Choose carriers and services for checkout
Pick which carriers and services quote at checkout, their order and names, list or negotiated prices, surcharges and declared value.
Available on the Advanced plan and higher. Compare plans
Updated October 5, 2026
Each connected carrier’s card on the Carriers page has a Checkout rates section. It decides whether that carrier quotes at checkout, which of its services customers see, and what you add on top of the carrier’s price. This page covers every control in that section.
Before you start
- Turn on live rates first. See Live rates at checkout.
- The section appears on a carrier’s card once the carrier is connected. On the Estes and FedEx Freight cards it needs the Freight plan too.
- Changes apply only after you click Save checkout rates at the bottom of the section.
Surface at checkout
The Surface at checkout checkbox at the top of the section turns the carrier on for checkout. It is off until you tick it, so connecting a carrier for labels never starts quoting carts by itself. A carrier that isn’t ticked doesn’t quote, isn’t used as a substitute, and doesn’t fill a shipping tier.
Columns: lanes and kinds
UPS and FedEx show their services in a grid. Each column is one lane and one kind:
| Column | Used for |
|---|---|
| Parcel, Domestic | The ship-from location and the customer are in the same country. |
| Parcel, International | They are in different countries. |
| Air freight, Domestic (FedEx) | Shipments with a box over parcel limits, in one country. |
| Air freight, International (FedEx) | The same, across a border. |
A box is over parcel limits when it is longer than 108 inches, its length plus girth is over 165 inches, or it weighs more than 150 lb. FedEx then returns only its air freight services. Leave the air freight columns on so a large order still gets a FedEx rate, unless the order goes to freight (Estes or FedEx Freight) instead (see How checkout prices a cart).
Rows line up services of similar speed across columns. A dash means that column has no service at that speed.
Column settings
Each column has its own settings at the top, so international or air freight can carry a different margin from domestic parcel.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Services to show | All enabled, ranked shows every ticked service the carrier returns, in your order. First valid only shows just the top-ranked ticked service that returned a price. |
| Rate type (UPS and FedEx) | Negotiated is your account’s price. List is the carrier’s published price, which is usually higher. Labels always show negotiated prices; this only changes what checkout quotes. |
| Surcharge % | Added to the carrier’s price. 10 means the price times 1.10. |
| Flat per shipment | A fixed amount added to each shipment priced in this column. |
| Add declared value (UPS and FedEx) | Rates each box with its share of the cart’s value as declared value, so the carrier’s declared value charge is part of the quote. |
The percentage applies to the carrier’s price only. Per-box surcharges from the Boxes page and the flat amount are added after it.
Services
Each service has three controls:
- Checkbox: ticked services can show at checkout. Carriers only return services that fit the shipment and the lane, so ticking a service doesn’t guarantee it appears.
- Rank: a number from 0 to 9. Lower numbers come first. A blank rank counts as 0, so it sorts before 1. Rank every ticked service if order matters. Services with the same rank sort fastest first.
- Display name: the name customers see. Leave it blank to use the carrier’s name (shown as the placeholder).
These settings decide what shows when a cart ships as one shipment. When a cart splits into several shipments, checkout shows your Customer shipping tiers instead; see How checkout prices a cart.
Shippo
Shippo connects several carriers through one account, so its section is a grid with one column per carrier. A carrier gets a column when it is active on your Shippo account and is either USPS, UPS, FedEx or DHL Express or has already quoted on your store. Which carriers your account has is set in Shippo. Hiding a service inside Shippo’s own settings does not change the rates Shippo returns, so curate them here.
The grid has a Domestic block and an International block. Under each carrier column in each block you’ll find Services to show, Surcharge %, Flat per shipment and an Add shipping insurance checkbox. There is no rate type for Shippo: each service has one price. With First valid only, each carrier column keeps its own top line, so you can show the top USPS option and the top UPS option side by side.
Rows in each column:
- Parcello’s list of that carrier’s services, lined up by speed.
- Also quoted on your store: services that have recently come back in your store’s own Shippo quotes and aren’t in that list.
