Different shipping options relating to location and weight

[Tobynator]

Is there a way to add shipping options that the customer can select according to their location and is then calculated by weight?
I am based in New Zealand and the courier company that I want to use offers different prices for North Island and South Island deliveries as well as a surcharge for Rural delivery. The charges are based on a parcel up to 5 kg, so I would like the program to calculate the freight in 5kg lots.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Basara]

Hello.
The Weight Based Shipping shipping method allows you to add different per Locations rates based on weight.
Create several NZ location withs different zones
https://abantecart.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AD/pages/15990797/List+Locations

[RD]

Hi Tobynator,
I'm in NZ too, so know where you're coming from - we seem to have particularly complex shipping options here with urban & rural, different islands etc.  I had to use the weight-based shipping module, as mentioned by Basara.  Yours might be different and will depend on number and type of products but to give you an idea, I created two locations in System/Localization/Locations, one for rural, one for urban.   Then in Extension/Shipping turn on the "default_weight" module.  In there, under Additional Settings, you can specify the pricing for each of those locations based on the unit of weight you've got set for the cart (somewhere under System/Settings).  I set mine to Kgs, so under Additional Settings, I have 1:5.00,2:7.50  for urban  - this means 1kg is charged $5, 2kgs is $7.50.  For Rural I used 1:8.00,2:12.00.  Then you specify the weight of each product in Catalog/Products.  It might work out OK for your products but in my case I had to "make up" weights so that multiples of the product would still fit into the pricing structure for the cost bracket in Additional Settings (mentioned above).  If you have a lot of products, you might need to use Excel first to help get all the pricing & weight options sorted.  Cheers, Rich.

[Tobynator]

Hello.
The Weight Based Shipping shipping method allows you to add different per Locations rates based on weight.
Create several NZ location withs different zones

Thanks, that is just what I needed to know, very quick and helpful reply 

[Tobynator]

Hi Tobynator,
I'm in NZ too, so know where you're coming from - we seem to have particularly complex shipping options here with urban & rural, different islands etc.  I had to use the weight-based shipping module, as mentioned by Basara.  Yours might be different and will depend on number and type of products but to give you an idea, I created two locations in System/Localization/Locations, one for rural, one for urban.   Then in Extension/Shipping turn on the "default_weight" module.  In there, under Additional Settings, you can specify the pricing for each of those locations based on the unit of weight you've got set for the cart (somewhere under System/Settings).  I set mine to Kgs, so under Additional Settings, I have 1:5.00,2:7.50  for urban  - this means 1kg is charged $5, 2kgs is $7.50.  For Rural I used 1:8.00,2:12.00.  Then you specify the weight of each product in Catalog/Products.  It might work out OK for your products but in my case I had to "make up" weights so that multiples of the product would still fit into the pricing structure for the cost bracket in Additional Settings (mentioned above).  If you have a lot of products, you might need to use Excel first to help get all the pricing & weight options sorted.  Cheers, Rich.

Hello Rich - thanks for that info. I am setting up 4 zones for North and South Island and urban and rural for each. I have now set up the zones in the locations - how do I tell the weight based shipping module to use the different zones? If I have the zone South Island Rural (SIR) would I write SIR=1:5.00,2:7.50 and then a semicolon to start the next zones pricing?

[RD]

I use NZ Post and just have 2 locations (rather than zones) set.  The downside with how I'm doing it is that the buyer is presented with those two options at checkout i.e. they choose rural or non-rural.  I've never had anyone choose the incorrect option as most people these days know whether their address is one or the other.  I can always email them if they get it wrong.  So you could maybe use 4 locations, South Island Rural SIR, South Island Urban SIU, and same for North Island NIR, NIU or whatever, and for each, the corresponding pricing structure like 1:5.00, 2:7.50  etc. 
Here's a working example for a product - say the product's real weight is 90g - I ignore the real weight and ask myself "how many can I send for $5, how many for $7.50" etc.  Say the answer is 4 items (maximum of 4 of the 90g products fit in a DLE size box) then I take the 1kg (1000g and divide by 4) and make the weight for each item in Catalog/Products 250g.  If someone orders 5, the weight flips over to the $7.50, and so on.  It's a work-around.  Might work for you, might not, but has been OK for me.  Cheers