[ic] Shipping & Real-time Integration to UPS, DHL, FedEx, etc

[Melissa]

>From perusing the list archives, I gather that tying into
the real-time shipping modules for UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc, was
not recommended due to unreliability and slow responses from
those systems?

Are the response times / reliability still problematic?  Is
anyone using the real-time services?

If you're using your own shipping tables (as we are), what method do you
use to keep up with the changes in rates & fuel surcharges?
Do the shipping companies have mailing lists to announce changes? Or are
those changes made at specific dates (e.g. monthly, annually) on
a specific place on their web sites?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have.

Melissa Calhoun
Infobahn Outfitters, Inc.
http://www.outfitters.com/