A Detailed Guide On UPS Shipping Calculator
If you are an eCommerce business owner who ships items frequently, you might already be aware of shipping providers who specialize in timely deliveries, like United Parcel Service (UPS), FedEx, United States Postal Service (USPS) and more. These are some of the most prominent shipping providers offering timely shipments across the USA and the world. But the speed of delivering a package is not the only concern a business owner has to deal with. The cost of shipping matters too.
When it comes to shipping domestically and internationally, most sellers ignore the fundamental aspect of checking shipping rates. Quite often, they aren't aware that shipping costs can be checked or computer online. What's more, they sometimes don't fully understand how different factors affect the rates at which a package is shipped. If you too have doubts regarding shipping rate calculations, this article will explain everything you need to know. Here, we will be discussing the topic while keeping the UPS shipping cost calculator in perspective. The shipping rate calculator provided by UPS is the easiest method to calculate shipping rates when transporting packages with UPS.
1) An overview of United Parcel Services (UPS)
UPS is one of the largest and most well-reputed shipping providers in the United States. It was established in 1907 by Claude Ryan and James E Casey, and is currently headquartered in Atlanta, GA.
At present, UPS has sales worth $84.4 billion and employs over 5,43,000 people. The logistics services offered by the company include transportation, ocean freight, air freight, ground freight, insurance, financing, customs brokerage and distribution.
United Parcel Services functions via various segments such as Freight and Supply Chain, Domestic Package and International Package. They have an international reach across the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, Canada, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Africa.
And with that background, let's move on to discuss the UPS shipping cost calculator.
2) What is the UPS shipping calculator?
The UPS shipping rate calculator is also known as the “Calculate Time and Cost” application. This program assists users in finding the delivery dates and times with respect to freight services across 220 countries.
By asking you for relevant information about your package, it helps you accurately estimate the cost of shipping. Moreover, it also indirectly helps you pick the delivery service that suits you best.
3) What are the key factors to consider when calculating shipping costs?
Calculating shipping costs beforehand helps you avoid unexpected delays and surprises at the time of shipment. Also, since it is easy to work with the UPS shipping rate calculator, finding shipping rates is very quick and simple.
All you would have to do is keep the following factors in mind:
3.1) Transit Time
One of the most crucial factors to consider while determining shipping cost is the package's destination. Depending on where and when you want to ship a package, the cost can vary significantly.
By using the UPS shipping cost calculator, a lot of the unnecessary guesswork can be removed. It provides you with all the information you need in one place. After selecting the package's destination and the speed of delivery, you can select from one of the different shipment options that United Parcel Services offers.
3.2) Dimensions and Weight
The dimensions and weight of the package reflect its volume and space requirement. This is applicable for both domestic and international shipping. You can calculate the cost of your shipment by entering its size and weight into the calculator.
3.3) Delivery Surcharges
Delivery surcharges are expenses that cover the cost of providing shipping in zip codes that are difficult to reach. Generally, these are applied to packages that need to be dropped off or picked up from remote areas. By using the UPS shipping rate calculator, you can get an idea of such surcharges and avoid unexpected cost increases.
3.4) Taxes and Other Charges
Items that need international shipping often face additional charges for customs duties, depending on the country of import and export. For example, the United States has a fee for merchandise processing, whereas Europe has VAT (Value Added Taxes). Additionally, a list of commodities is subject to brokerage charges, which add on to the shipping charges.
With the help of the UPS shipping cost calculator, you no longer have to do the guesswork for all these charges. It will all be provided to you as you compute the rates.
4) How to calculate shipping rates with UPS shipping calculator?
To calculate the shipping price for your package, head over to United Parcel Service’s official website and navigate to the "Shipping" tab. Thereafter, find the "Calculate Time and Cost” application. As its name suggests, it allows you to calculate the time and cost of delivery for any shipment across the globe.
Here are the steps to be followed:
- From any page of UPS’s website, find the “Shipping” tab
- Select the option for “Calculate Time and Cost”
- Do as directed and fill up the required fields of information
5) Things to Remember with respect to Delivery Time
While calculating the time of delivery, there can be several options to choose from. For instance, you may see options for "delivery time" and "latest collection time" for each type of UPS freight service. You can select any of these options and then input the package information to see the final shipping price.
Depending on the final cost, you can decide on the type of freight service to use for your shipment.
6) Things to Remember with respect to Shipping Costs
Using the UPS shipping rate calculator helps you discover the best shipping rates offered by the company, along with guaranteed delivery times. Some facilities you can avail if you use this calculator are:
* Finding the shipping rate in the currency of the origin country
* Find and edit rates and details of shipment
* Where applicable, calculate the cost of value-added services
* View details of rates, such as those applied by time zones (only when required)
* Filter results according to cost or time
* Avail the dates for international deliveries and times for doorstep services
7) Cost of International shipping with UPS
United Parcel Services ships internationally to several countries, but the prices it charges for that are much higher than those of domestic shipping. The primary reason behind this is the inclusion of the distance calculation and the restrictions in each country.
To get a better understanding of UPS's international shipping rates, you can get a quote from the rate and service guides on their website. Based on the urgency of your shipment, you can select from a wide range of air and freight ship services.
UPS provides a guaranteed time/date delivery depending on the destination.
8) Cost of Domestic shipping with UPS
The domestic shipping rates offered by UPS are more affordable than other providers. Moreover, there is a wide range of delivery options available, each depending on the speed of the shipment. The United Parcel Services air and domestic ground services can deliver your package anywhere in the U.S. They operate faster than most other couriers and at reasonable rates.
For domestic shipping too, you can select from a range of air and freight ship services based on the delivery urgency. Additionally, in the case of domestic shipping, for urgent/emergency shipments you can select the priority mail delivery option.
UPS also offers flat rate shipping that charges fixed rates for certain destinations.
9) Surcharges in UPS’s pricing
As mentioned above, while shipping internationally or for urgent deliveries, the rates can get affected due to several factors. Every additional expense in such cases is known as a “surcharge”. It can include one or more expenses from the list given below:
* Fuel surcharges: these surcharges can be based on the increasing fuel prices and they are updated every month.
* Residential surcharge: this is for on-call pickup and delivery services to business or residential addresses
* Extended area surcharge: this is applicable for deliveries to remote zip codes.
* Security surcharge: this is based on the origin and destination of the package.
* Peak season surcharge: this is applicable for special seasons and is typical to international air freight.
* Capacity surcharge: this is applicable to select the lanes for air freight.
10) To Wrap It Up
While selecting a shipping partner, the shipping rates offered by the firm play an important role. They need to be reasonable and justified for the volume, dimension, and distance of the shipment.
Although most shipping providers share their charges on their websites, it is still not sufficient when computing the cost of shipping. In such cases, a shipping calculator can be used to find out the exact costs without depending on help from outside.
United Parcel Services provides a shipping calculator that can help you compute your cost of shipment beforehand. The tool takes multiple factors into consideration so that you can decide if it will be affordable to ship with UPS.