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Shipping lightweight parcels, flat packages, and letters is generally reserved for local mail service. You can ship these lighter weight packages through your Shippo integration using UPS Mail Innovations. UPS Mail Innovations is a shipping and mailing service offered by UPS that utilizes a combination of UPS’s ground network and the United States Postal Service (USPS) for delivery. It is designed for small to medium-sized businesses that need to ship a significant volume of lightweight and flat packages. You can ship the following with UPS Mail Innovations
  • Letters and documents
  • Flat packages (up to 130 inches in combined length, width, and height)
  • Packages weighing less than 1 pound
NoteShippo support UPS Mail Innovations for US domestic shipments only.

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Create a lightweight shipment using the Shippo API

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Find your UPS account object ID

If you have already identified the object ID of your UPS account, move to step 2. To find the object ID of your UPS account, following the example below. Request:
cURL
curl https://api.goshippo.com/carrier_accounts \
 -H "Authorization: ShippoToken <API_TOKEN>"
Response:
Response

{
  "next": "baseurl?page=3&results=10",
  "previous": "baseurl?page=1&results=10",
  "results": [
    {
      "account_id": "56782",
      "active": true,
      "carrier": "UPS",
      "parameters": {
        "account_number": "94567e",
        ….
      },
      "is_shippo_account": false,
      "metadata": "string",
      "object_id": "6aa34d5f6865448fbb1ee93636e98999",
      "object_owner": "bob22@gmail.com",
      "test": false
    },
  ]
}

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Update your UPS account

Mail Innovations is an additional service that must be enabled by UPS. Contact your UPS account representative to get the following account details.
  • customer ID
  • customer GUID
To enable Mail Innovations, use the following example to update your existing UPS account.
noteAlternatively, instead of updating your existing UPS account to enable Mail Innovations, you may choose to create a new UPS account with Mail Innovations already enabled.
Request:
cURL
curl https://api.goshippo.com/carrier_accounts/6aa34d5f6865448fbb1ee93636e98999/ \
-X PUT  \
-H "Authorization: ShippoToken <API_TOKEN>" \
-d parameters='{
       "cost_center": "",
       "password": "x99pass",
       "account_number": "94567e",
       "usps_endorsement": "",
       "surepost": "",
       "customer_id": "1234",
       "customer_guid": "1234-abcde"
}'
Response:
Update account response
{
    "object_id": "16786b4db03d4d97bc8a213557f1c1e0",
    "object_owner": "bob22@gmail.com",
    "carrier": "ups",
    "account_id": "56782",
    "parameters": {
       "cost_center": "",
       "password": "****",
       "account_number": "94567e",
       "usps_endorsement": null,
       "surepost": "",
       "customer_id": "8899",
       "customer_guid": "7896"
    },
    "test": false,
    "active": true
}
Use the returned object_id in step 2 to retrieve rates only from UPS.

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Get UPS Mail Innovations rates

To get rates for a UPS Mail Innovations shipment, create a shipment specifying UPS as your preferred carrier by setting carrier_accounts to the object_id returned from step 1. The Shippo API will only return Mail Innovations rates under the following conditions.
  • You must not specify a parcel template.
  • You must specify the dimensions of the your parcel (length, width, height) and weight.
  • You will only receive a rate from UPS Mail Innovations if your dimensions fit the required criteria of packages weighing less than 1 pound and having dimensions of less than 130 inches in combined length, width, and height.
  • If your package is non-rectangular (for example, rolls or tubes), you must specify by setting parcel.metadata to Non-rectangular.
Use the following example to get a Mail Innovations rate. Request:
cURL
curl --location 'https://api.goshippo.com/shipments/' \
--header 'Authorization: ShippoToken <API_TOKEN>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "object_purpose": "PURCHASE",
    "address_from": {
      "object_purpose": "PURCHASE",
      "name": "Mr. Hippo",
      "company": "Lampeez",
      "street1": "2640 Northaven Road",
      "street2": "Suite 107",
      "city": "Dallas",
      "state": "TX",
      "zip": "75229",
      "country": "US",
      "phone": "6825973270",
      "email": "bob22@gmail.com"
    },
    "address_to": {
      "object_purpose": "PURCHASE",
      "name": "Mrs. Hippo",
      "company": "Dean Lytle",
      "street1": "27 Holly Pl",
      "street_no": "",
      "street2": "",
      "city": "Bracey",
      "state": "VA",
      "zip": "23919",
      "country": "US",
      "phone": "4346364281",
      "email": "dlytle4087@mail.com",
      "metadata": "Customer ID 123456"
    },
    "parcels": [{
      "length": "12",
      "width": "10",
      "height": "5",
      "distance_unit": "in",
      "weight": "0.5",
      "mass_unit": "lb"
    }],
    "metadata": "test",
    "async": false,
    "carrier_accounts": ["16786b4db03d4d97bc8a213557f1c1e0"]
}'
Response:
Response
"provider": "UPS",
"provider_image_75": "https://cdn2.goshippo.com/providers/75/UPS.png",
"provider_image_200": "https://cdn2.goshippo.com/providers/200/UPS.png",
"servicelevel": {
    "name": "Mail Innovations Parcel",
    "token":"ups_mail_innovations_parcel",
    "terms": "",
},

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Mail Innovations Service level tokens

TokenService level name
ups_mail_innovations_bpm_flatMail Innovations BPM Flat
ups_mail_innovations_bpm_parcelMail Innovations BPM Parcel
ups_mail_innovations_irregularMail Innovations Irregular
ups_mail_innovations_media_mailMail Innovations Media Mail
ups_mail_innovations_parcelMail Innovations Parcel
ups_mail_innovations_standard_flatMail Innovations Standard Flat