Residential Address Detection

Residential detection classifies a delivery address as residential or commercial before the rate is shown. If the address looks residential, Pack Freight and TNT quotes include the residential surcharge in the price you see at booking (and, where the checkout time budget allows, at checkout) instead of adding it later on the carrier invoice.

Overview

What it is: An address-type classifier that runs automatically on quotes. You do not turn it on per order.

Where you see it:

Booking modal — amber banner: Residential Address Detected, with a confidence percentage
Quote — residential fee included in the Pack Freight / TNT breakdown
Dashboard — if a high share of your freight is residential, the AI overview will say so

Why it matters: Residential delivery is a standing carrier accessorial, not a rare exception. Direct-to-consumer stores ship to houses most of the time. A quote that assumes every address is a warehouse will undercharge, then the invoice will not match checkout.

How detection works

Classification is layered so checkout can still return a rate quickly (target: fast path well under 500 ms, hard cap around 2 seconds):

Cache — A hashed address seen recently (about 30 days) with high confidence returns immediately.
Heuristics — Company field empty vs filled, personal vs business name (Pty, Ltd, Inc), street/unit/apartment language vs warehouse/industrial/plaza language.
Fallback — Extra sources or a model path only if the fast path is unsure.
Learning — Delivery outcomes improve the next lookup for that address.

Confidence: Shown as a percentage on the booking banner (for example 87%). High confidence is treated as residential for quoting. You can still book; the fee is already in the rate.

Detection does not block booking. It prices the fee in.

What the residential fee is

The amount depends on the carrier that wins the quote:

Pack Freight (TFM rate card): residential is a per-consignment fee applied when the address is classified residential (currently $28.75 ex GST on the Pack Freight card, then fuel/GST/platform margin as usual).
TNT (BYO or via Pack Freight Express where TNT is the booked carrier): TNT’s published domestic schedule uses a residential surcharge that scales with weight. The amount in your quote is the one configured on the TNT account / live rate, not a generic guess.

The booking UI tells you the fee is included. You do not add it by hand.

What you should do when you see the banner

Check the address — a home office, unit, or farm stay is usually correctly residential.
If it is clearly a warehouse, factory, or business park and the banner is wrong, edit the address (add the company name, loading dock, or industrial language) and re-quote.
Book as normal. Do not strip the fee off the quote; the carrier will still bill it.

Related fees at the same address: Tailgate (no forklift on site) is a separate choice in the booking modal. Residential and tailgate can both apply.

Checkout

Checkout runs the same detector with a timeout so the page does not stall. If classification is not ready in time, the checkout rate may omit the residential line and the booking quote will add it when you fulfil. Confirm the booking total before you print the label.

After the carrier invoices

If an address was classified wrongly, or the carrier adds residential after the fact, Pack to the Future can recover the difference against the shipment (plus GST and the standard platform margin). See Billing & Payments and the Pack Freight booking notice.

See also: Cubic Weight & Chargeable Freight, Pack Network & Pack Freight, Orders & Booking, Billing & Payments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I turn residential detection off? A: There is no merchant toggle. Turning it off would recreate surprise invoices. If a specific address is misclassified, fix the address details and re-quote.

Q: We ship B2B. Will every quote get a residential fee? A: No. Company names, industrial language, and prior commercial deliveries pull confidence toward commercial. Only addresses that look residential pick up the fee.

Q: Does a PO Box count as residential? A: PO Box is a different problem — some parcel networks will not deliver there at all. Use address validation in the booking modal. Residential detection is about house vs business site for freight accessorials.

Q: Why is the fee different from TNT’s public web page? A: Public schedules change, and Pack Freight uses the TFM card when TFM is the booked carrier. Trust the breakdown on the quote for that shipment.

Q: Does this slow checkout? A: Cached and heuristic results are built to finish inside Shopify’s checkout budget. Slow lookups are skipped rather than blocking the rate.