Frequently Asked Questions

Learn more about DigitalShipper by reading our common questions and answers guide. Of course we can't publish nearly every question that has been asked, but our comprehensive list should give you more insight into our products and services. And if you don't see the answer you are looking for, give us a call!

General Questions


DigitalShipper is sold as a perpetual license for a one-time purchase price and includes unlimited users, unlimited workstations, unlimited shipping transactions, and unlimited carrier accounts. Your purchase of DigitalShipper Enterprise also includes installation on one production server and one additional server that can be used for test, failover, and/or development. The only additional charges are adding shipping locations, carrier modules, an activation fee per compliant carrier, and annual maintenance. Professional services for project work and customizations are billed separately and based on actual hours.

When you purchase DigitalShipper the only ongoing cost is annual maintenance that covers software support, software upgrades, and carrier compliance changes with published rate updates. If you are on a monthly subscription plan, the maintenance and support cost is factored into your monthly fee.

You have unlimited shipping transactions with DigitalShipper. We do not throttle your usage or penalize you based on your shipping volume. DigitalShipper is designed to adapt to your business growth and changes.

No - you can configure as many users and workstations on your license of DigitalShipper.

ROI can be measured in many ways. Most of our customers believe they have achieved 100% ROI within three to nine months from initial system implementation simply by using DigitalShipper's rate shopping capabilities to select the most cost-effective carrier and service for shipping. Additional factors in the ROI include consolidating all outbound shipments to a single software solution, integrating to the host system, automating manual processes, reducing the steps in the shipping process, eliminating errors, and improving overall efficiency. 

DigitalShipper is only offered as an on-premise solution. Most customers install DigitalShipper in their own data center on a physical or virtual server. However, DigitalShipper can be deployed to a server that is managed by a third-party or even in a cloud environment where the server configurations meet the system requirements and access is via a secure connection such as a VPN.

There are benefits on both sides of the fence when it comes to a Cloud / SaaS vs. on-premise. Here are some of the compelling reasons why having DigitalShipper as an on-premise solution is beneficial. Cost over time can be significantly less - sure you are buying a software license upfront but with only ongoing maintenance costs, DigitalShipper can be less expensive in the long run. And if your business experiences any growth or volume increases, likely your Cloud / SaaS costs will go up. As a business critical software application, you want to control outages and the upgrade process. When you have a Cloud / SaaS solution you don't have a choice and there typically is no rollback option if you experience any issues. Want high availability and high performance? You are only going to truly get this with an on-premise solution.

Carrier Questions


DigitalShipper supports all the national carriers - UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL. Additionally DigitalShipper offers modules for many regional carriers including Ontrac, Spee-Dee Delivery, GLS (formerly GSO), and LSO.  For a complete list of carriers, visit our Carrier Partners web page.

DigitalShipper offers compliant modules for all the major regional carriers in the US including Ontrac, Spee-Dee Delivery, GLS (formerly GSO), and LSO. Additional regional carriers can be configured using the Generic Carrier module which gives you a complete and flexible way to calculate rates, add special services, generate shipping labels, print carrier manifests, and upload EDI files.

One of DigitalShipper's advantages is the built-in framework for shipping LTL and TL shipments. It's easy to add your own carriers to DigitalShipper and streamline not only your small parcel shipments but also freight shipments. DigitalShipper includes compliant modules for UPS Freight and FedEx Freight to compliment their package Express and Ground services. To learn more about shipping LTL / TL shipments in DigitalShipper, visit our Generic Carriers web page.

Sure there is a cost to a multi-carrier shipping system like DigitalShipper, but the cost savings have proven it is worth the money spent. With free carrier-provided software you are forced to decide how an order ships before you ship it. And if you have more than one carrier in the mix, that means your warehouse personnel have to learn each system. Imagine what a software solution like DigitalShipper can offer? A single repository for all your outbound shipments, all business rules working together, taking the guesswork out of which carrier, optimizing every shipment based on cost and/or time, ease of use for personnel including temps, and the confidence knowing every order ships exactly how you want it.

Yes - DigitalShipper supports both published and negotiated rates. We understand how each plays an important role in the shipping process so we know the value in having both. You likely want to use your negotiated rates to determine the least cost carrier and service, but may choose to invoice the published rate or a calculation based on one or the other. Your negotiated rates also give you a baseline to compare your carrier invoices to so you are not overpaying. Your negotiated rates will either be provided automatically by each carrier or allow you to directly import them into DigitalShipper.

