UPS Carrier Guide

This article provides the following details about setting up UPS as a carrier in ShipEngine:

United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) is the world's largest domestic and international package delivery company and a fully integrated partner with ShipEngine.

UPS offers basic retail shipping services as well as negotiated rate programs and consolidation services such as UPS Mail Innovations®.

Negotiated Rates are the contract rates established with UPS and your UPS Account Representative. Enable Negotiated Rates within your shipping or rating systems and be able to view the most current and accurate rates for your UPS account.

Whether you need to create a new UPS account, or you are ready to connect an existing one to ShipEngine, the setup guides below can get you started.

This guide provides developers an overview of shipping services that UPS offers and the service codes that you will use to create UPS shipments.

Connect Your Account

ShipEngine API allows you to connect your UPS accounts programmatically without logging in to the ShipEngine API dashboard. This is useful if you have wrapped a custom UI around the ShipEngine API toolset and want to add or disconnect existing carrier accounts without exposing your end users to the API dashboard.

These APIs can be used in parallel with the ShipEngine Partner APIs to programmatically create new ShipEngine users, and then connect existing UPS accounts all via the API without logging into a dashboard. Together these APIs empower you to completely white-label the ShipEngine experience for your end users.

Continue below for instructions on how to programatically connect UPS using the ShipEngine API.

For instructions on connecting UPS via the ShipEngine dashboard, go to our UPS help article.

UPS Account Information Model

Example POST Call

POST /v1/connections/carriers/UPS

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POST /v1/connections/carriers/UPS HTTP/1.1
Host: api.shipengine.com
API-Key: __YOUR_API_KEY_HERE__
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "nickname": "My UPS Account"
  "account_number": "123456789",
  "company": "Example Corp.",
  "first_name": "John",
  "last_name": "Doe",
}

Example POST Response

Your account will now appear in your carriers list with an assigned carrier_id that you will specify when creating UPS shipments.

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{
  "carrier-id": "se-1234567"
}

Modify UPS Settings

ShipEngine takes advantage of some of UPS's advanced functionality but does not enable it by default. These settings can be updated in the Dashboard or via the API.

UPS Service Details

Domestic and International Services

Predefined Packages

Additionally, UPS has 10 predefined packages that can be used with the UPS Mail Innovations® domestic and international services:

Return Services+

Return services not supported for this carrier.

Although UPS Mail Innovations® does offer a return service for users, we do not currently support it in ShipEngine.

If you attempt to create a return label using UPS Mail Innovations®, you will see an "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error message.

UPS SurePost® does not support returns. If attempted, this error happens: "Message: An error has occurred.", "ExceptionMessage: The document has no pages."

Account Setup Guides

Create a New UPS Account

Adding Shipment Insurance

UPS supports adding insurance to your shipments. Review the Parcel Insurance page for details on adding shipment insurance with ShipEngine.

INFO: Notes about UPS and Insurance

UPS covers the first $100 for free.

• Insurance >$100-$300 is an additional flat fee of $2.70.
• For each additional $100, it's $0.90 per $100.
  To prevent insurance claims for a higher value than a product is worth, UPS requires multiple forms of documentation and may contact you for confirmation.
  The claims process begins when you report loss or damage to UPS, and then UPS will send you documentation and move on from there.
  In the event of a high-value shipment, UPS will want to inspect it if declared as damaged and may take other measures.