As another example, some services performed with respect to item shipment, such as customs processing and clearance, may be better served by some alternate shipping service providers. For example, the shipping services of principal shipping service providers are often available only at retail type pricing levels to many shippers (e.g., individual, small, and/or mid-sized shippers), although shipping services provided by less-traditional shipping service providers (e.g., shipping service providers less-traditionally used in the context of relatively small volume shipping or relatively unsophisticated shippers, referred to as alternate shipping service providers herein) or even excess capacity available from various shipping service providers may be suitable and available at lower pricing levels (e.g., wholesale). Despite their nearly ubiquitous presence and relative ease of use, principal shipping service providers and the shipping services available from principal shipping service providers may not necessarily be optimal with respect to any particular item shipment or situation. For example, such principal shipping service providers typically have robust computer platforms providing readily available and intuitive user interfaces (e.g., via direct shipping service provider portal access) and/or facilitating exposure in shipping management systems (e.g., shipping management platforms available commercially as SHIPSTATION, SHIPWORKS, SHIPPINGEASY, ENDICIA, etc.), whereby selection of a principal shipping service provider and their shipping services is simple and convenient. Traditional shipping service providers (e.g., shipping service providers traditionally used in the context of relatively small volume shipping or relatively unsophisticated shippers, referred to as principal shipping service providers herein), such as the United States Postal Service (USPS), United Parcel Service (UPS), Federal Express (FedEx), and Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn (DHL) providing a number of end to end conventional shipping services, are often selected by shippers (e.g., individual, small, and mid-sized shippers) due to their availability and relatively simple shipping services selections. Carrier support modules may be provided for each shipping service provider of a plurality of shipping service providers, wherein the carrier support modules may be configured to interface services logic for a corresponding shipping service provider with a shipping management platform using one or more configured alternate carrier components. A generic alternate carrier component may be configured for a respective alternate shipping service provider for interfacing selected carrier shipping services offerings supported by the alternate shipping service provider with a shipping management platform of a shipping management system. Embodiments provide a generic alternate carrier component used to configure configured alternate carrier components of carrier support logic for exposing corresponding alternate shipping service providers for selection and use by users of a shipping management system. Both are fully compatible with the new Endicia Online Portal, which is part of the family of services.Systems and methods which provide for exposing alternate shipping service provider services in shipping management systems are described.
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