2 shipping zones in UK

I want to set up 2 UK shipping zones:

Mainland UK
UK Highlands and Islands

They will have different rates. What should I enter for the Zones Code? Can they both be UK? Should they be different?

I must say I'm finding the Zen Cart shipping setup incredibly complex. Here's all I need:

(1) Shipping to Mainland UK - orders over 50 GBP = free
(2) Shipping to Mainland UK - orders less than 50 GBP = FLAT RATE 5.95 GBP + VAT
(3) Shipping to UK Highlands & Islands = FLAT RATE 19.95 GBP + VAT
(4) Shipping to Eire = FLAT RATE 27.50 GBP + VAT

I've been bouncing around the WIKI and search and Admin Locations/Taxes for a few hours and I'm none the wiser. Could someone please explain how to go about this? Countries, Zone Definitions, Zones, etc. Some assistance would be much appreciated.

Best regards,

Patrick

In the Zone Shipping Module you are using the 2 character ISO code ...

United Kingdom 2 character ISO code for the country ( countries_iso_code_2 ) is GB not UK ... :eeks:

However ...

You are trying to specify not a Country but a peice of the country ... :unsure:

You may need to pick a Shipping Module closest to what you want to do and clone it ...

As in clone Flat flat Shipping Module to:
flatukmain
flatukhigh
etc.

Then you would need to customize the Order Total Module for Shipping so that you can further control the Free Shipping based on building a Zone for Free Shipping ...

Thanks for taking a look, and I've reset UK to GB. As regards cloning flat rates, I don't know how to do this.

But I've noticed that sub zones can be set up Zone Definitions. So now, in Zone Definitions, I have:

(1) Tax Zones: GB | Zone Description: United Kingdom
(2) Tax Zones: IE | Zone Description: Southern Ireland

and when I click the GB Tax Zone I see:

(1) Country: United Kingdom | Zone: Mainland UK
(2) Country: United Kingdom | Zone: UK Highlands and Islands

In Zones, I have:

(1) Country: Ireland | Zones: Eire | Code: IE
(2) Country: United Kingdom | Zones: Mainland UK | Code: GB
(3) Country: United Kingdom | Zones: UK Highlands and Islands | Code: GB

I don't understand the difference between Zone Definitions and Zones, and how they fit together with Tax Zones. It's all very confusing to a newcomer like me.

In the Shipping Module: Zone Rates there are three Zone Rate tables. I presume I can simulate a flat rate in a shipping table with 9999:27.50 (27.50 GBP for anything less than 9999 GB purchase price).

Am I getting anywhere? What I can't find is a full explanation of how these settings all work together, so at present it's just a long process of trial and error without even knowing if the end result is actually possible.

Patrick

Also, in Shipping Modules -> Zone Rates there are three Zones available, but it seems that only tables for countries can be entered, not zones within countries. So how would I specify different rates for different parts of one country?

Patrick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ajeh

You may need to pick a Shipping Module closest to what you want to do and clone it ...

---

I've set up a Shipping Module clone for flat as flatukmainland (followed the instructions off these forums) and then installed it and enabled it, but the little green blob does not go green. When I attempt to make a purchase the cart just says "Sorry, we are not shipping to your region at this time."

Is it really so complicated, trying to set up different shipping rates for two zones within one Country? This should be easy as pie, but it is not.

I'm close to giving up altogether.

Have a look at the sql patch in Kevin Polley's UK Template as this will give you a few more ideas on how to set up UK zones.

Also Dreamscape's MultiGeoZone MultiTable Shipping is very good.

Searching the forums for either of these will also throw up numerous posts with some detailed answers to help you along. Don't exclude the Archived threads as there are also many good posts in there that are still applicable.

Hope that helps.

Brent

Thanks Brent.

MultiGeoZone MultiTable Shipping looks interesting. I'll have a good look at that, but I still can't believe it's so complicated just to set up 2 flat shipping rates for within the UK. Zen Cart is so smart in other respects, but this shipping thing... and I see others have had the same issues in the past, with no apparent solution put forward.

