Ask any three Indian sellers which courier is cheapest and you'll get three answers — all correct, for their lanes. Rate advantage lives at the order level: weight, zone, speed and whether the carrier even serves that pincode today.
The two kinds of price
Live-API carriers (Porter, Borzo) return a real-time quote for the exact pickup→drop — prices move with distance and demand. Contract carriers (Shadowfax and the nationals) price off negotiated rate cards — flat zone prices you or the platform holds. Pakka Parcel shows both, side by side, on the same order.
| Carrier type | Price source | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Live-rate hyperlocal (Porter, Borzo) | Real-time per-trip quote | Same-city, urgent |
| Contract card (Shadowfax) | Your negotiated zone rates | Repeatable lanes, volume |
| National carriers | Zone slabs / card | Intercity, interstate |
The workflow
Enable every carrier you can use
Each enabled carrier is another price on the comparison — platform accounts work even without your own courier contracts.
Open the order and hit Get rates
Pakka Parcel queries every eligible carrier for that order's weight and destination simultaneously.
Read the actual list
Quotes arrive as carrier, service, price — the cheapest eligible option is marked. Ineligible carriers stay silent rather than quoting lanes they can't serve.
Book the winner
One click — the wallet holds the quoted amount and the booking is created with that carrier.
Photo: rupixen / Unsplash
On platform bookings, merchant prices include the published markup — the number you see is the number you're charged.
See how →Why per-order beats per-contract
Rate cards drift — fuel surcharges, lane changes, seasonal capacity. A carrier that won your lanes in June may lose them by October. Comparing per order means you're always booking today's cheapest price, not last quarter's assumption.
The bottom line
Carrier loyalty is a tax. Enable them all, quote them all, and let the order decide.
Ship every courier without leaving your store
Pakka Parcel is the multi-courier layer for Indian stores — hyperlocal and national carriers in one booking flow.
Free 14-day trial at launch · No card required · Founding merchants lock launch pricing
