See why a big, light parcel costs more
Send appStore appShop app
A parcel is priced by its weight or by its size, whichever is more. A big, light box takes room in the bag that nothing else can use, so by its size it counts as heavier than it weighs — and the road part of its price follows what it counts as. Under the price, the Send app and the Store app say which of the two set it.
Steps
Measure the box from the outside, in centimetres: its length, its width and its height. Weigh it, in kilograms. The Send app and the Store app ask for all four before they show a price.
SeeBuyGet works out what the box counts as by its size: length × width × height, divided by 7,875. A box of 45 × 35 × 25 cm counts as 5 kg.
The price is set by whichever is more: what the box weighs, or what it counts as by its size. Under the price it says which — for example: Priced by its size, it counts as 7.6 kg and weighs 6 kg.
The road part of the price is: the kilometres it travels × a driver’s rate per kilometre × what the box counts as, divided by 5. A box that counts as 5 kg pays the rate once for every kilometre; one that counts as 7.6 kg, 1.52 times; one that counts as 2 kg, 0.4 times. The fees of the shops and any hub on the way are the same whatever its size.
An example: a box of 50 × 40 × 30 cm counts as 7.6 kg by its size. If it weighs 6 kg it is priced as 7.6 kg; if it weighs 9 kg, as 9 kg.
At a shop counter a parcel is not measured: the shop picks its size — small, medium, large or heavy — and the price is that size’s. Measure it yourself in the Send app, and a smaller box costs less.
The rate per kilometre is set by each driver for their own vehicle: what a 5 kg medium box pays to travel one kilometre. The price is worked out from the rates of the vehicles that can carry the parcel, near the shop it starts from when that is asked. The Send app’s price and the Store app’s Cheapest use the cheapest of those rates; the Store app’s Fastest uses the dearest, so any of those vehicles may take it. Where no driver has set a rate yet, the company’s own road rate is used. The driver who carries the bag is paid the kilometres × their own rate × what the parcels in it were charged as — the same count, so nobody is paid for room that was not charged.
Why
Why 7,875: it is the weight SeeBuyGet’s own medium size allows for its room — 45 × 35 × 25 cm, up to 5 kg — so a medium box counts the same by its size as by its weight. Many carriers divide by 5,000 or 6,000, which makes the same box count as heavier.
Rare cases
A parcel is never charged more than a whole bag, the most one parcel can take on the network; its price then says it is priced as a whole bag. A box too big for a bag is not a parcel: it goes as a load, priced by the vehicle that carries it.