Useyourowncarrieragreement:whattolookforinshippingsoftware

Using your own carrier agreement means your shipping software books parcels on the contract you signed with the carrier, at the prices you negotiated, and the carrier invoices you directly. The alternative is buying freight that a shipping platform has bought in bulk and resells to you with its own margin and its own terms. For a webshop that sends parcels every day, the difference shows up in your costs, in who you call when a parcel is lost, and in how hard it is to change carrier later. This guide explains what is at stake, how to judge shipping software on it, and what to check before you connect an agreement.

What does "use your own carrier agreement" mean?

It means the carrier knows you as its customer. You hold an account number with GLS, PostNord, DPD, InPost, UPS or whichever carrier you ship with, the carrier sets your prices and surcharges in your contract, and its invoice arrives in your name. Your shipping software only connects to that account to create labels, fetch tracking and book collections.

With resold freight, the platform is the carrier's customer and you are the platform's customer. You see a price list the platform chose, you pay the platform, and anything that goes wrong travels through the platform before it reaches the carrier. That can be convenient when you are just starting, but you give up control over the most expensive line in your shipping budget.

Why keep your own carrier agreement instead of buying resold freight?

Because the agreement is where your prices, your liability terms and your bargaining power live, and a reseller sits between you and all three. Here is what you keep when the contract is yours.

You control your prices

Carriers price on volume, parcel profile and destinations. Once you send enough parcels, you can negotiate, and a better rate applies to every parcel you send from that day. On resold freight, the platform negotiated the rate for its whole customer base and decides how much of any discount reaches you. You also cannot see what the carrier actually charges, so you cannot tell whether the price you pay is fair.

You keep a direct relationship with the carrier

When the contract is yours, you have an account manager at the carrier, you can ask for new services to be switched on, and you can get products added to your account as you grow, such as express delivery or a locker product. A webshop that ships heavy goods can ask for a freight product, and one that starts selling abroad can ask for an international product, without waiting for a reseller to add it to their catalogue.

Claims and liability run under your contract

Lost and damaged parcels are part of shipping at any volume. With your own agreement, the carrier's liability terms in your contract apply to you, and you file a claim with the carrier that carried the parcel. On resold freight, the claim usually goes through the reseller, under the reseller's terms, which can be different from what the carrier itself offers.

You can switch carriers without starting over

If a carrier raises prices or stops serving a region well for you, you want to move volume elsewhere quickly. With your own agreements connected to one platform, moving volume is a change to a shipping rule, not a new contract with a new reseller. Your negotiated prices with the other carriers are already in place.

You can ship from more than one country

Carrier contracts are national. A GLS agreement in Germany is a different contract from a GLS agreement in Hungary, and an InPost contract covers the countries InPost serves from your sender address. If you run a second warehouse or work with a fulfilment partner abroad, you sign a local contract there and connect it next to the first one.

When is resold freight good enough?

Resold freight is a reasonable choice when you send so few parcels that no carrier will offer you an account, or when you do not want any contact with carriers at all. If that is you today, it is still worth choosing shipping software that also supports your own agreements, so you do not have to change systems the day a carrier offers you a contract. Moving later means new labels, new tracking and new integrations, all at once.

How do I evaluate shipping software on carrier agreements?

Ask the vendor how your agreement is connected and who bills the freight, then look for the answers below. A platform that is built around your own agreements answers all of them without hesitation.

• Who invoices the freight? The answer should be the carrier, directly to you. If the platform bills freight, you are buying resold freight.
• Which carriers and countries are supported? Look for the carriers you have today and the ones you may need next, including cross-border and express carriers.
• Can you connect the same carrier more than once? You may hold two account numbers with one carrier, for example one per country, per sender address or per brand.
• Can rules choose the carrier? Shipping rules that pick carrier, carrier product and services per order are what make switching cheap.
• Who sets the price at checkout? You should decide what your customers pay for shipping, independently of what the carrier charges you.
• Does it use the carrier's test system? A test mode that books against the carrier's own test environment lets you try labels before going live.
• What does the software itself cost? Software pricing should be for the software, not hidden in a markup on every parcel.

