For me, some of this was fixed when I filled in the data for that default carrier (UPS for me) for the default country that was set in the localization. I use my own zones in the USA for shipping but have had values in the carrier table for North America not filled in. By filling it in, now that carrier works as default as it should.
The amounts in that North America in the carrier section were then used for that first shipping amount, then when they entered a location, it corrected it.
Shouldn't the default ZONE be what is used to calc that first amount and not the country/continent? That looks like it may be the bug, or pretty close to it.
John S.
Midwesttent