This is the kind of thing that makes me glad I'm a bookseller. For
the vast majority of my orders, a simple weight-based calculation is
perfectly adequate!
--NCH
On Oct 19, 2008, at 11:24 AM, BJ Freeman wrote:
David, as you mentioned not hard packing container, pose a different
problem. I added a few fields as extended entities, to deal with this.
these are used in the oversize rules.
basically I set the volume to exceptable level, but usually override
based on weight, for USPS since that is the first consideration.
in the US we have hard container, that have fixed cost with no
wieght limit.
and yes it takes some sophisticated algorithm to calculate a many
faceted product. have to use images and graphic tools and/or hardware.
Kind of hard to do if your not stocking the products.
the quickest way is to put the product in a sealed plastic bag then
submerge it in water, then measure the displaced water. good old
Archimedes.
David Legg sent the following on 10/19/2008 5:05 AM:
Hi BJ,
I have implemented a layer of ecas, since this is the easiest way to
patch quickly these calculations, as I developed these. it also
allows
me to intercept the services used in shippment calcuations.
Thanks for running through your process. It confirms what I
feared...
there is no easy shortcut to working out shipping fees ;-)
I would love to have some form of packing algorithm that could be
used
instead of crudely using product volumes to determine if they would
fit
a particular form of packaging. Take an envelope for example, as you
fit more items into it the envelope's height increases and its
width and
length decrease. Even if the order will physically fit the envelope,
volumetrically speaking, the new height of the envelope may preclude
sending it as letter rate and it will have to go as large letter rate
instead.
Currently I use volume to crudely determine if an order will fit
packaging, but I've had to apply rough rules of thumb to make it
work.
For example, I downgrade padded bag volumes to 40% of the theoretical
maximum to make the calculation work.
Of course this is all fine until you come across products which
aren't
particularly cube shaped. This is where volume calculations tend to
break down when multiple products are packaged together.
Anyone come across something like this?
Regards,
David Legg
