At the end of this article you’ll know everything you need in order to use the free UPS Ground Maps tool from an innovative ecommerce fulfillment provider.
Bonus: If you’re an advanced ecommerce seller, and want to understand how to improve your shipping costs (significantly), we’ve created a Shipping Cost Analysis Tool and provided a step-by-step ecommerce shipping guide at the end to learn how to “Create Your Own Shipping Calculator to Estimate Your Average Zone and Costs with Your Historical Sales Data” (That's why this brand switched from Shipbob or perform your own research).
Table of Contents:
- Shipping Zones Explained
- UPS Shipping Zones & Zone Map
- UPS Ground Overview
- UPS Shipping Zone Calculator
- Create Your Own Shipping Calculator
Shipping Zones Explained
What are Shipping Zones?
Shipping zones are based on the distance a package travels from origination to the final destination. Zones are geographic regions that carriers (UPS, USPS, Fedex, DHL) use to calculate shipping times, and ultimately the price to ship a package.
The further away a destination is from the origin (your shipping zip code), the higher the number for the shipping zone (in a range from 1-9). The zones impact the cost of the shipping postage so the higher the zone (e.g. farther away) the more the cost of shipping.
How are Zones Determined?
Zones consist of a set of zip codes. Zones are not universal or fixed by carriers.
Key to Remember: Zones are not universal or fixed and vary according to the type of service and the weight of packages.
How Do Zones Impact Shipping Prices & Shipping Time?
Shipping costs for ecommerce parcels shipped within the US are determined by two factors: the zone number you are shipping to, and the weight of the parcel.
The farther the zone is, the higher the zone number. As a result, your parcel shipment postage is going to be higher.If a package is sent to a farther zone (Zone 8 or 9), it will almost always take longer to arrive compared to a package shipped nearby, like 1 and 2. Reducing time in transit is important, because slow shipping can cost you customers.
Key to Remember: Do you know your Average Zone for Shipments you’ve sent out from your current facility? Below you’ll learn how to do it yourself or ask a fulfillment company like Atomix to do it for you for free.
Bonus: Avoid the five main misconceptions within the fulfillment industry.
If you need help determining the best rates, we are able to provide you with a full shipping rate analysis.
UPS Shipping Zones
Below are the UPS Ground Zones for Zip Code 53233 (Atomix HQ). Here’s a link to generate your own UPS Shipping Zone Map!
As you can see, the results show the Average Time in Transit (different than the Map that we provided in the previous example. Atomix created that and will show you how to do it for yourself below!)
A quick way to understand UPS Shipping Zones is by looking at the distance from the origin zip code. The below breakdown of miles away from your zip code and zones explain UPS Shipping Zones.
Shipping Zone Radius
Zone 1: 50 mile radius
Zone 2: 51 – 150 mile radius
Zone 3: 151 – 300 mile radius
Zone 4: 301 – 600 mile radius
Zone 5: 601 – 1,000 mile radius
Zone 6: 1,001 – 1,400 mile radius
Zone 7: 1,401 – 1,800 mile radius
Zone 8: 1,801+ mile radius
Zone 9: Non-Mainland US Regions
UPS Ground Overview
UPS Ground is one of the many ways UPS can ship your product. UPS Ground is the most common shipping method with UPS and used for ground transportation to deliver packages.
Remember: When shipping Ground packages, your package will not be placed on a plane at any point.
UPS Ground is the most economical transportation method, but there’s faster, more expensive options (3-Day Select, 2nd Day Air, Next Day Air for example are faster, but more expensive). It’s also frequently used for hazmat products that cannot be shipped via air transportation.
When do you receive your package?
UPS Ground provides a Deliver by Date! The great benefit of UPS is you know with a high-degree of certainty that your package will be delivered by that date.
UPS Ground shipments ship speed is between 1 and 5 days for anywhere in the US!
How do surcharges impact shipping postage?
A lot of businesses forget about carrier surcharges.
Surcharges are not universal, and frankly in our opinion, at times, are erroneously determined by carriers. The most common surcharges are residential surcharge (home vs. business address), delivery area surcharge (far away isolated locations), peak surcharges (during busy season for Holidays in Q4), large package surcharge and more. Here’s what UPS provides for you to “understand” their surcharges.
Bonus: At Atomix, our extensive professional network in the logistics industry enabled us to negotiate and win a Contract (which is extremely rare in the industry). We work hard for our ecommerce sellers and pass on the benefits to lower their costs further!
Key to Remember: If you’re looking to find cheaper rates or ultimately avoid all the “Surcharge” gimmicks, you might want to consider partnering with a fulfillment company like Atomix.
UPS Shipping Zone Calculator
As covered previously, we provided the UPS Ground Maps - Shipping Zone Calculator.
The UPS Shipping Zone Calculator is free to use. To look up your zones, type in your zip code on the Calculator here.
Basic: This generates a UPS zone map for UPS Ground Shipments. You can use this to calculate which shipping zone your package will be delivered to in addition to the estimated time in travel.
Advanced: Now, if you’d like to determine which zip codes to pair with which zones from the map, you can easily generate an excel file of the Zip Codes and Shipping Zone pairs.
Download the rate chart for UPS Zip Codes
Here’s what the screen should look like:
For Atomix, our Zip Code is 53233 so here’s what our rate sheet looks like
Create Your Own Shipping Calculator
Here’s where the fun begins.
First, here’s a sample link of the Shipping Calculator we created for our Atomix Rates. You’ll learn how to do this for your own rates next!
Second, we’ll create a Full Shipping Rate Analysis. For our example, we’ll use UPS Ground, but you can do this for all carriers and zones! At the end, your final analysis will look like the below image. If you’d like to learn more, reach out to us!
Summary of Steps:
- Download All US Zip Codes (33,789 Zip Codes as of 9/23/22)
- Download Your UPS Zone Zip Codes (From above step; must use your origin zip code)
- Pair the Databases Together to Create a “Master List of All UPS Zones to Your Zone Zip Codes”
- Setup the Model To Auto Calculate The Cost Per Shipment After Uploading Historical Data.
- Create the VLookup Equation to Pair “UPS - Weight - Zone” in one excel cell.
- Create a New Tab (in Google Sheets) Where You’ll Pull in the Necessary Data from the Order Data Upload (Weight & Zip Code)
- Now, if setup properly you’ll be able to visualize the Rates Per Carrier (as seen below).
Please Note: If you need help with your calculations, feel free to reach out to us and we'll do your analysis for you!
