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So, who in the hell is in charge of establishing shipping costs at the Postal service? Login/Join 
Green grass and
high tides
Picture of old rugged cross
posted
My God, prices are have reached the stratosphere. I mean come on. Like a tiny package weighing less than 2 lbs almost $13, wth?

Not all of us has a government job Roll Eyes

And yes I know about their ultra tiny $7+ flat rate box and their next one that is $14

I do not expect it to be a no fee service. But It is funded by the tax payer's for cris sakes.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: old rugged cross,



"Practice like you want to play in the game"
 
Posts: 19947 | Registered: September 21, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
When you fall, I will be there to catch you -With love, the floor
posted Hide Post
Yet you made no mention of by what method it was being shipped or to where?

I routinely ship packages that heavy (and more ) for less than seven Priority Mail.


Richard Scalzo
Epping, NH

http://www.bigeastakitarescue.net
 
Posts: 5812 | Location: Epping, NH | Registered: October 16, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Green grass and
high tides
Picture of old rugged cross
posted Hide Post
rocky mtn west to Va, Just under $13 priority.
I did not put it in their tiny flat rate box as I did not think it would fit originally. I could not believe it. 5x8x2-1/2"



"Practice like you want to play in the game"
 
Posts: 19947 | Registered: September 21, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
member
Picture of henryaz
posted Hide Post
 
USPS is a bargain these days, now that UPS and FedEx have gone to "dimension weight" for all packages. A large box that contains nothing but air will ship as 40# on common carrier, because they base the rate on the size of the box.
 
 
Posts: 10887 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
FedEx has a flat rate envelope that's guaranteed in 3 days and $9.50. But try to ship a box with them and forget about the price.....you'll fall over. All shippers have gotten expensive.
 
Posts: 21428 | Registered: June 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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I agree... USPS is the only reasonable way to ship things... UPS and FedEx are crazy with their dimensional weight.. I was unaware of this dimensional weight thing and I shipped 2 rifles to the same place but in 2 separate boxes.. for whatever reason my customer wanted one of them shipped in this huge rifle case so the box was quite a bit bigger but didn't really weigh any more than the other one. The first box was like $20-$25 I don't remember the exact number... the second bigger box because he wanted it shipped inside rifle case was around $80... it wasn't 3 times bigger, but thanks to their crazy math it was 3 times more to ship it Eek
 
Posts: 1317 | Location: Arizona | Registered: January 31, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Purveyor of
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Picture of Orguss
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Again...the USPS is not tax funded. It is the only federal agency privately funded through sales of its own products and services.



"I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak!" - Calvin, "Calvin & Hobbes"
 
Posts: 18121 | Location: Sonoma County, CA | Registered: April 09, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Striker in waiting
Picture of BurtonRW
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Orguss:
Again...the USPS is not tax funded. It is the only federal agency privately funded through sales of its own products and services.


Yes, except they're exempt from taxes, fees, and other costs of doing business in the private sector - not to mention their protected monopoly and deeply discounted interest rate on their credit line from the federal reserve - to the tune of about $20B per year. That's a 'B' for Billion.

What do you think would happen to FedEx and UPS if their cost of doing business was similarly "lightened"?

To pretend that USPS operates in a competitive environment with private shippers is farcical.

-Rob




I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888

A=A
 
Posts: 16331 | Location: Maryland, AA Co. | Registered: March 16, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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posted Hide Post
Looks like that's not even the full cost- 1st Class Mail subsidizes the package shipping costs.
quote:
Analyst claims USPS is subsidizing Amazon

An April analysis from Citigroup estimates that if costs were fairly allocated, on average parcels would cost $1.46 more to deliver. It is as if every Amazon box comes with a dollar or two stapled to the packing slip–a gift card from Uncle Sam.


https://postalnews.com/blog/20...-subsidizing-amazon/


____________________________________________________

The butcher with the sharpest knife has the warmest heart.
 
Posts: 13520 | Location: Bottom of Lake Washington | Registered: March 06, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Green grass and
high tides
Picture of old rugged cross
posted Hide Post
And I am guessing the crazy and outrageous benefit package for all its employee's, full or part time are not taxpayer funded either aye orguss?

Things like every imaginable holiday off.
Health care coverage like no one else.
closed at lunch.
retirement like no one else. etc, etc, etc,



"Practice like you want to play in the game"
 
Posts: 19947 | Registered: September 21, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lost Allman Brother
Picture of S600MBUSA
posted Hide Post
Priority has definitely gotten more expensive in the past few years (what hasn't?), but I found a couple good ways to save a bit of money when I was shipping a lot of packages. When possible, I like to ship in "regional rate" boxes. The boxes are only available from USPS.com (free of charge like other priority boxes,) and you have to print your own postage from USPS online. It's one of USPS's commercial services, so rates are lower than what you get at the post office counter.

Regional Rate Box A1 is a nice size in between the small and medium flat rate. Using one of those, your postage would have been $10.28.

Also, if you have a Paypal account, you can buy postage for anything except regional rate boxes here at the commercial base price. Using your own box or a non-flat rate USPS box, postage would have been $10.28 through them.

All numbers taken from USPS Price List, assuming a package 2lb or less shipping to zone 8.

[edited to fix link]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: S600MBUSA,


_________________________
Their system of ethics, which regards treachery and violence as virtues rather than vices, has produced a code of honour so strange and inconsistent, that it is incomprehensible to a logical mind.

-Winston Churchill, writing of the Pashtun
 
Posts: 3989 | Location: Holly Springs/Canton, GA | Registered: November 02, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Purveyor of
Fine Avatars
Picture of Orguss
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by old rugged cross:
And I am guessing the crazy and outrageous benefit package for all its employee's, full or part time are not taxpayer funded either aye orguss?