Patrick

Patrick,
I'd strongly recommend you download the 'Big Royal Mail' contribution, not to use the Royal Mail per se, but because it has an optional Courier module which does indeed divide the UK into mainland UK and Scotland/the Islands.
More importantly, it has a PDF document in its docs folder which addresses your problem and how to attack it.
Regardless of whether it is usable or not, I would first setup the 3 zones you require and get them working, then add the freeoptions module for the free over GBP50 orders, since your zones will then be correctly defined.
Also, possibly start with the Eire zone since that seems to have the least customisation.

Good Luck!

Rgds,

Chuckl

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chuckl

Patrick,
I'd strongly recommend you download the 'Big Royal Mail' contribution, not to use the Royal Mail per se, but because it has an optional Courier module which does indeed divide the UK into mainland UK and Scotland/the Islands.

---

Chuckl, thanks for that. I'll try it as well.

Best regards,

Patrick

Still try to unravel this, having spent the best part of a whole weekend attempting to set up simple flat rate shipping for 2 just zones within the UK.

As the Zones shipping module only seems to accept countries, I've uninstalled it. Instead I've cloned the Table Rate shipping module, so I can set up a shipping rate for UK Mainland and another for UK Highlands and Islands (as that is what many UK courier services do). So far, so good.

Next job: attempt to set up the zones. So I set up the 2 extra zones in Zones, putting them in the United Kingdom, then went through the Zone Definition thing. But there seems to be a linkage between the zones and a registered user's shipping address. The address details of a UK user no longer showed the county they registered but instead showed one of those new zones. Weird. I've now deleted those new zones.

Now, I can see that I can easily set up each UK county as a zone (like Spain, Switzerland, etc) so that the above problem goes away. But then it seems I'd have to clone the Table Rate shipping module as many times as the number of UK counties.

Can this really be so? Or is there a way to unhitch new UK zones from a registered user's shipping address? I don't really want all the counties as zones - just the Mainland and Highlands & Islands.

Ouch Patrick, still battling? From your description, your main problem sounds like the zone definitions rather than the shipping implementation. These 'I want all of it except that bit and that bit' definitions are always tricky.
If you visit www.mutualadvantage.co.uk, Kevin has a UK template which has a pretty good Country, County Zone setup for the UK, which should solve your problem, as the country is divided up into England, Wales, Scotland, Channel Islands, etc etc.

Rgds,

Chuck

Yes, I'm battling. Why is this application so impressive in most respects but totally unfathomable when it comes to this ever-so-simple requirement:

Two shipping rates within one nation?

Great credit to the community that developed, maintains, and supports Zen Cart, but if I'd known about this issue at the start, I would have most likely used something else.

Does Kevin's system require a full install of a new template or can I select just the UK split you describe. That sounds useful.

Thanks for the reply.

Best regards,

Patrick

You can just extract the bit you need from the sql patch.

Also as suggested above look at MZMT as this gives you your shipping zones which are distinct from the country zones. You can therefore break up the UK into zones to suit you.

Well, to try to keep things relatively simple, what I've now done is:

(1) Created in Zones the "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands" zones and put them under "United Kingdom" country code GB.

(2) Created in Zone Definitions the same two new zones: "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands", put them both in the drop down "United Kingdom" country, and applied tax rates.

(3) Created 2 additional cloned Flat Rate shipping modules for "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands", and applied the appropriate shipping rate for each.

So far, so good. But when, as a UK registered user, I enter the store and select an item to purchase, then enter the checkout, I see a message that says "Sorry, we are not shipping to your region at this time." So I'm still bewildered. Somehow those two zones aren't getting picked up (the same thing happens with the MZMT shipping module).

Patrick

Also, now, when I try to register as a new user, I can't register and I see a dropdown with the only choices for "State/Province" being those two zones: "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands". Those should be UK counties or nothing at all - no dropdown.

If you are not running v1.3.6 and have this error in v1.3.5 you need to upgrade ...

