When managing a courier service, making sure you set adequate pricing is pivotal. You need to make sure that each order is making enough to pay your driver and your team, but not too expensive that it turns away potential customers. With online courier software, you have complete control and an almost infinite amount of options for how you set the pricing for deliveries, making it easy to set the right price every time.

Zone Sets

With delivering packages, distances and map locations are of the utmost importance. Just based on travel time alone, it of course makes sense to have different pricing options based on distance traveled and location from you and your drivers’ main areas. That is why online courier software has the ability to create zone sets. Each zone set can hold a large number of zones, and each zone can be carefully crafted based on cities or zip codes you want to include, or can even be physically drawn on a map by you so that you can make sure you are covering the exact area you are trying to! When you have built a zone set to your liking, you can then set price options for deliveries within a zone, and between zones. For example, if you have a zone that includes the city limits of a town, you can have a set fee for delivering within. But if your next zone is a suburb outside of town, you can have a larger fee for any orders that go from the town to the suburb, or vice versa. By creating intricate zone sets based on pricing and location data, you can have a very refined and complete set of charges that covers the vast amount of orders that go from place to place!

Distance Lists

Similarly to zone sets, online courier software allows you to create distance lists. These can be helpful if you are purely focused on the actual mileage of an order, not necessarily if it goes between certain locations like cities or zip codes. With these distance lists, you can set ranges of distances to go between, which can be given a minimum price, a base price, and a price per mile. For example, if you have a range from 0-10 miles, you can set a base price of $15 with a $2 price per mile. So, if an order goes 3 miles, it would be $21 based on the distance list alone. You can include as many ranges as you want, and can even have the same distance ranges, but different pricing based on package or service type. To really have complete control over your pricing options, you can also combine distance ranges with zone sets if that makes more sense for your area. You have complete customization and choice in setting any and all of these pricing options, so no matter where you are located or what you are delivering, you can set up what is right for you and your company to work automatically through the system!

Surcharge Sets

Finally, you can also create a variety of different surcharges. These will be applied on top of any zone or distance charges you want to add, and are static prices based on weight, number of pieces, fuel, or any general or miscellaneous charges you want to set. These can all be differentiated by service type, package type, and vehicle type for a much larger range of options. For example, you may not need to include a fuel surcharge for deliveries made by bicycle, but there can be a greater weight charge there than in a car. By implementing a wide range of different surcharges that make sense, you give your customers more flexibility and freedom in choosing what kind of delivery would best suit their needs. 

Pricing Matters

When you set any or all of these different pricing options via an online courier software, they will automatically apply to any new order that comes in. Now you won’t have to do a lot of calculations and map measuring every time a new order comes in; just set up your price lists and let the system do the rest of the work for you. Here at Digital Waybill, we understand how important it is to have full control over these setups, as you don’t want to lose any pricing options that you would have been able to set manually. We want you to be able to automate this process, freeing up your time and energy to focus on other aspects of your business. Schedule a demo with Digital Waybill today to see how else we can simplify and automate your courier business!