AuctionInc is pleased to announce a major enhancement to our intelligent Packaging Engine, the heart of our shipping calculation software. The enhancement involves significantly improved management of item dimensions in determining the number of packages that are required for any rated service.

Previously, dimensions were used to qualify individual items as service-eligible, qualify items for various flat rate boxes, and determine if the size of the resulting packages were subject to "dimensional weight", oversized rates, or service ineligibility.  Our packaging splits (calculating how many packages are required to handle the items in the shipment), however, were primarily determined by item weights.

This intelligence has been sufficient to provide AuctionInc with a firm lead over the vast majority of carts and rate APIs in determining accurate package shipping rates. Now, we are even smarter.

Our packaging engine is now able to also take the size of items (tracked as total item volume) into account when determining when it is necessary to "split" to the next package while processing thru the items in the shipment.  As the number of packages in a shipment is the most critical factor in determining an accurate ship rate, this is a significant step forward. Using a variety of algorithms to determine the maximum available volume per service, along with item, carrier, and seller-configured data, our engine now appropriately splits when either a maximum weight or volume is reached.

Further details on the workings of our packaging engine are available here.