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Metrics type: Key Metrics • Category: Shipping & Courier

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At a glance

Average postage cost per Net Dispatch-routed parcel in GBP, post-discount and including standard surcharges. Reflects UK multi-carrier rate-shopping outcome: Net Dispatch’s pooled rates plus per-shipment optimisation across Royal Mail, DPD, Evri, Yodel, ParcelForce. Typically 5 to 12% lower than direct-to-carrier UK average for similar volume.

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Calculation

Calculated automatically from your NetDispatch data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

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Worked example

A UK DTC fashion merchant via Net Dispatch. Reading taken at 09:00 GMT on 12 Mar 26 for the trailing 30 days vs the prior 30 days. The card reads £3.05 (30D) vs £2.92 (prior 30D), +4.5% increase. Alert at +10% has not tripped. Five things to notice:
  1. Net Dispatch is saving the merchant ~£0.35/parcel vs direct. At 14,460 monthly shipments, ~£5,060/month or £61K/year saving. This is the platform’s value proposition.
  2. Evri at £1.95/parcel is the cheapest option but drags on-time. The cost-vs-OTD trade is most acute on Evri/Yodel; merchants weighing the trade should look at this card alongside On-Time Delivery Rate.
  3. The +4.5% climb is mostly January 2026 carrier rate increases. Royal Mail published a 6.4% increase effective 1 Apr 26 (will affect April readings); DPD applied a 5.1% increase in January. Non-negotiable.
  4. No major service-mix shift. Volume mix between carriers is similar to prior 30D; cost climb is rate-driven not mix-driven.
  5. Compare against on-time card. Cost climb of 4.5% paired with on-time stable at 94.0% = “I’m paying 4-5% more for the same service quality”. Acceptable; the trade flips negative if on-time degrades while cost climbs.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

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Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in Net Dispatch’s own dashboard: Net Dispatch Dashboard → Billing → Statements. Monthly invoice shows total spend in GBP and shipment count. Why our number may legitimately differ from Net Dispatch’s portal: Cross-connector reconciliation:

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Net Dispatch saving vs direct-to-carrier UK? Typical 5-12% saving on rate-shopped volume. Driven by Net Dispatch’s pooled rates with Royal Mail, DPD, Evri, Yodel. Trade-off: large enterprise UK shippers (£3M+/year) may negotiate stronger direct contracts. My cost climbed 10%, alert tripped. What happened? Three diagnostic steps. (1) Cost Per Shipment Trend for shape. (2) Shipments by Service for carrier-mix. (3) Cost by Zone for regional shifts (Highland/Islands surcharges). Highlands and Islands surcharges? Most UK carriers add £3-£12/parcel surcharge to deliveries to Scottish Highlands & Islands, Northern Ireland (some), Channel Islands, Isle of Man. Net Dispatch passes the surcharge through; your average climbs if customer-mix shifts toward those regions. Should I configure Net Dispatch to use cheapest-only rate-shopping? For UK DTC under £2M/year shipping, usually yes (“cheapest meeting promise”). Trade-off: cheapest often selects Evri/Yodel which have weaker on-time. Configure rate-rules to prefer reliability for high-AOV orders. Q4 cost spike? UK carriers add Q4 peak surcharges October-January; expect 5-12% climb above steady-state. Combined with January rate increases at year-end, plan budgets for +10-+18% combined cost November-February. VAT treatment? UK merchant accounts typically receive ex-VAT pricing on shipping (VAT-recoverable for VAT-registered businesses). Card displays whichever the connector receives in API responses. Verify config via Net Dispatch CSM if your reconciliation looks off. Brexit cost change for UK→EU? Pre-Brexit, UK→EU was domestic-equivalent pricing. Post-Brexit, UK→EU shipments are international with customs declarations and (often) DDP duty handling. Cost climbed 30-60% on EU lanes; merchants who set up EU-domiciled subsidiaries (Netherlands) shipping from there avoid the international leg. Why is OnTrac/Lasership not in my UK Net Dispatch? OnTrac, Lasership, LSO are US regional carriers. UK regional carriers integrated into Net Dispatch typically include: Evri, Yodel, ParcelForce, DX, Tuffnells (for larger items). Net Dispatch’s UK carrier portfolio differs from EasyPost’s US portfolio.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Avg Shipping Cost is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across NetDispatch and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.