Yes - DigitalShipper supports the various billing options offered by each of the carriers including Bill Recipient, Bill Collect, Bill Third Party, and Bill Consignee. Additionally, some carriers may allow you to determine the billing for the freight costs vs. taxes/fees. We often automate the Billing Options in DigitalShipper especially if you get the account information upfront from your customer and they want to be in control of how their orders ship. And for your frequent customers, you can even add their account number to DigitalShipper to avoid chargebacks and provide direct billing to their account.

Yes - DigitalShipper supports shipping international shipments from the US to any destination in the world. Each compliant carrier has some differences in how it works in DigitalShipper; however, we have a very simple workflow that accommodates manual user entry to full automation and everything in between. DigitalShipper also supports international shipments using freight forwarders. Contact us for more details and technical information.

Yes - DigitalShipper supports shipping hazardous materials / dangerous goods for our compliant carriers that support these additional services including: IATA, Accessible / Inaccessible, ORM-D, Dry Ice, Litium Batteries, Limited Quantity, Radioactive, and Infectious. Typically these are contracted services with the carrier and require you, the shipper, to meet all requirements and be certified. DigitalShipper meets compliance based on each carrier's requirements. Shippers may still need supplemental software to validate and provide proper instructions and labeling for shipping hazmat or DG shipments.

Technical Questions


DigitalShipper requires Microsoft Windows Server (2012 or higher) and SQL Server (2014 or higher) for its database. The DigitalShipper Shipping Application and Web Services run in IIS and are browser-based applications. DigitalShipper can be installed on a physical or virtual server. Contact us for a complete list of server and client software and hardware requirements along with peripheral support.

DigitalShipper can be installed, configured, up and running in one day. However, there are usually other considerations that go into such an important purchase for your business. And time and resources are typically the biggest factors in determining the timeline. This may include acquiring new hardware and scoping meetings to understand the integration to your host system and business rules. The average project ranges from 4 - 8 weeks. We are here to meet your needs and have a successful kick-off to go-live. Learn more about our Services and the keys to success.

DigitalShipper is built for automation and integration, connecting to hundreds of systems and moving critical data between these systems every day for shipping. DigitalShipper easily integrates whether it is a home-grown or a commercially distributed system (ERP, OMS, WMS, TMS, or eCommerce Platform). Your data plays a vital role in applying business rules, carrier service selection, and above all efficiency and accuracy. For more information visit our Integrations web page.

If you are a seller on Amazon, you are either shipping your product to an Amazon warehouse for fulfillment and/or you are shipping your product directly to the customer. If you are a participant in the Prime program and setup for “Seller Fulfilled Prime”, that allows you to deliver directly to domestic Prime customers from your own warehouse. Most often the Amazon orders are imported into your order management software and follow the normal order fulfillment workflow. When it is a “Seller Fulfilled Prime” order, DigitalShipper connects to Amazon’s API to determine the eligible carriers and services to ship the order and generates the transaction to receive the shipping label from Amazon. It’s simple and easy with DigitalShipper!

The short answer is "yes", we can integrate with popular eCommerce platforms. However, there are many other solutions in the marketplace that focus purely on eCommerce and do a better job meeting the specific needs around your shopping cart and managing these orders. Most DigitalShipper customers have an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or OMS (Order Management System) that consolidates all orders (ecommerce, phone in, email, fax, vendor-supplied) and these are the systems DigitalShipper connects to. If you need a recommendation or want to discuss your needs further, please contact our sales team.

The purchase of DigitalShipper Enterprise includes our SOAP Web Services with an XML-based protocol. The WSDL interface makes it easy to implement rating and shipping functionality into other applications such as rate shopping for optimized service selection, warehouse workflow automation, and custom Order Management System (OMS) / Warehouse Management System (WMS) integrations.

DigitalShipper Enterprise includes a Web Services API that provides the integration to fully automated systems. With single and multi-step operations, DigitalShipper is flexible to meet the needs and requirements of your conveyor line setup. Whether you are integrating the technology or outsourcing, DigitalShipper can provide consulting services to ensure your processing needs are covered from scan to weigh to print.

DigitalShipper's robust rating engine is capable of delivering real-time rates to your web site, especially for companies that don't offer free shipping and need to provide a freight cost upfront to the online user. DigitalShipper's Web Services delivers both negotiated and published rates for a single carrier service, rate shop groups, and even alternate origin / destination rating. Contact us for more details and technical information.