Reviewed 2026-09-30 · quarterly cycle
Line picker: sort the lines by your constraints, not by habit
Which shipping line actually fits this parcel, given what I care about?
Best fit: Express air courier, mainly because of speed. Chargeable weight 4.80 kg.
Sorted by cost, speed, risk and fit, weighted for standard. Cost is a published range at the chargeable weight, not a quote.
| Line | Chargeable | Cost range | Transit | Main reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express air courierDivisor 5000 | 4.80 kg | $55.20 – $93.60 | 3–10 days | speed |
| Postal air economy | 4.00 kg | $24.80 – $45.60 | 9–30 days | cost |
| Express line accepting batteriesDivisor 5000 | 4.80 kg | $67.20 – $110.40 | 4–12 days | speed |
| Bulky-goods air serviceDivisor 8000 | 3.00 kg | $13.20 – $25.80 | 14–38 days | cost |
| Consolidated air freight | 4.00 kg | $20.40 – $39.20 | 12–42 days | cost |
Sorted on published ranges plus the hold counts we record for each destination. Where a line has no range on file it is shown as Not verified rather than hidden. See the divisor for each line in the volumetric tool.
What each part of an address does
Example links, built for illustration. The four parts below are the ones a buying agent needs, and the four failures underneath are the shapes we see most often.
- https://item.example-marketplace.test/Tells the buying agent which marketplace to route to. Two marketplaces can look identical on screen.
- item.htm?id=000000000000The identifier the agent orders against. A share token in this position is the most common failure.
- &skuId=000000000000&quantity=1Encodes the variant and quantity. Copying before selecting a variant produces an address without these.
- https://s.example.test/AbCdEfA redirect. It resolves in a browser and hides both the marketplace and the identifier from an order form.
| Shape | Signal | Why it fails | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share token pasted as an address | The order form rejects the address, or shows no item title after pasting. | Order forms read identifiers, not redirects. A share token carries no identifier. | Open the link in a browser, let it resolve, and copy the address bar rather than the chat message. |
| Variant parameters dropped | The form asks you to choose a variant again, or silently selects the first option. | Selecting a variant writes parameters into the address. Copying before selecting leaves them out. | Select the variant on the listing page first, then copy. Never hand-edit SKU parameters. |
| Identifier changed after a renewal | The address works but the item title or the seller differs from last time. | A renewed listing can carry a new identifier while the old address still resolves. | Compare the item title and seller name rather than the price, because prices change routinely. |
| Mobile address shortened by the app | The address is shorter on a phone than on a desktop for the same product. | Chat apps and marketplaces shorten on share, and the shortened form differs from the original. | Resolve the short address through to the destination page and confirm the item title before ordering. |
Inputs and defaults
- Actual weight in kilograms (default 3.0, range 0.1 to 30)
- Box length, width and height in centimetres (defaults 40, 30, 20)
- Destination region (default United Kingdom; six regions)
- Urgency: cheapest, balanced, or fastest (default balanced)
- Whether the parcel contains a battery (default no)
- Declared value in US dollars (default 180, range 1 to 5000)
How it computes
- Chargeable weight is the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight, where volumetric weight is length times width times height divided by the divisor for that line type.
- Each candidate line is scored on four dimensions: cost (lower published range is better), speed (lower transit midpoint is better), risk (fewer destination holds recorded is better) and fit (battery acceptance and declared value against the destination threshold).
- The four scores are combined with weights set by urgency. Cheapest weights cost at 0.50 and speed at 0.15; balanced weights cost at 0.30 and speed at 0.30; fastest weights speed at 0.50 and cost at 0.15.
- The five highest-scoring lines are returned with the dominant dimension named for each, so you can see why a line won rather than only that it did.
What you get out
- A ranked table of five lines showing chargeable weight, cost range, transit range and any risk flag
- A one-line conclusion naming the best fit and the dominant reason
- The link anatomy block, which explains why the same address can behave differently under different lines
Boundaries and failure behaviour
- A weight of zero or a non-numeric entry shows a validation message and leaves the result area waiting for valid input.
- Any dimension above 120 centimetres returns a message that oversized freight is outside this tool.
- If every candidate line refuses batteries for the destination, the result states that explicitly rather than returning an empty table.
- Where a line has no published range on file, the row shows Not verified rather than being hidden.
Used with
Background reading: Line-by-line: matching a parcel to a carrier instead of a habit