Things like every imaginable holiday off.
Health care coverage like no one else.
closed at lunch.
retirement like no one else. etc, etc, etc,

I'm failing to understand what part of "self-funded" you're incapable of understanding.



"I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak!" - Calvin, "Calvin & Hobbes"
 
Posts: 18121 | Location: Sonoma County, CA | Registered: April 09, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Striker in waiting
Picture of BurtonRW
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Orguss:
I'm failing to understand what part of "self-funded" you're incapable of understanding.


He's probably hung up on the implication in the phrase that USPS is operating in the same market environment as every other for-profit corporation, which is clearly a bunch of crap.

http://fortune.com/2015/03/27/us-postal-service/

If by 'self-funded' you mean "USPS doesn't take any direct payments from .fed, but given a level playing field, would be hopelessly underwater", then I think we can all probably agree.

Do you also happen to own stock in Amtrak? I hear it's also self-funded and very successful. At something.

-Rob




I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888

A=A
 
Posts: 16331 | Location: Maryland, AA Co. | Registered: March 16, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hop head
Picture of lyman
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by S600MBUSA:
Priority has definitely gotten more expensive in the past few years (what hasn't?), but I found a couple good ways to save a bit of money when I was shipping a lot of packages. When possible, I like to ship in "regional rate" boxes. The boxes are only available from USPS.com (free of charge like other priority boxes,) and you have to print your own postage from USPS online. It's one of USPS's commercial services, so rates are lower than what you get at the post office counter.

Regional Rate Box A1 is a nice size in between the small and medium flat rate. Using one of those, your postage would have been $10.28.

Also, if you have a Paypal account, you can buy postage for anything except regional rate boxes here at the commercial base price. Using your own box or a non-flat rate USPS box, postage would have been $10.28 through them.

All numbers taken from USPS Price List, assuming a package 2lb or less shipping to zone 8.



click n ship used to give you a slight discount for shipping online, now the same as walking in the post office,

still, it is the best way to ship,

regional rate boxes are the bomb, as long as you meet the different from standard flat rate weight restrictions,

long guns and like size items are hit or miss on cost, some are cheaper to send USPS, some cheaper to send UPS ground , (yes not quite apples to apples, but close enough)



https://chandlersfirearms.com/chesterfield-armament/
 
Posts: 10668 | Location: Beach VA,not VA Beach | Registered: July 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Shit don't
mean shit
posted Hide Post
I just wish you could create a shipment for parcel post (whatever they call it now a days) online. The only options online are the more expensive options. Want parcel post, you MUST go to to location and stand in line.
 
Posts: 5835 | Location: 7400 feet in Conifer CO | Registered: November 14, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lost Allman Brother
Picture of S600MBUSA
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 1967Goat:
I just wish you could create a shipment for parcel post (whatever they call it now a days) online. The only options online are the more expensive options. Want parcel post, you MUST go to to location and stand in line.


Just checked Paypal shipping. They allow you to print a label for First Class package (under 16 oz), Media Mail, and Parcel Select in addition to the more expensive Priority options, all charged at the commercial base rate.


_________________________
Their system of ethics, which regards treachery and violence as virtues rather than vices, has produced a code of honour so strange and inconsistent, that it is incomprehensible to a logical mind.

-Winston Churchill, writing of the Pashtun
 
Posts: 3989 | Location: Holly Springs/Canton, GA | Registered: November 02, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
When you fall, I will be there to catch you -With love, the floor
posted Hide Post
quote:
rocky mtn west



Ground is $11.00. As stated , the regional boxes save a lot. UPS and FedEx are no cheaper and probably more expensive. I'll go with the PO. I can print the shipping label and they pick it up at the house. What's it worth to have to find a UPS outlet or FedEx to drop off a package. Even for a bit less it's not worth it. The PO has the same tracking as the others so it works for me.


Richard Scalzo
Epping, NH

http://www.bigeastakitarescue.net
 
Posts: 5812 | Location: Epping, NH | Registered: October 16, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Grandiosity is a sign
of mental illness
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Orguss:
quote:
Originally posted by old rugged cross:
And I am guessing the crazy and outrageous benefit package for all its employee's, full or part time are not taxpayer funded either aye orguss?

Things like every imaginable holiday off.
Health care coverage like no one else.
closed at lunch.
retirement like no one else. etc, etc, etc,

I'm failing to understand what part of "self-funded" you're incapable of understanding.


LOL.

The USPS loses billions of dollars every year. Who exactly do you think covers those enormous operational losses?

Taxpayers, of course. With subsidized lending. Hey at least so far they still seem to be maintaining the fiction that those are just 'loans', but even if they - somehow - ever get paid back, billions of dollars in loans at below market interest rates still represent a large subsidy.

And assuming those *cough* *cough* 'loans' will, or can, ever be repaid.....
 
Posts: 2453 | Location: MO | Registered: March 07, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Not really from Vienna
Picture of arfmel
posted Hide Post
Closed at lunch? Not here in Jerkwater. I bet that's a decision made by the local Postmaster.
 
Posts: 27275 | Location: SW of Hovey, Texas | Registered: January 30, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
member
Picture of henryaz
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by lyman:
click n ship used to give you a slight discount for shipping online, now the same as walking in the post office,

still, it is the best way to ship,

Especially when you live 10 miles from the Post Office. Free carrier pickup on my front porch, any day. And when there is a pickup, all of our mail is left on the front porch and I don't have to hobble 100 yards to the mailbox. Smile
 
 
Posts: 10887 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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