Large shipping - How to split up shipping?

[rotozuk]

Most of the items in my store weigh from 50 lbs to 250 lbs. We ship everything via FedEx, and have for years. Now the problem I'm running into is that some of these items ship in 1 case, others ship in as many as 5 seperate cases per item. Is there a way I can tel Zen this info and get more accurate shipping quotes from FedEx?

Right now FedEx returns errors on some items as it exceeds their limits as a single shipment. I had to modify the ship by weight module as a stop gap measure so customers could at least close out an order.

I imagine I'm missing something basic here...?

-Wayne

[bunyip]

The basic shipping module won't do what you want. However, that's not to say that some customization won't get it to do so. I modified a site for a client last year who needed the exact ability you're seeking (although he uses UPS).

He can specify the number of cartons and weight of each carton for a product, and also specify if a particular carton(s) in that set can be used for other items as well. The shopping cart class was modified to do the hard work of deciding which items can be added together from those settings, and comes up with an array of cartons/weights. Then the shipping module gets a separate quote for each from UPS and adds them together for the final shipping charge.

You can see an example of how that carton information is displayed to the customer from this product page

[rotozuk]

Yep, that is exactly what I'd need for the big stuff. Way beyond my skills to program though. I'll hang onto this for now, and might address it in the future with you.

Thanks much!

-Wayne