Trying to adjust the UPS rates to meet your needs? Curious which factors have an influence on the shipping cost calculation? Just keep on reading and find out how the selected features affect the displayed UPS rates in the free and PRO version of our UPS WooCommerce Live Rates and Access Points plugin.
We’ve been asked quite often what is what in our UPS and UPS PRO plugin. That’s why, to make it clear, in today’s article we would like to provide you with some more details about what exactly affects the live rates it displays. But before we begin, let’s have a quick reminder:
After entering the UPS credentials you received on the plugin configuration screen and establishing the connection with UPS API, you need to add the UPS shipping method within a selected shipping zone. To achieve that go to WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → Shipping zones, choose the right ones you want to display the UPS live rates in and add UPS shipping method there:
As you have probably noticed there are plenty features on the UPS shipping method’s configuration screen, however, let’s focus now only on these affecting the UPS live rates directly. A knowledge how exactly the ones marked below work, will make you able to adjust them bearing in mind your business specifics.
It allows to turn on/off the UPS negotiated rates if those are active and assigned to your UPS account. If you do not have negotiated rates enabled at your account you won’t see any difference in the displayed live rates.
If you are interested in how to get negotiated rates and offer them to your customers please follow the UPS instructions or contact the UPS support directly.
This option enables or disables your shipments’ insurance. If disabled, the base of the live rates returned by the UPS API will be lower depending on the UPS pricing system in a specific country. You can also find some more useful information about the declared value here.
The pickup type defines the way the UPS will pick up the parcels you are going to ship. There are six options to choose here:
Depending on which one of the above is selected the live rates will be higher or lower. Daily Pickup is set to be used as a default pickup type here, however, if you want to offer the most accurate shipping pricing and the closest to the one you see after logging in to the UPS admin panel please choose: Customer Counter or One Time Pickup.
One of the main factors the UPS API takes into consideration while calculating the shipping cost is the destination address the parcel is going to be shipped to. It recognizes the entered data which is being validated next if it is Business or Residential. Choosing the right default option here will prevent the incorrect calculation from happening in case of unsuccessful validation.
This option will grant you the possibility to define if the customer should be charged with any additional fees. Choosing None, Fixed value or Percentage option will allow you to decide how the fee is calculated and by entering the positive or negative value you will determine if it is a surcharge or discount (negative) – they will be later applied to the live rates.
Parcel packing method allows you to receive more accurate shipping rates by choosing the most suitable packing method for the products you are selling. You can choose between the three options below:
Please mind that all the dimensions and weight units set in the WooCommerce settings will be converted into the Measurements Units selected on the UPS plugin configuration screen. In other words, if you have set the default WooCommerce units to be KG/CM, but then chose the LBS/IN in the UPS settings, the plugin will convert them and use LBS/IN to calculate the shipping cost.
We hope you will find this article helpful to understand better how our plugin works and to realize what affects the UPS rates it displays. Please let us know if there is still something unclear in this matter and we will do our best to explain it and bring it to you in details. We really do appreciate any kind of feedback we receive!
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The API Status icon does not appear on my UPS settings page. Was that removed in the later versions? How can I verify that my API is logged in correctly to UPS and getting valid data. When I turn on Debug, I see messages that UPS: Using Cached Response. Any suggestions?
Hello Gary. Could you please let me know what exactly plugin do you use? Also, the screenshots of the settings page will be helpful. Thanks.
Hey Marta, I use the WooCommerce UPS Shipper plugin and I found the error! I had entered a value into the Box Weight, not understanding the value is the cardboard box (zero pounds!) and not the packed box. Thank you.
Hi Gary, the article above is related to our UPS WooCommerce Live Rates and Access Points PRO plugin and unfortunately we are not familiar with the other 3rd party UPS Shipper solution you’ve mentioned. I believe that if you’ve encountered any issues with this plugin, the best way to find out what’s wrong would be simply contacting it’s authors directly.
When the UPS plugin calculates the shipping costs it does not appear to be calculating additional handling fees for oversized packaging. In particular, our packages are typically over 42″ in length and therefore are assessed an additional handling fee. Which causes a fairly large discrepancy in quoted versus actual shipping cost.
Hi VeritasLibertas, all the rates displayed in the cart or checkout are returned automatically directly from the UPS API. I suppose the problem is that UPS API doesn’t recognize the oversized packages. Have you tried using the Handling Fees option available in the Rates Adjustments section?
I’m not seeing the Rates Adjustments section as the documentation states. Is that only for the UPS PRO version? The rates in the cart are not calculating on residential.
Hi Debra, the Rates Adjustments section is available also in the UPS Live Rates plugin’s free version, however, in the free version it contains less adjustments settings. Please also mind that the Rates Adjustments section is not located in the UPS plugin’s General Settings – they can be found on the UPS Live Rates shipping method configuration screen after it’s added within a shipping zone.
Buon giorno, vi scriviamo perchè stiamo uscendo pazzi da settimane, perchè nonostante stiamo seguendo passo passo le istruzioni abbiamo variazioni di prezzo di 5/7€. volevamo capire su cosa e dove calcola il plug-in il peso del pacco? Come viene generato? In quale sezione si può modificare?
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Hello, we are writing to you because we have been going crazy for weeks, because although we are following the instructions step by step we have price changes of 5/7 €. we wanted to understand on what and where does the plug-in calculate the weight of the package? How is it generated? In which section can it be changed?
Hi Marco, our UPS Live Rates PRO plugin takes the weight of the products added to the cart from their individual Product data → Shipping tab’s Weight field and sums everything up if there is more than 1 product in the cart. You can easily check the input data sent in the UPS API request after enabling the Debug Mode at WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → UPS Live Rates → Advanced Options and hitting the Show Content button here:
Hi please, live rates do not show up, or is my trial over? have done everything I can still nothing but fall back rate shows
Hi Johnson, our plugins do not run in any kind of trial modes with limited functionalities or so. If the rates are not being displayed I suppose there might be something wrong with the plugin configuration. Please contact us directly at https://octolize.com/support/ and we’ll take a look at the situation what’s wrong.
Is there any known issue with the Free version when shipping multiple items? Live rates are perfect if the cart only has one item when you checkout. But if there are 2 or more items the UPS rate is WAY lower than it should be. Am I missing something?
Hi Steve, I suppose that it might be related to the way how the multiple products are packed together. The PRO version of the UPS Live Rates plugin offers two additional Parcel Packing Method features – Pack items separately boxes and Pack into custom boxes, which apart from the products’ weight, consider also their dimensions to calculate the UPS shipping cost. From what you have written, I belive that it might be crucial in your case due to the products’ specifics.
Thank you. All of our products are packed and shipped together. It is really strange as, for example, the ups rate for item #1 is MORE than an order with item #1 and item #2… looking at the debug info it appears the combined weight is being passed correctly (the multi item order is passing the total weight of both items) to UPS in both above examples. Any idea other than upgrading?
Thanks
According to what you have written, I’m afraid that we will need to take a closer look at your case. Could you please contact us using the contact form at https://octolize.com/support/ ?