Manual quoting eats a surprising amount of a courier owner's day. A customer calls, you take down the addresses, look up the mileage, do the math, and send a number. Sometimes they never answer. Do that 10 to 20 times a day and you've lost hours to a job a computer can do the same way every time.
This post walks through how automated delivery pricing works and how to set it up on your website.
The components of automated delivery pricing
Automated pricing depends on three pieces working together:
- Distance calculation. The tool has to work out the distance between pickup and drop-off on its own. This usually comes from a maps service that returns driving distance in miles.
- Your pricing rules. Your base rate per mile, minimum charge, and any surcharges (after-hours, stairs, inside delivery, weight) get entered once.
- A customer-facing form. A widget on your site where customers enter their details and see a price without you being involved.
With those in place, the customer enters pickup and drop-off, the system measures the route, applies your rules, and shows an estimate. Nobody on your end has to touch it.
How to configure your pricing rules
Automated quotes are only as accurate as the rules behind them, so think these through:
- Base rate per mile. Your core number. If you charge $2.50 a mile, that goes here. Set it from your fuel, driver time, and the margin you want, not from a guess.
- Minimum charge. A 2-mile run at a pure per-mile rate doesn't cover the time it takes to park, load, and walk the package in. A minimum (say $35) keeps short jobs worth doing.
- Service type pricing. A rush job that has to be there in two hours should cost more than a next-day scheduled drop. Set a multiplier or flat surcharge for each service level.
- Extra fees. Stairs, inside delivery, oversized items, and after-hours work all cost you more. Each one should be a fee the customer can select, so a pallet that needs a liftgate isn't priced like an envelope.
Once that's set, the system does the math. You don't check every quote; you look at the requests that come in and decide which jobs to take.
Setting it up
With Qalt, setup takes about 10 minutes:
- Create an account and enter your pricing rules on the Pricing Settings page.
- Customize the widget's look: your logo, color, and header text.
- Copy your embed code and paste it into your website (one iframe snippet).
From then on, anyone who visits your site can get an instant quote based on your real pricing. Requests arrive in your dashboard with the job details attached. You confirm, contact the customer, and run the delivery.
What you review, what the system handles
Automation doesn't take you out of the loop entirely. The system prices the job and captures the customer's details. You still decide which jobs to accept, coordinate the delivery, and follow up. What goes away is the back-and-forth over what to charge.
That frees up time you were spending on the phone, and customers no longer have to wait on you to find out whether your price works for them.