Royal Mail Basic UK Shipping Modules

[Rizla]

Chuck
Any plans for releasing an update with the new Royal Mail pricings especially for parcels due in April?

[Chuckl]

Hi Rizla, Yes I've donwloaded the shiny brochures from RM and I'm working through the changes (my annual penance...) :)

[Rizla]

Very much apreciated...

[Chuckl]

I have uploaded a first pass of the modules updated with the 2013 changes to the Plugins section. SHould be available in a few days.

Please note that it is NOT final as there are still some grey areas regarding extra compensation/insurance that I'll only be ale to resolve once the RM website shows the new prices. Also, please report any errors, omissions etc that you encounter with the changes.

There are a LOT of changes (how unusual), and I strongly recommend that you download the new 2013 'Our Prices' and 'Our Services' brochures from the Royal Mail website. In particular note that the parcel services have size limits as well as reduced compensation, so you may want to review exactly which shipping modules you offer on your website.

Please uninstall ALL existing Basic UK modules in admin before installing the new ones. There are a number of new modules as well as name changes in the modules and you REALLY don't want a mixture of old and new there.

If you'd rather not wait a few days, you can download the revised modules here -

http://accompaniments.co.uk/pub/Basic_UK_Mail.zip

Regards,

Chuck

[Rizla]

Chuck
Think I found one small error with 2nd Class Small Parcel.... Weight to ship should be 2 (not 1)

Why do they make it so complex. There is no current way to set shipping of an item to small, med or large within Zen (as far as I can see)

A lot of my items will be covered by the 'small parcel' but some will need the medium because of the stupid 8cm Depth LOL

[Chuckl]

Thanks for that Rizla, I'll update the files for and submit when I'm reasonably happy that we've found 'all' the obvious bugs.
Seems my typing finger slipped when I was changing that one...

Regards,

Chuck

[Chuckl]

And yes, the small/medium thing is a nightmare. Do you think I should add some extra text about dimensions to the descriptions? Unfortunately it still wont prevent anyone selecting the wrong one, and one of the 'executive guesses' I made when updating was that the wright limit on small would hopefully solve most of that.

I'm looking at adding dimensional support, it's not too involved, but it would involve a LOT of extra work for shop owners to update existing sites.

There is also the concept of 'dimensional weight' used by some couriers that could be used here?

Chuck

[CandleMan]

And yes, the small/medium thing is a nightmare. Do you think I should add some extra text about dimensions to the descriptions? Unfortunately it still wont prevent anyone selecting the wrong one, and one of the 'executive guesses' I made when updating was that the wright limit on small would hopefully solve most of that.

I'm looking at adding dimensional support, it's not too involved, but it would involve a LOT of extra work for shop owners to update existing sites.

There is also the concept of 'dimensional weight' used by some couriers that could be used here?

Chuck

Be aware of the small print for posting. If it fits in a carton size 16x16x16cm it is classed as a small parcel. Also there's a bit about postal tubes as well as long as the diameter is less than 8cm.

[Rizla]

And yes, the small/medium thing is a nightmare. Do you think I should add some extra text about dimensions to the descriptions? Unfortunately it still wont prevent anyone selecting the wrong one, and one of the 'executive guesses' I made when updating was that the wright limit on small would hopefully solve most of that.

I'm looking at adding dimensional support, it's not too involved, but it would involve a LOT of extra work for shop owners to update existing sites.

There is also the concept of 'dimensional weight' used by some couriers that could be used here?

Chuck

Hi Chuck
Yes I do think the time is now with us where wwe will 'need' some control over dimentional aspects when entering product details. Maybe a dimention code number for each product that needs it and then the module selects the correct options?? Yes it would be a pain for very large sites to update all items but I can see this new Royal Mail thing costing us money if we don't.

CandleMan: Thanks for pointing that out... unfortunately I send a lot out that are 'just' outside that measurement lol (14x14x17) Just my luck!

We really do need a way that prevents the customer ripping us off along with Royal Mail.... Not an easy task I imagine.

Any thoughts??

[Chuckl]

With current options, one way to handle the problem is to review all your products and set some 'cutoff points ' in the shipping options. e.g. If you have a subset of very small products like flash memory cards for phones and cameras, and the rest of your product range is much bulkier and heavier, set the 'Small Parcel' weight limit at 200 grams, or whatever value suits your needs.
Obviously, this is not always possible, but it can minimise potential losses.
Another option is to play with the 'shipping and handling' charges for the individual modules, or similar settings.
And of course you can include the shipping charges in all products and 'free-ship' everything...

As installed, the modules are all default options, and my wild guesses as to what will be the best overall fit, but the over-riding philosophy is to have a set of modules that will work easily and get you going with reasonably accurate numbers for the shipping. I've also tried to stick with the prices that would be charged at the counter, rather than the account prices or similar, since it's aimed at the small startup, rather than the large going concern.

On the 'dimensions' front, there are a lot of ways to play it, but I'd always go with the least work for the shop owner.
That said, we still have a lot of approaches that could be used, and all approaches require additional info to be captured for each product offered. it can get very nasty very quickly when products are built up from attributes or options, and these modify the product size. At a minimum it would be the product dimensions.
Taking those raw dimensions for each product and trying to 'jigsaw puzzle' the items in an order into available boxes is a non starter, and the computation will stop your website cold.

Rather, we would add up the volumes,and simply pick a box they would fit in, as this is likely to give a reasonable guess. Or we could simply assume shipping in individual boxes, and up the max number of boxes from the default 3.

Possible approaches are as follows -

Use dimensional or volumetric weights, as noted in an earlier post. All this means is that you are picking an average density for your products, and the modules multiply the 3 dimensions in e.g. cm, and divide by a constant. It's much used by courier companies and similar, and by way of example (from memory), DHL divide by 5000 or 4000, UPS and Fedex by 6000 or 5000 (all rounded up), depending on destination and category of product.
This is then compared to the actual weight, and the larger is used. This means that light bulky items cost a LOT more to ship.

Another approach is to add an admin module for box definitions, and require a default shipping box to be chosen for each product offered. Clearly this allows VERY accurate shipping weights, but could be a lot of work for existing sites.
This also allows the 'free for all' option, where the modules 'pick a box' for the shipment, but as noted above, the computational intensity and complexity is horrendous. It's a variation of the traveling salesman problem, and I have no desire to go there.

All however, impose either a much higher workload or a requirement to get much more involved in the nitty gritty of the shipping on the store owner, but I suppose we could implement an on/off switch for the capability?

Rgds,

Chuck