Shipping configuration woes

For an online bookstore, I am having trouble configuring various shipping options:

1.) There are three modes of shipping to be accounted for, viz., surface mail, airmail and seamail
2.) Each mode has its own table rate.
3.) Each mode has its own sub-modes of postage. For example, surface mail has printed papers, **registered newspapers **and small packets, air mail has letters and book post and sea mail has concessional and non-concessional rates each split further into postage modes such as BPO (book post) and RBP (registered book post).
4.) Surface mode has three zones- APPU (Asian Pacific Postal Union countries), all other countries and the third zone of Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

As you can see, this is a pretty complex shipping configuration and I don't know where to begin. We have figured out we can define the shipping zones easily enough, but not the three modes of despatch (surface, air and sea) or the sub-modes of postage under each despatch mode, each of which has its own shipping rate.

The only factor somewhat simplifying things is that we have chosen weight as the basic unit for both table and zone rates as the postal rates vary depending upon the weight.

Can anyone give me a pointer about where to start?

How do I show these three shipping modes (surface, air and sea), their sub-modes of postage and the relevant prices for** each product** as an option the customer can select? Does the answer lie in ZenCart's attributes features?

Thanks in advance,
Meeven.