Shipping subsystem improvement suggestion

[Marod]

Hello there from sunny Siberia (Russia)

I'm now developing a home entertainment shop for myself (kinda technically advanced shop owner). Product looks good but I have a huge amount of suggestions on shipping subsystem.

First of all I need to mention that there are HUGE countries and worldwide or country-level shops as well as small shops that work in one single city or town.

Current architecture of whole countries, being parts of shipping zones, looks too global for both huge countries and big cities.

It would be cool if next major version could have some kind of freeform *hierarchy* of delivery zones (with custom language-dependant names like Global Zones, Countries, Regions/States, Cities, Districts and global types like Country, City, Other) and possibility to allow user to choose his address from these delivery zones.

Also it would be really cool to determine carriers and delivery prices from BOTH zones, prices weights and even volumes (in cubic meters or alike).

Good example - I'd like to provide local delivery by myself (my company delivery men) starting from EUR XXXX when customer is in my city. If my customer is far from my city, shipping price and ability to deliver would be calculated based on Location/Weights table for each carrier (in form of NA/price in each cell).

Regards,
Michael.

[Peha]

Hello from France

I'm also interested on determinig carriers and delivery from both
_zones
_weights
_volumes

In my case,
my problem is that my product is light but it has a great volume.
So when i have to ship it by plane, the transporter consider the volume insted of the weight :

Width x Height x Deep / 6000* = "number"

if "number" < weight
shipping is calculated from weight

else if weight < "number"
shipping is calculated from "number" as weight



have you find a solution ?
have you made a feature request in the bugtracker ?


[édit] * this number knows some variations in time, and isn't the same for evry transporters. (depending on the gaz price i guess)

so that particular rule must be activable for some shipping zones, whith a différent value for each transporters.

[Peha]

So,

after a bit of thinking, to do this

1/ we have to add a field in the Carriers configuration to set the value-wich-is-around-6000-actualy if he works by plane
2/ we must be able to activate/desactivate this mode of shipping calculation in Zone configuration (or states ? what do you think ?)
3/ we have to add a product parameter : Volume. Why not using "Features" ?
4/ we have to modify the method of cart weight calculation when we have calculate shipping prices by Volume/6000 = weight.

I don't know if it's possible to do this as a module or if it's a core modification.
Are you inspired ?

[OldPine]

I agree that these are much needed modifications. I need the ability to figure shipping on volume (cubic yards) and also to calculate shipping according to city.

I am inspired, but lack the skills.

[Peha]

http://www.prestashop.com/forums/viewthread/35850/P45/developpement/frais_de_ports__prise_en_compte_du_volume_dot___en_cm3