How to create a custom Shipping Method?

Hi All,

I need to define a custom shipping method to satisfy business needs.

The shipping method requires to determine the following parameters (for each product in the cart):

1. Product weight
2. Equivalent Product weight (this info is not stored in the OC database and must be added during the insert of a new product)
3. Geo Zone (based on customer shipping address)

for evaluate the shipping cost.

Which are the files that I must to modify/create?

Thanks in advance.
Marta

Not sure if you'd be interested in doing this, but you could use the product volume as its "equivalent weight", and then use Formula-Based Shipping to calculate the shipping based on weight + volume + geo zone. Feel free to take a look at the screenshots and demo site, and if you're interested let me know at www.getclearthinking.com/contact if you have any further questions.

If you needed it on a per-product basis, you could either use Product-Based Shipping to define rates for product groups, or Ultimate Shipping to define them using an individual product data field (such as Location).

Hi John,

Thanks for your response.

I'll try to explain my customer requirement, using an example, trying to make you understand if your extension is what I need.
Looking at the attachment "Shipping_cost_calculate.xls", into the tab "Shipping Cost Calculate", there is an Excel formula (E30 cell) that we can use to calculate the shipping costs. The Formula is based on three parameters:
- Product Name (column B "Article")
- Quantity (for each product)
- Weight (column E "Total KG")
- Equivalent Weight (column K "Total Equivalent Weight")
- Geo zone (cell D4 "Distribution region")

This formula uses also informations stored in the tab "Rates".

To explain how the formula works, I'll use the following example:
Suppose the customer add to cart:
2 items of "Article 1"
1 items of "Article 2"

In this case, you have 2 kind of Total Weight, the first one (Quantity x Unit Weight) called simply Total Weight that is calculated in the cell E22, and the second one (Quantity x Equivalent Unit Weight), called Total Equivalent Weight, that is calculated in the cell L22.

With the maximum between the two weights (in this case, Total Equivalent one), and the geo parameter, the formula into the E24 Cell navigates the "Rates" sheet in order to extract the correct Rate.

At the end, The Total Cost cell (E30) calculate the result rounding up the E24 Cell to a 5 multiple.

How would you use the extention you mentioned in the previous mail, if it's possible, to apply this logic? If it's not possible with that, are there any other extention that would let me satisfy the requirements?

Thanks in advance and best regards.
Marta

If I understand you correctly, you're basically taking the higher of the weight or the dimensional weight (i.e. the volume with a multiplier), then charging based on this factor and the location. Is that right? If so, it's pretty easy to set up in Formula-Based Shipping.

What you'd do is create two rates for each Area you have, one based on weight and one based on volume. You'd then take the Higher of these two rates by combining them (by giving them the same Sort Order). It would look something like this for Area A:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RATE #1
Title: Area A Delivery
Sort Order: 1
Multi Rate Calculation: Highest
Geo Zones: Area A
Rate Type: Weight-Based
Cost Brackets:
- From: 0, To: 1, Charge: 5.32
- From: 1, To: 5, Charge: 6.50
- From: 5, To: 10, Charge: 7.68
- etc.

RATE #2
Title: Area A Delivery
Sort Order: 1
Multi Rate Calculation: Highest
Geo Zones: Area A
Rate Type: Volume-Based
Cost Brackets:
- From: 0, To: 0.00333, Charge: 5.32
- From: 0.00333, To: 0.01667, Charge: 6.50
- From: 0.01667, To: 0.03333, Charge: 7.68
- etc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The volume-based cost brackets need to account for the 300 multiplier, which is why the From and To fields use those values (1/300 to 5/300, 5/300 to 10/300, etc.). Feel free to take a look at the screenshots and demo site, and if you're interested let me know at www.getclearthinking.com/contact if you have any further questions.