WooCommerce UPS Shipping – Can a Third-Party’s Account Pay the Shipping Charges?

If you are running a WooCommerce store and shipping LTL (Less-than-Truckload) freight parcels, you may have wondered whether a third party can pay the shipping charges using their own account.UPS Freight earlier handled third-party freight billing, but after rebranding to TForce Freight, TForce now manages all third-party freight billing instead of UPS.

In this guide, we will walk you through exactly how to set that up using the PH TForce Freight Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce with Print Label.

In This Guide

• UPS Freight and What Changed
• What Is a Bill of Lading?
• A Real Business Case: Third-Party Billing for WooCommerce Store
• How to Enable Third-Party Billing and Print a Bill of Lading in WooCommerce
• Conclusion

UPS Freight is Now TForce Freight: Here’s What Changed

The WooCommerce UPS Shipping Plugin with Print Label has long been a trusted solution for UPS shipments. However, in April 2021, UPS sold its LTL freight division to TFI International, which rebranded it as TForce Freight. As a result, freight-specific features, including Bill of Lading generation and third-party billing, are no longer part of the UPS plugin.

These features are now available through the dedicated PH TForce Freight Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce with Print Label. For standard UPS parcel shipping, the WooCommerce UPS Shipping Plugin continues to work as always. Before going ahead, let’s see what BoL is, which is very important in freight shipping.

What Is a Bill of Lading?

A Bill of Lading (BoL) is a standardized legal document that lists the type, quantity, and destination of goods being transported. Shippers must include it with every shipment, regardless of the mode of transport, and the shipper, carrier, and receiver must sign it.

Once signed by the carrier, it confirms their agreement with the shipment contents. When signed by the retailer, it confirms the goods being dispatched. In simple terms, the BoL is a legal document that assures the safe and verified delivery of merchandise.

A Real Business Case: Third-Party Billing for WooCommerce Store

TForce Freight offers three payment options for freight shipments — Prepaid, Collect, and Third Party. Based on your business model and shipping needs, you can select any one of the three.

One of our customers ships LTL freight parcels and wanted the Bill of Lading to reflect a third party as the payer, because that third party holds a TForce Freight account with negotiated discounted rates. Let’s see how the PH TForce Freight Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce with Print Label helps achieve that.

How to Print a Bill of Lading with Third-Party Billing?

In the TForce Freight plugin settings, go to General → Shipping Charges. You will see a dropdown with three options:

• Prepaid: The shipping charges will be collected from you (the sender or shipper).
• Bill to Third Party: The shipping charges will be billed to a third-party contact other than the sender. Fill in the third-party contact accurately and save the changes.
• Freight Collect: The shipping charges will be collected from the end customer upon receipt of the shipment.

Select Bill to Third Party. Once selected, the following fields will appear for you to fill in the third-party account details:

• Third Party Name — Enter the name of the third-party contact
• Company Name — Enter the company name of the third party
• Address Line 1 — Enter the primary address
• Address Line 2 — Enter the secondary address (optional)
• City — Enter the city
• Postal Code — Enter the postal/ZIP code
• State — Select the state from the dropdown
• Country — Select the country from the dropdown
• Contact Number — Enter the third party’s phone number
• Contact Email — Enter the third party’s email address

Once all the details are filled in correctly, click Save Changes.

The plugin will now calculate the shipping rates and bill the charges to the third party’s TForce Freight account while automatically applying their negotiated discounted rates.

You are now ready to place orders, generate packages, and print the Bill of Lading with the third party listed as the payer, all from within WooCommerce.

Conclusion

Third-party freight billing can simplify WooCommerce LTL shipping operations, especially for businesses working with distributors, warehouse partners, or customers who already have negotiated TForce Freight rates. By configuring the correct billing option and third-party account details, WooCommerce stores can automatically bill freight charges to the appropriate account while continuing to manage shipments directly from the WooCommerce dashboard.

Need help configuring TForce Freight third-party billing in WooCommerce? Reach out to PluginHive Support.