How to find a Carrier zone abbreviation or what zone a suburb is assigned to

There are a number of different ways which you will be able to ascertain exactly what zones are what zone abbreviations in MachShip. These are outlined below:

1. Export the Carrier Zone Listing from MachShip 

The Carrier Zones Export CSV will contain a list of all the zones which have been created for a particular carrier. 

To export, this list got to  Admin - Carriers.

You will be provided with a list of all your accessible carriers. By typing in the search bar, the name of the required carrier will appear. 

Select the drop-down cog and Export Zones:

This will take you to the Export Carrier Zones page. Select Export Carrier Zones to CSV

The extract will contain a breakdown of:

Carrier - The carrier abbreviation.

Zone Name - The name of the zone. We suggest you check to see if the zone name matches the zone on your rate card.

Zone Abbreviation - The zone abbreviation. If you find the zone name on your rate card you can then use the matched zone abbreviation on your rate import csv file. 

Parent Zone - Some carriers will have zones within zones or subzones.

For example, a carrier may choose to have a regional zone in NSW called NSW Zone 3 and contained within that zone there may be a collection of suburbs around Bathurst which have also been set against the regional zone of Bathurst. In this example, The parent zone for Bathurst would be NSW Zone 3 and it would be reflected on the csv accordingly.

ZoneSet - Due to carriers at times having multiple zone sets - for example, TNT has a zone set which breaks each state into 3-5 zones but they also have a zone set which has broken up all suburbs into their major regional hubs. Sales Executives from TNT will decide to provide rates from either zone set. MachShip will indicate what zones belong to what zone set in this column. 

Should you have exported the zone set file and you are still not able to ascertain exactly what the zone abbreviation should be, then you should use the MachShip maps page. 

2. How to Use the MachShip Maps Page

The MachShip maps page provides a satellite image of Australia. Overlayed onto this image is Australia broken down into a series of geometric polygons. These geometric polygons include each of the applicable suburbs (from the Australia Post suburb listing) mapped to them based on their geolocation in Australia. 

To navigate to the Maps page select Admin and Maps.

The Maps page will default to a blank image on Melbourne as per below.

By first selecting the Carrier you will see the maps page show the applicable polygons and these will be colour coded based on the carrier zones. As below. 

Any polygon which contains a suburb which a carrier does not have on their zone list will be signified with a red outline.

Any polygon which has no mapped suburbs will be shown in white. 

If you wish to find a particular suburb and what zones it has been assigned to, type the suburb into the suburb search field and select the relevant suburb from the typehead. 

The map will then be centred on that particular suburb.

If you click on the polygon you will see a list of all the suburbs contained and what zones they have been mapped to. The zones are presented as Zone Name (Zone Abbreviation).

The maps page can be a good tool to use to ascertain what zones a single suburb is mapped to, but also to investigate pricing discrepancies or to troubleshoot why a route did not return. 

The Maps Page is a very powerful tool, however, should you need to find what zones a large number of suburbs are assigned to, you are best to export the carrier zone listing. 

3. How to Export a Carrier Zone Location Listing:

The Carrier Zone Locations Export CSV will contain a list of all the suburbs and what zones they have been assigned to for a particular carrier. 

To export this list go to Admin - Carriers.

You will be provided with a list of all your accessible carriers. By typing in the search bar, the name of the required carrier will appear.

Select the drop-down cog and Export Zone Locations:

This will take you to the Export Carrier Zone Locations page. Select Export Carrier Zone Locations to CSV.

The extract will contain a breakdown of:

LocationId - This is the internal id of the location in the MachShip database. This can be used with the MachShip API when creating consignments.

Suburb - This will the suburb name as per the Australia Post Suburb listing.

Postcode - This will be the suburb postcode as per the Australia Post Suburb listing.

Zone Abbreviation - This will be the Zone Abbreviation which the suburb is assigned to. As can be seen above, each zone a suburb is assigned to will be shown on a unique row. 

The Carrier Zone Locations CSV Export can be useful if you know what suburb a particular rate card refers to. You can search for that suburb and find what zone abbreviation should be used. 

Should you have any issues tracking down a carrier zone abbreviation or finding what zone a suburb is assigned to please don't hesitate to contact MachShip.