What to check before you connect a carrier agreement

Run through this list with your carrier contract and your account manager before you connect an agreement to any shipping software. It saves refused shipments on your first busy day.

1. The products on your contract. List the carrier products you are allowed to use, such as home delivery, a service point product, express or returns. A product that is not on your agreement is refused by the carrier when you send.
2. The services switched on for your account. Services such as cash on delivery, Saturday delivery or insurance often have to be enabled on your account first. Ask for the ones you plan to offer.
3. The credentials the carrier issues. Some carriers need only an account or customer number, others need an API client from their developer portal. Find out which, and who at the carrier issues them.
4. Sender countries and destinations. Check which countries your contract lets you ship from and to, and whether the carrier delivers to service points abroad or only at home.
5. Weight and size limits. Note the heaviest parcel each product takes, and the limits for service points and lockers, which are often lower than for home delivery.
6. Customs requirements. For parcels that leave the EU or cross another customs border, find out what the carrier needs per order line, such as HS code, country of origin and value, and whether it needs your EORI number.
7. Collections. Decide whether the carrier collects daily on a fixed schedule or whether you book each pickup, and whether your software can book it.
8. A test login. Ask whether the carrier has a test environment and separate test credentials, so you can try labels without creating real parcels.
9. Returns. Check which return products your contract includes, for example a label, a QR code or a label-free code your customer writes on the parcel.
10. Who gets tracking events. Make sure tracking is included on your account, so the shipping software can show where every parcel is.

How does Zippendo work with your own carrier agreements?

Zippendo works only on your own agreements: you connect your contract once, your carrier keeps invoicing you directly, and Zippendo does not resell freight. From then on, orders from Shopify, WooCommerce or any system that uses the REST API become shipments on your account, and shipping rules choose the carrier, carrier product and services for each order by destination, weight, order value or the shipping method your customer picked at checkout. The price your customer pays at checkout is the price you set in the shipping rule, not a price from the carrier.

What you enter depends on the carrier. With PostNord, Zippendo is a PostNord partner, so you enter your PostNord customer number and the country of your agreement. With Matkahuolto, your sender account number is enough. With GLS Croatia and the other MyGLS countries, you enter your MyGLS login and client number. With UPS, you add your shipper account number and an app from the UPS Developer Portal. Our carrier credentials guide walks through the fields carrier by carrier.

You can connect a carrier more than once, for example UPS once per account number or InPost once per InPost organization, and give each connection its own name. If your organization runs several brands, you can limit a carrier connection to one brand. Test mode sends shipments to the carrier's own test system where the carrier has one.

Carriers across Europe

In Central and Eastern Europe you can connect InPost, DPD Polska, DPD Hungary, GLS Poland and the GLS networks in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia and Serbia. In Western Europe there are GLS Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland and the Netherlands, PostNL, DHL Parcel Benelux, DPD Belgium and DPD Switzerland, and DHL eCommerce Europe for parcels from 25 EU countries. In the Nordics and the Baltics there are PostNord, Bring, GLS Denmark, DAO, Budbee, Instabox, Posti, Matkahuolto, Helthjem, DPD Latvia and DPD Lithuania. For pallets and heavy goods, DSV Road and DSV Road (DB Schenker) carry freight between the EU, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway, and Danske Fragtmænd moves parcels, general cargo and pallets across Denmark.

The United Kingdom and Canada

Royal Mail connects through your Click & Drop account on a Royal Mail Online Business Account, for tracked UK services, Local Collect and international mail from Great Britain. GLS Canada connects with your GLS Canada billing account number and online shipping login, for ground parcels between addresses in Canada and next-business-day GLS Express from Ontario and Quebec.

Worldwide express

For orders that cross oceans, DHL Express reaches 220+ countries on your own DHL Express account, and FedEx and UPS run on your own accounts with their international priority and economy services. Customs data from your order lines travels with each shipment, the carrier produces the customs declaration as part of the booking, and Zippendo can add a commercial or proforma invoice and a packing slip to the shipment.

Start shipping on your own agreements

Connect the carrier contracts you already have, set up your shipping rules and print your first label today. Zippendo is free to start with 100 shipments a month and no card needed: see pricing or browse all integrations.