Troubleshoot- Getting Higher Rates in UPS Shipping Plugin..!

In this article, we will help you get accurate shipping rates when using the WooCommerce UPS Shipping Plugin. If you are not sure about the accuracy of the shipping cost returned by the plugin, the first step would be to compare the shipping rates with your account’s rates as displayed on the UPS shipping rates calculator. Then identify the reason for the shipping rate mismatches with the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin.

Reasons for UPS Shipping Rates Mismatch

Discrepancies in the shipping cost can arise due to a lot of reasons, such as:

• UPS Negotiated Rates enabled/disabled within the plugin settings
• UPS Tax on Rates enabled/disabled within the plugin settings
• The type of Destination Address (Residential or Commercial)
• Different ways to pack your products
• Shipment Insurance
• UPS Special Services like COD or Delivery Confirmation
• Opting for UPS pickups & the type of pickup
• The difference in the APIs used by the plugin and UPS rate calculator

UPS Negotiated Rates enabled/disabled within the plugin settings

According to the UPS official website,
“Negotiated Rates are the contract rates established with UPS and your UPS Account Representative. Enabling Negotiated Rates within your shipping or rating systems allows you to view the most current and accurate rates for your UPS account.”
You need to check the negotiated rates option in the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin settings.
The following image shows the plugin setting for negotiated rates:

Also, set the “Customer classification” settings to the “Rates associated with shipper number” option to get the most accurate shipping rates as per your UPS account number.

UPS Tax on Rates enabled/disabled within the plugin settings

One more reason for the inaccuracy in the rates shown by the UPS Shipping plugin in comparison to the UPS rates calculator is the taxes applied to some shipments. It may be noted that based on the nature of the product and the address of the customer, taxes may be applied to the shipment.
To make sure this doesn’t create any issues with the rates returned by the plugin enable the Tax on Rates under the Rates & Services setting.
The image below shows how you can help with taxes for the rates returned by the plugin:

The type of Destination Address (Residential or Commercial)

Since the UPS API automatically checks if the address entered is a Residential or Commercial Address. Shipping to a residential address costs more than shipping to a commercial address.
However, the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin provides the option where, if you ship to Residential Addresses only, you can enable the “Residential” option under Plugin General settings

Also, UPS rate mismatch can happen due to incorrect Shipper & Recipient Addresses. Hence, make sure that you configured it correctly. While checking in the official ups rates calculator  enter a correct residential address to compare the rates with the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin

• Refer to this article for more details on how to add correct shipping addresses and other shipping details to get the correct ups rates

Different ways to pack your products

The way you pack your products can easily result in a shipping cost mismatch. To help you set up a personalized packaging method, the WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin supports parcel packing methods like:

• Pack Items Individually
  Choosing this option will result in packing each item in the order to be packed separately, no matter its size, it will be packed in a separate box. This can result in the cost going higher as UPS charges more based on the number of boxes.
• Pack into Boxes with Weights and Dimensions
  This option is best suited when you have multiple items to ship. But it requires the accurate weight of all the items combined as well as the dimensions of the combined package. The only way all the items can be accommodated inside a single box is by accurately measuring the weight and dimensions and then packing it in a suitable box.
• Weight-Based
  Using Weight Based packing differs from business to business. This option uses the total weight of the package as the parameter to calculate the shipping cost. There are no restrictions on the number of items packed until the weight is under the maximum limit set by the store owner. Until the weight is under the set limit, all the items will be packed inside a single box and no other box will be used for packing.
  You can select your preferred packaging method by visiting the Plugin Packaging setting as shown below 
  

Shipment Insurance

If you are shipping expensive products and would like to add insurance to the shipment, enable the “Insured Value” option in the plugin setting as shown below,

UPS Special Services like COD or Delivery Confirmation

WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin supports UPS special services like:

• UPS Import Control: It allows you to import, & initiate UPS international shipments and have those shipments delivered to your business address or to an alternate location.
  For more details: https://www.ups.com/us/en/support/international-tools-resources/ups-import-control.page
• UPS COD: This special service enables you to collect payment in terms of cash from the customers after delivering the orders.
• UPS Saturday Delivery: You can deliver your orders on weekends with UPS Saturday Delivery.
• UPS Delivery Confirmation: This special service enables you to confirm your order deliveries in terms of signatures.

If you want to get the most accurate shipping rates including all the special services applicable to your business, make sure that you enable these service options under the Special Services tab in the UPS Shipping plugin as shown below.

Opting for UPS pickups & the type of pickup

If you opt for UPS pickup services, you will be charged an additional fee based on the type of pickup you have opted for. Make sure to select the appropriate combination of “Rates based on pickup type” and “Customer classification” options based on your account, as shown below.

Different APIs used

One thing worth noticing is that there may be a slight difference in the official quotations and the rates of the UPS Shipping plugin. This difference may range from a few cents to $1. The reason behind this is that the official website uses a different API than the UPS Shipping plugin to get real-time rates.