Landed-cost ladder
Three ways to move the same parcel, priced side by side.
The same order costs a different amount depending on how many shipments you pay for, and almost nobody prices the three shapes before choosing one.
Basis. Linehaul is chargeable weight times a published per-kilo planning rate for the rung; handling is a per-shipment fee; duty and tax come from the border cost bench. Rates are planning rates, not quotes. Parameters last confirmed 2026-09-11.
Landed-cost ladder
| # | Rung | Shipments | Linehaul | Handling | Duty band | Landed | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Lean | 1 | 43.24 | 1.5 | 34.17–34.17 | 318.91–318.91 | 18–32 |
| 02 | Balanced | 1 | 63.48 | 2.2 | 36.68–36.68 | 342.36–342.36 | 9–16 |
| 03 | Fast | 3 | 98.9 | 10.2 | 41.89–41.89 | 390.99–390.99 | 4–8 |
Landed figures exclude any local resale or return cost. The duty band widens with the tier because each extra shipment is assessed separately.
Moving from Lean to Fast costs about 72.08 more and removes roughly 14 days from the front of the transit window. On this budget, the lean tier still fits.
- Lean: Wait for the slowest line, merge everything into one parcel, accept a long transit window. Parcel count is the lever here: every extra shipment re-pays the handling fee and re-opens a duty assessment.
- Balanced: Split into two shipments so nothing waits on a single slow seller, standard air line. Chargeable weight is the lever: trimming packed volume moves more money than switching lines.
- Fast: Ship each store separately on an express line, pay per-parcel handling every time. Store count is the lever: buying from fewer stores removes a whole shipment from this tier.
Rate basis: Lean 9.4/kg · Balanced 13.8/kg · Fast 21.5/kg — per-kilo planning rates, not a quote.
Every rung is built from the same parcel: same goods, same chargeable weight, same destination. What changes is how many shipments you pay for and therefore how many times the border is opened.
Solid bars cannot be brought down by any choice on this page. Lighter bars can, and each one carries the lever that moves it.
What the three rungs mean
Lean waits for the slowest seller and merges everything into one parcel. Balanced splits the order into two shipments so nothing waits on a single slow seller. Fast ships each store separately on an express line.
The point of the ladder is not that one rung is correct. It is that each rung has a different lever — parcel count, packed volume, or store count — and knowing which lever you are pulling tells you where to spend your effort.
Reading the output
Linehaul scales with chargeable weight and therefore with the rung you picked. Handling scales with shipment count, which is why splitting an order can cost more in fees than it saves in postage.
The landed figure is a range rather than a number because the duty band widens as shipments multiply: each shipment is assessed separately, and each assessment can land anywhere inside the band.
When to ignore the recommendation
If any store in your order is out of stock, the lean rung stops being cheap and starts being slow for nothing. If a deadline is fixed, the fast rung is the only rung whose window sits inside it.
The over-cap flag exists so that a rung can be rejected against a number you set, rather than against a feeling about what is expensive.
- Set the budget cap before you look at the results, not after.
- Give the chargeable weight from the parcel weight bench rather than the seller’s shipping estimate.
- Re-run the ladder whenever you add a store to the order — shipment count is the input that moves most.
Questions this gauge gets asked
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Are these real quotes? | No. They are per-kilo planning rates published on the gauge itself, derived from the band of quotes people shared, not from any single line. A real quote can sit outside the ladder. |
| 02 | Why does the duty band get wider on the fast rung? | Because each shipment is a separate assessment. Three shipments mean three chances for the rate to land at the low or high end of the category band. |
| 03 | What if I am buying from one store only? | Then shipment count is the same on every rung and the ladder collapses to a straight comparison of linehaul against transit time. |
These are written as ordinary headings and paragraphs rather than as marked-up questions, because marked-up questions no longer produce a richer result in search.
Entries this gauge pairs with
- What does the service fee cover, and what does it not?
The service fee pays for the buying work: placing the order, checking the link and variant, receiving the parcel, logging it into storage and answering routine questions. Anything that changes a parcel, such as consolidation, repacking, photographs or a return, is separate work with its own charge or condition.
- How do you read a per-kilo quote without being surprised later?
Read four things: the divisor behind the weight, whether the rate is applied before or after half-kilo rounding, the minimum charge, and the fixed handling lines that sit outside the rate. Multiply after rounding, not before. A quote that omits the divisor and the step cannot be compared with another line.
- When is it worth consolidating parcels, and when is it not?
Merge when each parcel would otherwise pay a minimum of its own, when they are heading to the same destination, and when waiting for the slowest one does not break a date. Do not merge when one item is bulky but light, when a piece needs a specialist line, or when the build cut-off would add about a week.
Other gauges on the bench
- Border cost bench
Duty and tax assessed on the landed value, as a band.
- Parcel weight bench
Which of volume and mass is actually paying for the flight.
- Slip cross-check bench
Compare what the slip claims against what you measured.
- Transit window bench
Reported arrival windows with the sample count attached.