On Easyship, you can prepay Residential Address Surcharges, reducing unplanned fees after shipment creation. This guide will explain what a residential surcharge is and the multiple ways in which you can pre-pay such costs.
Residential Surcharges
Residential Surcharges are an added fee that certain carriers charge after delivery to a residential address. A residential address is defined as a house or apartment requiring the driver to physically go to the door of the residence. This includes delivery to a home or a business that does not have an entrance open to the public. Commercial buildings with a doorman or loading docks are not considered residential. Other restrictions may apply as per the carrier's own definitions.
The pre-pay feature can be used in two different ways.
Pre-Pay When Manually Creating a Shipment
When creating a shipment, it is now possible to mark the destination address as residential as per the below screenshot.
For US and Canada:
-
If the destination is marked as residential: Easyship will rely on the Residential Identifier to confirm if an address fits the criteria. If the address is deemed non-residential, no charge or adjustment will be billed.
-
If the destination is not labeled as residential, but the system determines otherwise, a notification will be shown to highlight this.
For the rest of the world:
-
If the user marked the address as residential, any applicable surcharge will be added to the shipment at a discounted price.
-
If the address is not marked as residential, no added surcharge will be applied but an adjustment may be billed by the courier if the address is deemed to be residential.
Pre-Pay Via Shipping Rules
You are able to add a shipping rule to always include residential address fees if applicable. By doing this, you will never receive any unexpected residential surcharges. Additionally, Residential Surcharges, if applicable, will be included in the cost at checkout (if enabled).
Cost
A residential surcharge can cost anywhere between 5-10 USD.