Merchant handbook

Booking a parcel

Every field on the booking form, what the rate engine does with it, and the difference between a draft and a booked parcel.

Merchant owners and staff who book parcels6 min readPrintable handbook

Booking is at /m/orders/new in the merchant portal. The form prices the parcel as you type, using the same engine that bills it, so the figure you see before you save is the figure you are charged on delivery.

Draft or booked

Save as a draft when the weight or the address is not final. A draft is invisible to operations, carries no charge and can be edited or deleted. Booking freezes the charge, allocates the tracking number and makes the parcel real.

What changes when you book
	Draft	Booked
Tracking number	Not allocated	Allocated and printable
Charge	Quoted live, not frozen	Frozen on the parcel as a charge snapshot
Editable	Fully	Address and phone by support ticket only
Visible to operations	No	Yes, as soon as you forward it to pickup
Cancellable by you	Delete it	Yes, until a rider has collected it

The consignee block

Consignee fields
Field	Required	What it must contain
Consignee name	Yes	The person who will receive the parcel and sign for it.
Mobile number	Yes	A Pakistani mobile such as 03001234567. This is the number every WhatsApp update goes to, and the number the rider calls.
Second number	No	A fallback the rider may try before marking a hold.
Email	No	Used only for the email copy of the delivery notice.
Delivery address	Yes	House or shop number, street and area, up to 320 characters. Ten characters minimum, because "Johar Town" alone is not an address.
Area or sector	No	Gulberg 3, DHA Phase 5, Johar Town. It sharpens the zone match.
Landmark	No	A shop, mosque or junction the rider will recognise.
City	Yes	Lahore today. Pick from the list; it decides which rate card applies.

The parcel block

Parcel fields
Field	Required	What it must contain
Pieces	No	A whole number from 1 to 50. Blank means 1.
Weight in kg	Yes	Actual weight, up to three decimal places. Weigh it; do not estimate. QCS re-weighs at the warehouse.
Length, width, height in cm	No	Give all three or none. They are only used for the dimensional weight comparison, and only when actual weight is at most 5 kg.
What is inside	No	A short description, such as two kurtas.
Declared value in PKR	No	What the goods are worth. It does not change the charge.
Service	No	Standard, or Express for same-day. Express needs the parcel in our hands before 13:00.
Cash to collect in PKR	Yes	Zero for a prepaid parcel. This is the amount the rider collects and the amount credited to your COD account.
Instructions for the rider	No	Up to 500 characters. Printed on the label and shown in the rider app.

The three switches

Fragile. Flags careful handling on the label and in the rider app. It does not change the price.
Customer may open. Say yes only if the customer may open the parcel before paying. Saying yes when the parcel must stay sealed, or no when you promised otherwise, is the one mis-specification that can be charged on a failed delivery.
Exchange. The rider hands over your parcel and brings back the customer’s item. An exchange parcel carries no cash on delivery and the form will refuse a COD amount on it.

What the price is built from

01Chargeable weightThe greater of actual weight and dimensional weight, rounded up to the next 0.5 kg. Dimensional weight is length by width by height in centimetres divided by 5000, and it only applies when actual weight is at most 5 kg.
02ZoneYour consignee address is placed in Lahore City or Lahore Extended Area. Extended Area adds a flat per-parcel amount on both standard and express.
03ServiceStandard or express. Express has its own base and its own step, and it is only bookable before the cut-off.
04SnapshotOn booking, the full breakdown is frozen onto the parcel with the rate card version. A later rate change never reprices a parcel you have already booked.

After you book

Print the label from the parcel page, or select several parcels and print a batch.
Forward the parcel to pickup, or let your auto-pickup time forward everything that is still sitting in Booked.
Watch the status on the parcel page. Your customer gets a WhatsApp at pickup, at the warehouse and when the parcel goes out for delivery.

Questions we get asked

I typed the wrong phone number and the parcel is already booked.Raise a support ticket on the parcel. Support can correct the consignee phone and address before the parcel goes out for delivery, and the correction is recorded against the parcel.

Can I book for a city outside Lahore?Not yet. The city list on the booking form is the live coverage list. When a city opens it appears there and in the rate card.

The warehouse weighed my parcel heavier than I did.The re-weigh writes a new charge snapshot and keeps the old one, so you can see the before and the after on the parcel page. If you believe the re-weigh is wrong, open a dispute with your own weighing evidence.