I ship large items such as pool tables, game table, lights etc.. Is there a way to have real time pricing offered based on there 'dimensions' and weight?

Shooter,
Anything is possible, but I doubt it is practical for a small merchant. I'm making the leap of faith that you don't have the volume to justify much in the way of custom integrations.

From a purely logistical point of view, if you've got a little volume its easy enough to negotiate a discount off an LTL (Less-Than-Truckload) Carrier's filed tarriffs. Then it is simply a matter of doing a lookup within their rate table for a given class of materials, deducting your discount, multiplying by weight (and in rare instance DIM) and then adding any/all applicable accessorial charges (fuel surcharges, dunning, etc.) to get the true rate.

Large customers get this load rating via real-time feed. However, I don't know of offering to integrate LTL / TL carrier real-time feeds and as I said you probably don't have the volume to justify paying to integrate it yourself via a custom shipping mode.

I hope I'm wrong, but that would be my guess.
Ed

Hi Ed,
I'm not sure you want to take that leap, as I ship 16-20 crates weekly and more during the holiday season. And, I'm positive that if I were able to offer 'real time' costs; I would ship more. With this in mind, I'll be working on a module in Filemaker Developer to integrate into software somehow.

Thanks for your timely feedback,
-Shooter

no longer does custom programming and there is no direct FTP access so not sure how you would be integrating this. Just letting you know so you don't create it and then realize you cannot implement it.

Great.. I'm wondering if there is any other possbile way this software can lock me into a new corner. Maybe I can get by with making and executable that will go to my other service provider :-)

Most real-time shipping options are only valid up to 150 pounds. There is one FEDEX freight option that goes higher (150-300 pounds, I believe), but if you have anything higher, you will want to use custom shipping options to set up your own table of charges.

I hope that helps!

Thanks for your reply, but I need to ship via a 'freight' service such as Yellow Freight etc..

Hi Shooter, you might want to check out Shipwire.com. Can't say for sure they can help you, but it's worth a look. Also, you can read a review of their services from an ecommerce-guide.com article at the following url>

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/trends...cle.php/3500881

Hope this helps. -mcLondon (new )