DTDC Zones Explained: The Six Lanes on Your Rate Card
Local, Within State, Within Zone, Metro, Rest of India and Special Destinations: what each DTDC lane means, how a consignment is placed in one, and how lanes set your client price.
By Courier Billing · · 8 min read
The six lanes
| Lane | What it covers | Hyderabad example |
|---|---|---|
| Local | Your own city and the districts around it. | Hyderabad city and the areas you add to Local |
| Within State | Your own state (for AP & TS franchises, both states). | Khammam, Warangal; for AP & TS franchises also Kadiri, Vijayawada |
| Within Zone | Nearby states in your part of India. | Kochi, Coimbatore |
| Metro | Big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. | Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru |
| Rest of India | Everything that isn't in any other lane. | Ludhiana, Gorakhpur, Gwalior |
| Spl Destinations | Hard-to-reach places: North-East, J&K, Ladakh, islands. | North-East states, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar |
The examples are for one city. A Kolkata franchise has a different Local, a different state and a different set of neighbouring states in Within Zone. What stays the same is the order: the further and harder the route, the further down the list.
How a consignment is placed in a lane
Courier Billing reads the destination pincode on each CN in your DTDC export and looks it up. Then it checks, from the most specific rule to the least, and the first match wins:
- Your own district, and any areas you ticked into Local.
- A pincode or pincode range you assigned to a lane.
- A town or service area you assigned to a lane.
- The destination state: your own state is Within State; states you listed as neighbours are Within Zone; hard-to-reach states are Special Destinations.
- Anything left is Rest of India.
Metro cities are matched by town, so a parcel to Mumbai is Metro even though Maharashtra might be a Within Zone state for you. A specific rule always beats a general one.
Why a nearby town can land in the wrong lane
“Local” follows DTDC's pincode directory, not the map. A town twenty minutes away can sit in a different district in that directory, so it comes out as Within State. In one Hyderabad export, Ghatkesar (501301) did exactly that.
If your agreement with a client treats such towns as local, add them to Local in the location setup. Every upload after that places the town in Local, instead of you correcting rows by hand each month.
How the lane sets the client price
Every series card on a client's rate card has one row per lane. A row holds the weight slabs, the extra-weight step beyond the last slab and the fuel percentage. Here is the first slab of an example card:
| Lane | Up to 0.5 kg |
|---|---|
| Local | ₹63.00 |
| Within State | ₹93.00 |
| Within Zone | ₹103.00 |
| Metro | ₹113.00 |
| Rest of India | ₹118.00 |
| Spl Destinations | ₹160.00 |
Worked example · same parcel, different lanes
A 0.4 kg parcel on this card with 30% fuel bills ₹81.90 to a Local address, ₹120.90 Within State, ₹146.90 to a Metro and ₹153.40 to Rest of India, all before GST.
Put a Rest of India town in Local by mistake and you undercharge ₹71.50 on every parcel to it.
If a card has no row for a lane, the CN shows No price. Courier Billing does not borrow a rate from a neighbouring lane, because a silent guess is worse than a visible gap.
Setting up lanes in Courier Billing
Open Profile → Billing locations. The guided setup starts from your franchise's pincode and offers presets built from real DTDC charts (Kolkata, and Hyderabad for AP & TS). Tick the areas that count as Local, list your neighbouring states for Within Zone, and save. Every upload after that is classified with your lanes.
Then give each client a rate per lane in their Price Settings, and set the fuel percentage per lane, which the fuel surcharge guide explains.
Frequently asked questions
Is Metro cheaper than Rest of India?
On many DTDC-style rate cards Metro is a little cheaper than Rest of India because metro routes are high-volume, but there is no rule. Your client price for each lane is whatever your rate card says, so set each lane deliberately.
Does my lane have to match the zone on DTDC's bill?
No. DTDC's own charge to you arrives as DSR_AMT in the booking export, already priced by DTDC. Your lanes decide only what you charge your client. Keeping them close to DTDC's zones makes your margin predictable.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are different states. Why are they one lane?
Many DTDC franchises in the two states still bill them as one region, so Courier Billing treats AP & TS as one state for those franchises. GST is separate: the invoice still works out the correct state for CGST and SGST or IGST.
What happens to a pincode the app does not know?
Courier Billing first tries the pincode range to find the state, which is enough to place it in Within State when it is yours. If even that fails, the parcel falls to Rest of India. Check the lane column for any CN that looks too cheap or too expensive.
Let the app do this math for every CN
Upload your DTDC booking export and Courier Billing prices each consignment from your own rate card, shows the DTDC cost beside it and builds the GST invoice. Uploads and basic analytics are free forever.