USPS has increased on dimensional

[willweC]

Zen Cart 1.5.5f
PHP Version 7.4.28
http://trvparts.com/catalog/
Plugins-usps, ups
USPS Version Date
2017-09-16

USPS has increased their shipping for domestic priority on dimensional (DIM) for things over a certain size . I pretty much put in the weight and "until now" have been getting accurate shipping price. But now that USPS has changed their rates for certain size packages the module is charging mush less that what price I get through "stamps dot com" when I ship the product. Like I just got a an order for a package that was 1lb-5.4 which was 31x5x1 and my cart charged $13.16 but when I put those numbers in "stamps dot com" it cost me $18.56 to ship it. Just increasing the weight of each item will cause WAY to much for most items. I'm thinking the fix for this is a dimensional thing in the product description. Maybe there is a plug in or a fix for this already. I have looked for this here in the forums but I have not seen it.

Does anyone know the fix for this???????

[willweC]

Being that is had been so long since I had updated the usps mod , I went ahead and updated to 2021-05-05 K11a
I did not see anything that would help. I did get a little more money with the oversize rate via the cart but that will cause other shipping methods to be high as well.

[lat9]

You might get a bit more 'traction' by posting in the overall USPS support-thread: https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread....Support-Thread

That said, which rate 'type' are you requesting?

[swguy]

For reference:
RateV4Request / Package / Width (and Height and Length)

https://www.usps.com/business/web-to...ulator-api.htm

Value must be numeric. Units are inches. If partial dimensions are provided, an error response will return. Length, Width, Height are required for accurate pricing of a rectangular package when any dimension of the item exceeds 12 inches. In addition, Girth is required only for a non-rectangular package in addition to Length, Width, Height when any dimension of the package exceeds 12 inches. For rectangular packages, the Girth dimension must be left blank as this dimension is to only be used for non-rectangular packages.


For more details on dimensional weight pricing or dimension validation reference DMM https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/index.htm

[willweC]

I can not believe I'm the only one that is having this problem. I just got an order for a product to Anchorage, Alaska which measures 43x5x2 and I have the weight set to 2.25 lbs. Until USPS added a price increase for items that are 22 inches long I was able to send it via Stamps.com for the price the shopping cart charged. Since this increase I have been shipping USP which would charge in-line with what the cart charged. On this order the cart charge the customer $18.24 and it will cost me $32.00 via usps and the same UPS. If I increase the weigh to 7.1 lbs I get rates from both usps and UPS that are inline with what I get from the customer via the cart. If a customer from Canada wants to buy from be they get a $67.15 charge. I know how to figure dimensional weight in stamps.com and UPS. What I do not know what to do is get the shopping cart to charge a fair shipping rate to all my customers. How are you dealing with this problem?

[balihr]

Do you know if the price increase is a fixed value or if there's some calculation involved? I just had a request to add fixed handling fees in such cases for products that are over a certain size (thus my pull request). It was a simplified approach so I'm not sure if it would work in your case, but here's what I did:
- added flags for oversized products (admin can mark if an item is oversized in multiple levels)
- added option for admin to set handling fees for each oversized level
- added an observer to go through all items in cart, and if any are oversized, determine which handling fee is to be used
- the fee is simply added to the shipping rate presented to the customer

What could be done is to modify the current USPS plugin and send package dimensions to USPS for an accurate quote. But, the bigger problem is calculating and determining the package dimensions in case there are multiple items in cart. For example, you may have two items in cart, ie. 31x5x1 and 20x4x2 and now we need to determine what dimensions we need to send to USPS. Once packed, this will probably be 31x9x2, or maybe you'll put it all in a box 35x10x5 and this is where the problem starts - you need a packaging algorithm and/or predefined box sizes.

Perhaps a simpler solution would be to add the flags I mentioned above, warn the customer shipping costs might not be accurate (if flagged products are in cart), override order status and set it to "Awaiting shipping quote" and then contact the customer with an accurate shipping quote and charge the difference if accepted.

Either way, you're in for quite some fun and modifications.

[willweC]

It does seem so................
For the most part USPS wants to get out of the larger packages


Here are the details which stater 4-3-22

What’s changing?

• Nonstandard Fees
  
  • When do they apply?
    
    • If the length of a package (the longest side of the package) is greater than 22”, the package is considered nonstandard and will incur a $4 fee.
    • If that measurement is greater than 30”, that will incur a $15 fee. The fees act as either/or, not both.
    • If the total volume (L x W x H) of greater than 2 cubic feet (3,456 inches), then a $15 fee applies. Note that any dimensional weight fees may also apply for larger, lighter packages measuring greater than 1 cubic foot.
    
    
    
  • How to avoid these:
    
    • Use packaging that most closely resembles the actual length of your products.
  
  
  
• Dimensional Noncompliance Fee
  
  • When does it apply?
    
    • If the dimensions of your package are entered inaccurately, an additional fee of $1.50 applies.
    
    
    
  • How to avoid it:
    
    • Always enter dimensions for the most accurate shipping costs, and try to be as precise as possible, rounding up when in between full measurements.
  
  
  
• What services do these fees apply to?
  
  • Priority Mail
  • Priority Mail Express
  • Parcel Select
  
  
  
• When do these services NOT apply?
  
  • Flat Rate services
  • Priority Mail returns and Priority Mail Express returns

Note: this doesn’t apply to First-Class Package Service as these dimensions are too large for that service. USPS will re-rate shipments that are too big as Priority Mail, which may then incur additional fees.

[balihr]

I've packed it up and uploaded to my server - you can download it and give it a try. Please make sure you create a backup of your site's files and database before you make any changes - I don't take any responsibility if anything goes wrong.

I currently don't have the time to write the documentation for it and submit it to the plugins section so I'll leave it like this for now and hopefully submit to Plugins when I get more time.

All changes are commented so you can easily merge it into your existing files. If you haven't made any changes to any of those files, you can simply overwrite. Run the SQL patch from admin and you'll be able to modify the surcharge from admin->Configuration->Shipping.

[willweC]

I've packed it up and uploaded to my server - you can download it and give it a try. Please make sure you create a backup of your site's files and database before you make any changes - I don't take any responsibility if anything goes wrong.

I currently don't have the time to write the documentation for it and submit it to the plugins section so I'll leave it like this for now and hopefully submit to Plugins when I get more time.

All changes are commented so you can easily merge it into your existing files. If you haven't made any changes to any of those files, you can simply overwrite. Run the SQL patch from admin and you'll be able to modify the surcharge from admin->Configuration->Shipping.

Thank you

[n8pbm]

Anyone try this. I just uploaded it to my test site but the oversize handling fee does not appear to be adding to the shipping cost.

I noticed the SQL had an extra field that was not part of my configuration table called configuration_tab? Just curios if this worked for anyone else or if there was an update.

Thank you