Live carrier transit times (UPS and FedEx)

Updated 19 August 2026

Instead of guessing "2–3 days", let UPS or FedEx calculate real transit for each shopper's address, so a ZIP two states away automatically sees later dates than one across town.

Live transit is part of shipping zones, so it needs the Precise plan or above. The zone must cover one country, either the United States or Canada.

Set it up

1. On Shipping & rates, open the zone the service covers, then open the shipping option.
2. On the Delivery line, select the transit time and choose UPS or FedEx.
3. Set Fallback transit in days. Flare uses it when a carrier lookup fails.
4. Optional: tick Allow Saturday delivery and Allow delivery the following week.
5. Select Done. A UPS Settings or FedEx Settings section now appears at the foot of the page. It only appears once an option uses that carrier.
6. In that section, enter your warehouse origin: the ZIP or postal code and the country you ship from, plus the city for UPS.
7. Optional: set Max transit days to cap how far the service reaches. Leave the UPS field blank for its default of 3 days; leave the FedEx field blank to accept every answer.
8. Select Save.

You do not enter carrier credentials. Flare asks UPS and FedEx for transit times with its own accounts.

How it behaves

• For each candidate dispatch date, Flare asks the carrier when the parcel would arrive at the shopper's address, and builds the calendar from real answers. Frequently used routes are cached, so checkout stays fast.
• Saturday delivery is off by default. Turn it on per option where the service supports Saturday. For FedEx Ground residential, shoppers see an "allow Saturday deliveries" checkbox at checkout.
• Delivery the following week is also off by default: a dispatch in one week normally delivers within the same week. Turn it on where a Friday dispatch may deliver Monday or later.
• Ambiguous ZIPs (UPS): where one ZIP maps to several towns, the picker asks the shopper to choose their city so transit is exact.
• If the carrier is slow or down, Flare uses the option's fallback transit rather than showing nothing. If the carrier answers "no service to this address", the option is correctly withheld instead.

Good to know

• Live transit affects dates. Live carrier pricing comes through the same profiles as dynamic courier rates where configured.
• Long calendars (many weeks ahead) use exact carrier answers for the near term and project the pattern forward for far-future dates. Exact answers always win where they exist.
• Outside the US and Canada, or where you would rather not depend on a lookup, choose Custom transit and set a fixed number of days. Tick Business days only if you don't ship at weekends. See zones.