You can optimise your shipping costs by reviewing and adjusting your carrier mix. Make sure you're accessing the best rates, and the right service levels, for your unique shipping requirements.
Carrier types
There are two main ways to access carriers from within your Shippit account.
For carriers where Shippit has an agreement, you can access Shippit rates directly. You can turn these carriers on from within the carrier settings page and start using them immediately. In the carrier settings page, these carriers are labelled as Billed by Shippit when they are active, or Turn on to access Shippit rates if you haven't activated them.
If you have pre-arranged rates with a carrier, you can use them with Shippit. To get started, email your rate card and account details to the Configuration team, or get in touch with your Shippit account manager. Our team review your details, and usually get back to you in 1-3 business days.
To find out how to integrate your preferred carrier, check the Know your carrier section.
Add or remove carriers
You can add and remove carriers from your carrier mix from your Shippit account.
Log in to your Shippit account.
Click the downward arrow in the top right-hand corner and choose Settings.
On the left navigation pane, click Carriers.
Locate the carrier you want to adjust, and toggle them on or off. If the toggle isn’t available, click the link to find out how to add them.
To find out how to integrate your preferred carrier, check the Know your carrier section.
Carrier allocation settings
You can change your allocation settings from the carrier settings page. Navigate to Settings → Carriers and scroll down to the Allocation settings section. In this section, choose whether you prefer to allocate to the cheapest carrier, or the fastest carrier.
This section also allows you to choose to upgrade or downgrade your carrier allocations. Because carriers offer different service levels, this allows you to upgrade or downgrade your carrier to an equivalent service, where one exists.
For example, if you are shipping an order at a standard service level, and the estimated delivery time is going to be greater than your shipping promise, you might want to upgrade the order to an express service level, so you can maintain your promise to your customers.
Alternatively, if you are shipping an order at an express service level, and a standard service level carrier can deliver the order with the same or faster estimated delivery time, you might want to downgrade the order to a standard service level to take advantage of the cheaper rates.
You can also choose to automatically upgrade standard orders to express, where an express service level carrier has a cheaper price than the standard service level carrier.
Arranging carrier pick ups
Without a regular pickup time, your pickups can vary depending on local availability. If you are shipping more than 10-15 orders a day with any carrier, we recommend that you arrange a regular carrier pickup.
You can arrange this directly with your carrier or, for carriers where Shippit has an agreement, we can help you. To get set up, contact your Shippit account manager, or email Shippit support with these details:
The carrier you want to arrange a regular pickup for
A designated contact person
The contact person's phone number