UPS Box Packing – Calculation of shipping rates based on weights and dimensions
Suppose you want to pack more than one product in a single box, based on weights and dimensions by using the WooCommerce UPS plugin. Here’s how to do it:
Let’s say you have two products.
Product A with weight 2, and dimensions = 3 x 4 x 3 (length x breadth x height)
Product B with weight 3, and dimensions = 4 x 4 x 4 (length x breadth x height)
C is the box in which we would like to pack both products A and B
Simple Mathematics involved in packing 2 products into 1 box:
How to gauge the dimensions of Box C?
Method:
Length: Take the largest length between the two products. In this case, Product B has 4, and A has 3. So we select 4.
Breadth: Take the largest breadth between the two products. In this case, both A and B have 4, so keep it as 4.
Height: Now, if we need to stack one product over another, then heights of the two products would have to be added. So we just add 3+4 = 7.
So our dimensions of the box C would be = 4 x 4 x 7 (in cm) = 1.57 x 1.57 x 2.75 (in inches).
Just to be on the safe side, we round up these values and keep a little more for height (just to your liking). So, finally, we come up with the final dimensions as 2 x 2 x 3.15 (in inches).
Now, we want to pack these two products in a single box!
The first step would be to configure the weight and dimensions of each product.
Go to the admin page – Products – Select the product – Go to Product data Tab – Select Shipping – give values for weight and dimensions.
Note: Unit of weight here is kg, and for dimensions, it is cm.
The screenshot below shows the above configuration.
Product A
Product B
Next, we follow the steps mentioned in the points below.
- In Parcel Packing option, we select “Pack into boxes with weights and dimensions.”
- Once this is selected, we can now add a custom box which can be used for packing Product A and Product B together. To create a custom box, we just click on the “Add Box” button in the Custom Box Dimensions.
- We give the dimensions and weight of the custom box.
Note:
- Items are packed into these boxes based on item dimensions and volume.
- Outer dimensions are passed to UPS.
- Inner dimensions are used for packing.
- Items not fitting into boxes are packed individually.
Points 1,2, and 3 are shown in the screenshot below:
Step 3:
Verification: To check whether Product A and Product B are packed into a single package.
Enable the debug option. Go to the cart page and check the Package dimensions, UPS request, and UPS Response as shown below:
Package Dimensions:
- In the screenshot below, we can see the weight and dimensions of Product A calculated in lbs and inches shown by point 1.
- The weight and dimension of Product B are given by point 2.
- The net weight (including package weight) and the dimensions are given by point 3 in the screenshot.
In the UPS Request below, we can see that the plugin has requested UPS with a box of the necessary dimensions.
Response from UPS:
UPS has responded that it has custom box services for weight = 14 lbs. So, billing amount will be charged for the package of total weight 14 lbs.
Note: Weight of Product A + Weight of Product B + Weight of package = 13.22 lbs
Hence, we can see that both Product A and Product B can fit easily in a single package.
This can be verified by printing the label. We can see the dimensions of the packed boxes, weight, and content of the boxes on the label below:
Hence, we can see that Box Packing is quite easy if we pay attention to the dimensions of the boxes being packed. Hope that was helpful!