Billing a Third Party

Some carriers support billing shipping costs to a third party, which could be the recipient or some other entity. This feature is often useful for 3PLs.

Billing to a third party is considered an advanced option. To see if the carriers you use support third-party billing, use the list carriers options call for each carrier ID you wish to use.

Requirements

You must have the third party's account number (which you'll use as the value in the bill_to_account property).
- Note that this requirement does not apply if you are using FedEx Ground Collect.
You must include the following properties in the advanced_options object:
- bill_to_account
- bill_to_country_code
- bill_to_party (which should be set to third_party)
- bill_to_postal_code

Example Request & Response

POST /v1/labels

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POST /v1/labels HTTP/1.1
Host: api.shipengine.com
API-Key: __YOUR_API_KEY_HERE__
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "shipment": {
    "service_code": "ups_ground",
    "ship_to": {
      "name": "Amanda Miller",
      "phone": "555-555-5555",
      "address_line1": "525 S Winchester Blvd",
      "city_locality": "San Jose",
      "state_province": "CA",
      "postal_code": "95128",
      "country_code": "US",
      "address_residential_indicator": "yes"
    },
    "ship_from": {
      "company_name": "Example Corp.",
      "name": "John Doe",
      "phone": "111-111-1111",
      "address_line1": "4009 Marathon Blvd",
      "address_line2": "Suite 300",
      "city_locality": "Austin",
      "state_province": "TX",
      "postal_code": "78756",
      "country_code": "US",
      "address_residential_indicator": "no"
    },
    "packages": [
      {
        "weight": {
          "value": 1.0,
          "unit": "ounce"
        }
      }
    ],
    "advanced_options": {
      "bill_to_account": "123456789",
      "bill_to_country_code": "US",
      "bill_to_party": "third_party",
      "bill_to_postal_code": "78756"
    }
  }
}

Response

Note that the response does not include any advanced options object or related properties. While these values are sent to the carrier, they are not included in the response (though the resulting label will typically have an indication of the options added to the shipment).

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{
  "label_id": "se-57064247",
  "status": "completed",
  "shipment_id": "se-150849648",
  "ship_date": "2019-07-25T05:00:00.000Z",
  "created_at": "2019-07-25T15:24:46.657Z",
  "shipment_cost": {
    "currency": "usd",
    "amount": 0.00
  },
  "insurance_cost": {
    "currency": "usd",
    "amount": 0.0
  },
  "tracking_number": "787943902587",
  "is_return_label": false,
  "is_international": false,
  "batch_id": "",
  "carrier_id": "se-123890",
  "service_code": "ups_ground",
  "package_code": "package",
  "voided": false,
  "voided_at": null,
  "label_format": "pdf",
  "label_layout": "4x6",
  "trackable": true,
  "carrier_code": "ups",
  "tracking_status": "in_transit",
  "label_download": {
    "pdf": "https://api.shipengine.com/v1/downloads/6/Q2OLdnGaqk-UzkN6pFH0lg/testlabel-202923521.pdf",
    "png": "https://api.shipengine.com/v1/downloads/6/Q2OLdnGaqk-UzkN6pFH0lg/testlabel-202923521.png",
    "zpl": "https://api.shipengine.com/v1/downloads/6/Q2OLdnGaqk-UzkN6pFH0lg/testlabel-202923521.zpl",
    "href": "https://api.shipengine.com/v1/downloads/6/Q2OLdnGaqk-UzkN6pFH0lg/testlabel-202923521.pdf"
  },
  "form_download": null,
  "insurance_claim": null,
  "packages": [
    {
      "package_code": "package",
      "weight": {
        "value": 1.00,
        "unit": "ounce"
      },
      "dimensions": {
        "unit": "inch",
        "length": 0.0,
        "width": 0.0,
        "height": 0.0
      },
      "insured_value": {
        "currency": "usd",
        "amount": 0.00
      },
      "tracking_number": "111111111111111111",
      "label_messages": {
        "reference1": null,
        "reference2": null,
        "reference3": null
      }
    }
  ]
}