Your 3PL doesn’t work for free on weekends. Saturday and Sunday fulfillment usually comes with an extra charge, often $10–$20 per order. But here’s the problem: most stores don’t pass that cost on. They absorb it silently, eroding margins one weekend at a time.
Customers happily place orders on Saturday, your fulfillment partner bills you extra, and your profit takes the hit. Native WooCommerce shipping rules don’t account for when an order is placed, only what and where. That gap is exactly where money leaks out.
Why This Problem Exists
WooCommerce’s shipping system is static by design. Rates are calculated based on zones, methods, weight, or totals, but not time. There’s no built-in concept of “Saturday order” or “weekend fulfillment surcharge.”
Merchants try to work around this by:
- Creating separate shipping methods and enabling/disabling them manually
- Editing rates every Friday and reverting them on Monday
- Relying on fulfillment invoices to “average out” costs later
All of these approaches break at scale. Time-based logic is inherently dynamic, but WooCommerce shipping rules are not. Once orders start coming in outside business hours, you lose control. The platform simply wasn’t designed to respond to day-of-week conditions, especially when fees need to be applied automatically and consistently.
The Manual / Hacky Solutions
Option 1: Do it manually
You raise shipping rates on weekends yourself. Every Friday. And undo it every Monday.
It works until you forget once. Or go on holiday. Or sell internationally across time zones.
Option 2: Use a traditional shipping plugin
Most plugins focus on weight, zones, or flat fees. Some allow “advanced” rules, but very few support day-based conditions. And those that do often lack precise fee actions meaning you end up duplicating shipping methods or breaking checkout clarity.
Option 3: Custom code
Yes, you can hook into WooCommerce and write logic that checks the server date, modifies rates, and applies a surcharge.
But now you own:
- Time zone bugs
- Daylight saving issues
- Plugin conflicts
- Ongoing maintenance
Every WooCommerce update becomes a risk. This isn’t leverage, it’s liability.
The Clean Solution with RuleHook
RuleHook was built specifically to handle logic WooCommerce can’t.
Here’s how to add a weekend surcharge cleanly.
Step 1: Create a new rule
In RuleHook, create a rule named something like “Weekend Fulfillment Surcharge.”
Step 2: Set the condition
- Condition: Day of Week
- Operator: Is
- Value: Saturday, Sunday
This checks the actual checkout day, not the shipping date guesswork.
Step 3: Add the action
- Action: Add fee to shipping rate
- Amount: +$15 (or whatever your 3PL charges)
- Label: “Weekend Fulfillment Surcharge”
You can apply this to:
- All shipping methods
- Or only specific ones (e.g. Express, Priority)
Step 4: Save and activate
That’s it. No duplicate methods. No manual toggling.
What happens at checkout?
- A customer checks out on Saturday
- Shipping rates appear normally
- An additional $15 is transparently added
- The reason is clear and defensible
Customer experience
Customers understand weekend fees. Airlines do it. Couriers do it.
What they don’t understand is hidden price hikes or post-purchase surprises. RuleHook keeps it explicit and honest.
Edge Cases to Consider
When this might NOT work
- If your server timezone doesn’t match your business timezone (fixable in RuleHook settings)
- If your 3PL defines “weekend” differently (e.g. Friday cutoff)
Other conditions to combine
- Day of Week + Shipping Method (only surcharge Express)
- Day of Week + Cart Total (waive fee for high-value orders)
- Day of Week + Destination (only for international)
- Time of the day condition
Summary
Weekend fulfillment isn’t free, and pretending it is costs you real money.
If your 3PL charges extra on Saturdays and Sundays, your checkout should reflect that automatically. No reminders. No hacks. No margin bleed.
RuleHook lets you price shipping based on reality, not platform limitations.
👉 Try RuleHook free for 7 days
And explore related scenarios like cutoff-time shipping, holiday surcharges, and dynamic delivery rules.