Unusual shipping limits

My client sells fine art prints, and the way they are packaged makes for some problems integrating into Zen Cart.

He normally charges $15 for shipping (which includes insurance). However, he will only ship one or two prints per tube in order to avoid having to roll them up too tightly.

Any suggestions on how this could be implemented?

If he ships via UPS, he can band two or more tubes together as one 'package'. That way the extra shipping cost would only be the weight, which is nominal.

He uses USPS, but they may allow the same thing. The problem is, I can't do per-item shipping because the cost for 1 item or 2 items is the same, then it jumps again for 3 items or 4. See what I mean?

Maybe not. As it stands now, if I order 1 or 2 prints, I pay 15.00, and if I order 3 prints, I pay 30.00?

There are those on the forum who will disagree, but I try to make the shipping charges to the customer as close to the actual charges as possible. In other words, no 'handling' charges.

I would propose to your client that he needs to re-evaluate his shipping a bit - Propose he use an $8.00 handling and insurance charge and $7.00 per item.

Thanks for your advice. He agreed to use the handling+per-item method.