Small orders on Royal Mail, big ones on a courier, decided for you

A lot of trade suppliers run two carriers without ever writing down the rule between them. Small orders such as spare parts, sample packs or a single replacement component go Royal Mail, because a large letter or small parcel is far cheaper than a courier. Anything bulky goes by courier. The person at the packing bench makes that call by eye, and then someone books each one in a different system.

Zestcode Automation builds bespoke order platforms that make the Royal Mail or courier decision from the weight and dimensions recorded at packing, then book the shipment, print the label and save the tracking reference to your ERP. Your company owns the finished platform, and the rules in it are the ones your business already uses.

Two carriers, two logins, one packing bench

The trouble with splitting carriers by hand is less the booking itself than everything around it. A packer guesses a format and the item is rejected at the post office counter. A tracked service the customer paid for goes out untracked. Tracking numbers from Royal Mail are typed into the ERP on some days and forgotten on others. When a customer asks where their order is, someone has to work out which carrier it went with before they can even look.

A single platform removes the guesswork, because every packed order is measured, routed and booked in the same place and the result is saved against the order.

How weight and size choose the carrier

Royal Mail prices by format as well as weight, so the platform needs both. The rules are agreed with you during the specification. A hypothetical supplier might settle on something like this:

• Fits a large letter and is under that format’s weight limit: Royal Mail large letter, or tracked if the customer paid for it.
• Fits a small or medium parcel: Royal Mail, using the service on the order.
• Heavier or longer than your chosen limits: the courier, such as Parcelforce or DPD.
• Ordered on next-day courier terms: the courier, whatever the size.
• Borderline or unusual: held for the office to decide.

Those thresholds are yours to change later, and the rule that picked the carrier is recorded on the order so nobody has to reverse-engineer a decision.

How do automated bookings get into Royal Mail?

Royal Mail gives business customers more than one way to create shipments from another system, Click & Drop among them, and which route fits depends on how your account is set up and which services you buy. We confirm the route with you and Royal Mail during the specification and build to it, rather than assuming one. Bookings use your own account and rates in every case, and the courier side connects through that carrier’s API where your account has it enabled.

Keeping a record of letter-sized orders too

Even an untracked large letter leaves a trace. The service used, the posting date and the packed weight are saved against the order in your ERP, along with any tracking reference when there is one. The ship note prints on the A4 printer as the order is completed, and the audit log shows who packed it and when. For low-value trade orders, that is usually enough to settle a “did you send it?” call in seconds.

Price decisions stay with the office

Some customers are charged a fixed postage amount on their account. When the real cost of the chosen service differs from the delivery charge on their PO, the order waits for the office to approve the difference or amend the order before it is completed and invoiced. That applies whichever carrier was chosen. More detail is on the shipping page.

Budget, running costs and ownership

Carrier booking comes in the second phase of an order to dispatch build, after capture, review and ERP sync. The full platform is typically £20k–£30k ex VAT, delivered in two phases over roughly 14 weeks, and we put a fixed quote, valid for 90 days, on a free written specification. Running costs are modest, usually under £50 a month at a few hundred orders, covering hosting, PrintNode printing and a few pence per order for AI order reading.

Nothing is rented. The platform runs in hosting accounts in your company’s name, there are no licence fees per user, and ongoing maintenance from £80 a month is optional.

If your bench is choosing between Royal Mail and a courier every day, book a discovery call and we will map your current rules together.