fedex shipping rates problem

[jmassey12]

I'm working on integrating FedEx realtime shipping quotes into our shopsite page and am running into a problem.

Our shop basically sells 2 types of products,and we ship using FedEx Express packaging. For 1 type of product we use FedEx Padded Paks and for the other type we use the FedEx Small Box. Our products are light and never end up over 1lb, so we tend to use that as the generic total shipping weight. Currently on the configuring shipping page I've set each product with a weight of 0lbs (all of them) to weigh .2lbs, and minimum package weight is set at 1lb, so unless someone orders 5+ items (v. unlikely) the total package weight will be 1lb. And we use Small Boxes because our product is very fragile and needs extra protection. Also, there is usually about a $5 different between the rate to ship in a Padded Pak vs. a Small box for the same weight.

My problem is I can't find a way to specify what type of packaging FedEx should use to ship each product. I tried specifying the shipping container on the individual products page, but like I've seen other users mention, in the shopping cart shipping doubled when I added 2 items as if they were 2 packages being sent individually.

I don't think its possible to configure shipping for 2 different packaging sizes unless an order goes over the FedEx max. weight for a padded Pak (~5.5lbs) which won't ever happen, but is there any way I can specify that I ONLY want our items to be shipped in Small Boxes (regardless of weight)?

I was thinking I might be able to specify some type of product dimensions that would lead the FedEx software to think it would only fit in a Small Box, not a Padded Pak, but I haven't had luck.

Any ideas on how to solve this problem?

[Jim]

If dimensions or a package type is specified then the product is considered to require shipping in its own container. The only way to allow multiple items to be combined into a single package is to go based on minimum and maximum weight and set on the Fedex config screen.

So there isn't a way to specify that all products will ship in a certain type of container and that multiple items can be shipped together in that container.