- A link such as “17 other UPS services on this account”, which opens the rest of the services Shippo lists for your account.
Some things work differently from UPS and FedEx:
- Everything is on until you untick it. A carrier or service you activate in Shippo later shows up at checkout without a change here.
- Ties sort by price. Services with the same rank sort cheapest first.
- Quote from. When both your own carrier account inside Shippo and Shippo’s account quote the same carrier, a Quote from menu appears in that column: Cheapest of the two, Your account or Shippo’s account. Customers see one line per service. If the account you prefer doesn’t quote a service, the other account’s price is used, so a preference never hides a service. When only one account quotes a carrier, the column says Your account or Shippo’s account.
If no carrier on the account is active, the section says so. Activate USPS, UPS, FedEx or DHL Express in Shippo, then reload the Carriers page.
Estes
On the Freight plan, the Estes card’s section has:
- Surcharge %, Flat surcharge per shipment and Add full-value coverage (Yes or No). With coverage on, the quote includes Estes full-value coverage for the freight’s value.
- Service levels: Estes LTL Standard (on by default), Estes Guaranteed by 5 PM and Estes Guaranteed by Noon (off by default), each with a checkbox, Rank and display name. Each ticked service level becomes its own option at checkout.
- Delivery accessorials: Residential delivery and Liftgate at delivery (on by default), Inside delivery and Delivery appointment. Ticked accessorials are included in every Estes checkout quote. Leaving residential and liftgate off risks under-quoting home deliveries. Residential delivery here, not Home or business, decides whether Estes quotes a home delivery.
- Backup service levels: service levels quoted only when none of the ticked service levels returns a rate, for example when a guaranteed service can’t take a large shipment. Each backup has its own rank, display name, Surcharge % and Flat surcharge, which replace the surcharges above for that line. A service already ticked above is ignored as a backup.
FedEx Freight
On the Freight plan, the FedEx Freight card’s section has:
- Services to show, Rate type (Negotiated or List), Surcharge % and Flat surcharge per shipment.
- Service levels: FedEx Freight® Priority and FedEx Freight® Economy, both on by default, each with a checkbox, Rank and display name. Each ticked service level becomes its own option at checkout.
- Delivery accessorials: Residential delivery and Liftgate at delivery (on by default), Inside delivery, Limited-access delivery and Delivery appointment (call before delivery). Ticked accessorials are included in every FedEx Freight checkout quote. Leaving residential and liftgate off risks under-quoting home deliveries. Residential delivery here, not Home or business, decides whether FedEx Freight quotes a home delivery.
FedEx Freight has no backup service levels and no coverage option.
Freight settings for both carriers
A cart uses one freight carrier, Estes or FedEx Freight. See Which freight carrier an order uses.
Consolidate parcel items onto a freight shipment is on the Freight card under Default Carrier on the Carriers page and applies to both freight carriers. See How checkout prices a cart and Freight with Estes.
Per-box surcharges
On the Boxes page, each box has a Checkout surcharge: a flat amount added to the checkout price for every box of that type in the cart, whatever the carrier. Use it for boxes that cost more to pack.
Notes and limits
- When a cart splits into several shipments, the service checkboxes, ranks, names and Services to show don’t apply: checkout shows your shipping tiers. Column surcharges, rate type and declared value still apply to each shipment.
- If the carrier a product is assigned to returns no ticked service, Parcello offers the next ticked carrier’s services for that cart instead of returning nothing.
- If another rate app in the same Shopify zone returns an option with exactly the same name as one of yours, Shopify shows only the cheaper of the two. Rename yours to keep both.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A carrier never quotes | Surface at checkout not ticked or not saved | Tick it and click Save checkout rates. |
| A ticked service doesn’t appear | The carrier didn’t return it for that lane, box or address | Try another address or box size. Some services only quote on some lanes. |
| Services appear in an unexpected order | Blank ranks count as 0 | Give every ticked service a rank. |
| A service hidden in Shippo still shows | Shippo’s own settings don’t affect rates | Untick it in the Shippo grid here. |
| A large order gets no FedEx rate | Air freight columns unticked | Tick the FedEx air freight services. |