RFD Exclusive: Discount Purolator, FedEx, DHL Shipping for Small Businesses

[deal_with_singh]

The link in the OP is asking me to pay a $20 fee? I thought it was free for RFDers?

[reefyone]

The link in the OP is asking me to pay a $20 fee? I thought it was free for RFDers?

1. Click link http://www.e-shipper.com/redflagdeals
2. Click Sign Up on left
3. Read "One time sign-up fee of $19.95 has been waived!" with big grin
4. ...

Worked for me =\

[jackbeans]

Hey Guys,

Been reading the whole post - and it seems that maybe e-shipper was once good and now not?

Hoping for some recos, I'll be posting only nationally and in 1-5lb increments. Probably with low volume to start as I'm just starting up the business.

Thoughts?

[PianoGuy]

I've come up with an innovative way of dealing with eShipper's adjustments.

I enter every package I ship as 1lb, 1"x1"x1". This way I don't have to spend time weighing and measuring the package, and I figure the time I saved cancels out the "adjustment" I'm going to get charged if I do it properly. I don't know exactly how much it's going to cost, but I didn't know that before, and I typically make decisions based on rate centre and transit time anyway.

[ahato]

I just did a quick comparison and found their pricing are crazy great !

[bubble.tea]

^ LOL...welcome to 6years ago (if not more).

@ PianoGuy, I still don't understand the point of what you're doing? Essentially you're figuring the hassle of spending 2mins measuring a package is worth you saving those 2mins, and just paying the adjusted cost afterwards, given that you assume you'll get an adjustment bill anyway?

[PianoGuy]

Exactly. I get an adjustment bill whether I measure it correctly or not. If I save the few cents it costs me in time to measure a package, it works out to about the same as what the adjustment would have cost, on a properly measured package.

[bubble.tea]

funny guy. I actually rarely get adjustments. 1 in 10 if that. Maybe I overmeasure? What I was told though was it's usually not about measurement, but about fluctuating billing rates only discovered after the quote is processed and updated with the courier themself. EShipper has one set of rates, and when they bill it, it actually gets billed at a different rate, so they transfer the adjustment back to us. Funny that it NEVER results in a credit...only an increased bill. Punks!

[jhickey85]

Hey guys, I am a complete newbie to shipping items. I would appreciate a bit of advice, or a point in the right direction (a link perhaps) to somewhere where I might be able to have these questions answered... Thanks, in advance.
I just signed up to eshipper after reading some good and some bad things about them... I need to get started somewhere.

1) What is the difference between a pak and a package? On eShipper there is a ticbox also for "env", does that only apply to regularly sized envelopes, and not the bigger, stiffer ones? Maybe that is a pak?
2) Is it better to use the Carrier insurance or Eshipper insurance?
2) When sending something to a customer, should I be adding money for duty/customs or is that entirely on them to pay when they receive?

I'm sure I'm going to have a few more dumb questions like these shortly.... Thanks again.

[ncnmra]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but here's my take on your questions:

1) What is the difference between a pak and a package? On eShipper there is a ticbox also for "env", does that only apply to regularly sized envelopes, and not the bigger, stiffer ones? Maybe that is a pak?

A package is your packaging, a "pak" is one of the courier designed boxes, and "env" is one of the courier designed envelopes. I know both UPS and FedEx have their own envelopes (big enough to fit a manilla envelope, used for documents), and FedEx also has a bunch of their own sized boxes

2) Is it better to use the Carrier insurance or Eshipper insurance?

Carrier insurance tends to be very pricey, so I think eShipper offers a lower cost alternative. Usually I wing it without insurance (ie: "self" insure), and I'm skeptical about getting insurance from eShipper because of all the fingers in the pie at that point. That is, I can only assume it would take forever for any resolution, since they'd likely want to do their own investigation on top of whatever procedures the carrier would take, etc, etc. Most carriers have a $100 insurance built-in, but you may have to confirm.

2) When sending something to a customer, should I be adding money for duty/customs or is that entirely on them to pay when they receive?

This is where eShipper fell flat for us and we stopped using them. We wanted our customers not to have to deal with customs/duties as our goods are under NAFTA. However because of the arms-length relationship eShipper has with the carriers, there was no reliable way to specify that any duties and taxes be billed to us rather than the customer. Even though our goods are duty free, the carriers screw up the paperwork a LOT, so we want to get the bill (so we can dispute it) instead of our client. We got burned on this a few times with eShipper (even though we selected the option to bill to us). Therefore, my suggestion to you is be very clear with your clients that likely they will get the bill for duties and taxes. Also: unless your goods are duty free, or you are an expert in deciphering HS codes, it will be difficult for you to judge what you charge for brokerage, duties, taxes, etc, etc, etc ahead of time.

Certainly eShipper is a very cost effective alternative. If you are shipping domestic, it works GREAT, and is super cheap. We have a volume discount with UPS (we ship close to 10 packages a day on average), and eShipper still obliterates the rates that I can get (already highly discounted). However, with the headaches on shipping to the US, and after losing some business because of these bureaucratic blunders, we are using our own UPS account for cross-border shipping.

[jhickey85]

Thank you ncnmra!

[raxen]

Two questions:

#1 I mostly ship Domestic and I'm using Canada Post currently at roughly 10 packages a week. Before I fork over my CC info, is eShipper worth my time?

#2 Does eShipper have a module for Zencart to automatically calculate shipping costs for my customers like Canada Post?

[PianoGuy]

#1 I mostly ship Domestic and I'm using Canada Post currently at roughly 10 packages a week. Before I fork over my CC info, is eShipper worth my time?

Giving customers choice is never a bad thing, especially when the choice can result in cheaper shipping. I suggest you inflate whatever price eShipper quotes by maybe 5% to cover the cost of adjustments.

The downside is that 750 parcels per year is the magic number you need to be able to open a commercial account with Canada Post. This is good for about 8% off VentureOne rates. If you use other carriers, you'll take longer to reach that point. On the other hand if you can get cheaper rates right now, maybe that doesn't matter.

#2 Does eShipper have a module for Zencart to automatically calculate shipping costs for my customers like Canada Post?

Apparently yes. I couldn't find the documentation on their site, but I did find this: (looks like it's a few years old; maybe there's a new one.)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/67891728/eShipper-API-v3-0-2

If you don't want to write the code yourself, there's also this: http://www.waytoship.com/ but it's (imho) expensive at $24.99/month.

[raxen]

It looks like I should stick with CP due to my low volumes and no "updated" support for Zencart modules.

I can see how businesses who ship internationally can benefit from this, but unless everyone here gets packages picked up from their business, it would be a nightmare for me to go to each company's postal outlet and drop these off.

Thanks PianoGuy for the input.

Giving customers choice is never a bad thing, especially when the choice can result in cheaper shipping. I suggest you inflate whatever price eShipper quotes by maybe 5% to cover the cost of adjustments.

The downside is that 750 parcels per year is the magic number you need to be able to open a commercial account with Canada Post. This is good for about 8% off VentureOne rates. If you use other carriers, you'll take longer to reach that point. On the other hand if you can get cheaper rates right now, maybe that doesn't matter.



Apparently yes. I couldn't find the documentation on their site, but I did find this: (looks like it's a few years old; maybe there's a new one.)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/67891728/eShipper-API-v3-0-2

If you don't want to write the code yourself, there's also this: http://www.waytoship.com/ but it's (imho) expensive at $24.99/month.

[ahato]

Their pricings are great
Loved the customer service...