Thanks. I have 2 Zen Cart installs - one is 1.3.5 and the other is 1.3.6. I will upgrade the 1.3 5.

I'm not sure if this relates to the problem though. On both installs I've noticed that in Shipping Modules the little coloured blobs remain orange unless I select --none-- for Shipping Zone, in which case they go green. So it doesn't like something in the way I've set up the Shipping Zones. I can't imagine what though (butts adjacent wall to aid thinking process).

Patrick

After the upgrade, edit the Shipping Module and save your settings to NotePad or something then remove/install/configure ...

I'm not sure what that means. I need to set up the zones before I upgrade, as the issue applies equally to the 1.3.6 install, and if I can't get this working I'll be abandoning Zen Cart altogether.

I have installed all the UK counties as zones, and set up VAT, then applied the rate to a Zone Definition UK that includes all the UK zones. When I enable Flat Rate in the Flat Rate Shipping Module the blob shows green, but when I "only enable this shipping method for that zone" (ie UK) the blob goes orange.

So how am I supposed to enable the shipping rate for the UK?

Patrick,
Linda is saying that after an upgrade it is often necessary to remove and reinstal payment or shipping modules to guarantee their operation, as variables and options may have changed in the upgrade.
I'm busy working on the Template/CSS side of a potential new shop, so I used that to take a look at your problem.
It has the UK template installed, so I simply added the Big Royal Mail 2.1, and installed only the UKZR module.
In UKZR Zone 3 (zone definitions) I added the Republic of Ireland, and for testing, left Zone 2 & 1 alone.
In the shipping setup, I made the first postal zone Zone 3, and gave it an arbitrary 30kg limit, with a price of 27.50. Next one Zone 2, with same limit and 19.95. Third one Zone 1 with a price of 5.95.
I then installed the freeoptions module and set it to apply to UKZR Zone1 and orders >50.00

This gave me a basic test setup that was a bit painful, as I still had every country in the world in the zones, but I could select an item, and use the shipping estimator. However, there are some gotchas here that are probably the cause of your problems.
If my zone definition for Zone 1 specified England and Wales, I would have to select them as the country from the dropdown in the shipping estimator for a price to appear, as Middlesex, England, is not the same as Middlesex, UK. etc etc.
What this would mean in practice is that for your 'Ireland' zone, the Republic of Ireland is fine, but Northern Ireland would need entries for Northern Ireland-all zones, and United Kingdom-Antrim, United Kingdom- Armagh etc.
Similarly, one would need to specify Scotland-Argyll, Scotland-Bute, United Kingdom-Argyll, United Kindom-Bute etc etc.
In zone 1, England, Wales, Scotland and United Kingdom-all zones. This apparently will work correctly, not as a 'catchall' but because the other zone settings override.

Hope this helps as a guide, or as a howto.

Rgds,

Chuck

Chuck, thanks for the comprehensive response. I will follow it carefully, and see what happens. I find the Zones and Zone Definitions very hard to grasp - in fact the whole of the Locations / Taxes section, and how it relates to the actual storefront. The Template/CSS side and the over-ride system, by contrast, fell into place immediately. Perhaps it's what one's brain is used to.

I must say it is surprising there isn't a comprehensive tutorial on setting up Zones and Shipping (unless I've missed it somewhere). It might save a lot of people-resources in the long run, but I appreciate people give their own time to support Zen Cart. If I ever solve this thing, I might do it myself.

Thanks again,

Patrick

It's a pleasure Patrick, hope all works as intended. I think shipping modules are the perfect example of computers doing what you tell them to do, as opposed to what you want them to do.
Alice in Computerland...

Rgds,

Point taken (about computers). I have now installed Big Royal Mail and UKZR, as suggested. Seems very well written. Maybe there's a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.

Patrick

Thanks to all. All now seems fine (on a test site, at least). The Big Royal Mail modules did the trick, more or less - with the courier module. A good understanding of the Locations / Taxes procedure is certainly required to make this work for the UK.

Best regards, and thanks again.

Patrick