platform (that's what we do when we disable the "Group package" option).

Reading through this forum it looks like the Canada Post plugin actually has variables we can set for package info, does the UPS plugin have this information somewhere too?

The UPS shipping plugin actually doesn't have these options so editing the code of the plugin will be required.

Thank you, Mohamed.

Are there plans on adding the option to set a number of packages with the UPS plugin? How much level of effort does it require?

As it stands, I finished the website I'm working on but the UPS plugin is a show-stopper for me. I wish I had known about this limitation before investing so heavily into this project. I tested the options with Group Packages, Negotiated Prices and Exclude Dimensions, none of those options really help lower the amount of packages required.

Is the Exclude dimensions option broken? Here is why I'm asking.

I had my shipping methods turned on for Exclude dimensions, figuring that the UPS plugin will not take into account the dimensions of the products being sold. However, when I changed the units of my products from IN to CM and then tried to checkout I received much lower cost from the UPS shipping method.

Why would I get a lower cost is the plugin is set to Exclude dimensions?

Hello,

That's weird, the UPS "Exclude dimensions" should be working fine. can you :
- Enable the "Debug" option of your UPS shipping configuration page
- Try it again and check in the comments of your Checkout workflow's HTML code ("f12") to directly see the code sent to the UPS platform
- Show it to me so that we can check differences for both cases.

Thank you !

Mohamed,

Changing my product dimensions form INCHES to CENTIMETRES for Height, Length and Width was the solution for me. Using centimetres as a measurement value in the product back-end I'm able to get the exact cost that is displayed on UPS website's shipping calculator.

However, that being said, there remains an issue with the UPS shipping plugin, I can't select which UPS shipping method I want to use in the front-end, only the first one is allowed to be selected. More details in this thread www.hikashop.com/forum/shipping-methods/...checkout.html#261694 feel free to provide your expertise please.

Thanks,

Mustafa

Hello Mustafa,

Thank you for your feedback, we'll continue through that thread then :
www.hikashop.com/forum/shipping-methods/...checkout.html#261694