How many of you use "Priority Mail"?

[Alex Franke]

Tommy, it sounds like you may be the exception, not Pappy.

Hear, hear -- I'm inclined to agree.

@tommyt654 Maybe you should use UPS and FedEx exclusively for all of your mail correspondence and be done with it completely. It sounds as if you're making a hasty generalization based on some personal experience combined with a general mistrust of the service -- or perhaps political objections to it.

[Knottscott]

It looked to me like their experiment was setup to get exactly the outcome they got. First Class mail is a great option for lightweight stuff. Priority Mail vs Parcel Post would have been a reasonable path to consider in this test...

[Cochese]

You know, next time I send some used air I'll use First Class. Otherwise, I've never had one single issue using USPS PM, including the price. The only bad thing about them is the tracking, but everything comes with a price.

If you don't like the lines at the PO, then don't go. With PM, I can have boxes delivered to me, or I can go get some without standing in line. I can print my postage online and have the mail carrier pick it up from me. Or I can use the self-serve kiosk and skip the line if I need to have something weighed.

I'll use USPS every day of the week over FedEx, but that's just personal experience. UPS is great too, for the volume of stuff I get there's very rarely a problem.

[toolbelt diva]

I love flat rate PM boxes, carrier pick up, and our carriers. We use the small ones to ship 6 pounds of tokens or pachinko balls and the medium ones to ship up to 60 pounds of them. The flat rate helps us keep shipping costs affordable for such heavy weights. Orders get to happy customers in 2 - 3 quick days and our carriers have never complained to us about the weight.

For lighter products under 13 ounces we use first class.

[Holbren]

I use first class and priority mail almost exclusively because of the cost and therefore my ability to offer low cost shipping. Yes I agree first class is usually 2-3 days anywhere in the county and the only determining factor is weight (first class only good to 13 oz.) or if the customer pays for priority mail. I made the switch many years ago when I paid $13 to send a less than one pound box to a customer UPS. By the time I paid freight, fuel surcharge, residential delivery fee and remote delivery fee I had enough.

If you ship a lot that is 3 pounds plus and too large for the small PM flat rate box, look at the new regional rate box A but I think you need to do postage online or with software to use them. You can order the boxes at USPS.com though.

[Stytooner]

While I exclusively use USPS PM for shipping, I receive most of my materials via UPS. For the most part, they provide excellent service as well.
When they have delivered damaged or missing stuff, the shipper took care in each case to make it right with me.

I remember one shipment that was two packages of sheet steel. About three 2 x 4' sheets per package. One was full of three sheets. The other was empty. The steel had slipped out of the package at some point. Still had the caution over 70 pounds sticker on the box, but was empty.
The fact that such a blatantly damaged shipment was delivered as intact really ruffled my tail feathers. I guess that is SOP with them to deliver as normal without flagging it, but come on.

I have heard some horror stories about both UPS and Fed Ex when shipping across the North border as well. Mostly dealing with ridiculous brokerage fees and customs charges. While often outlandish, they are sporadic. Sometimes reasonable.

I get none of this when shipping with USPS Internationally.


I received two shipments of splitters and parts from a plasma cutter not too long ago. Each package weighed about 60 to 65 pounds. They were shipped in a Flat Rate box. Cost was like $12 on each box. For UPS, after about the initial $10 shipping charge, you can figure about a dollar per pound to ship with them. So I saved at least a $100 bill for two small boxes of parts. Yeah, I like PM.

[jziegler]

BTW, pay attention to the address on your mail, expecially Christmas cards and other personal mail (including packages). When Aunt Sophie screws up the house number, or leaves off the apartment number, and it gets delivered to you anyway.....

Thanks that overpaid, underworked guy or gal driving the white truck.

And a big thumbs up and thanks to you and your counterparts across the country for doing this. We once received a letter addresses to us at the corner of x and y streets in our town. The other carriers would not have even accepted that.

Also, Alaska was mentioned, but Hawaii as well. We sent some large flat rate boxes back from our trip. One flat rate large box was filled to the brim with koa wood scraps. That would have cost more to ship via USP or FedEx.

[tommyt654]

1st off let me clarify that my personal experience with the USPS has been less than stellar. I do ship with them however from time to time and have had very few problems in doing so. Same goes for FedEx and UPS. Don, it was not my intent to offend you or anyone else, if I have accept my apology as it was not directly intended at you or anyone else's personal deliverer. I can only go by my personal experience with your employer and it as I said has been less than stellar. Overall I am OK with the service given the numbers that they deal with as far as packaged mail goes. But it has been my observation the entire company has gone down the tubes in the past 15 yrs or so primarily due to the overall lack of management skills and union involvment.Perhaps that will be resolved in the future but until then I have to stand by my observation and original statement regarding the work and pay.

[Stytooner]

Tommy, I reread my post and I didn't mean that you personally were the exception, but your local post office. I know there are some employees that ride the coat tails of others. Every place has those.

I will agree that the management of this co. as well as many many others is not only ineffective, but is disgusting.

I had a manager once that told me if he was doing his job correctly, he should not have to do anything. Took me a bit to understand that he was correct. If all the squeaky wheels get lubed, then management is working. Lately wheels have not squeaked at all. They just fall off. That is unacceptable.

[3thumbs]

After I retired, I wasn't old enough to draw from my 401K/IRA without restrictions that I didn't want. I applied for and was accepted as a rural carrier associate. I worked for them for three years before I was able to draw from my account, and I quit the USPS.
The clerks and carriers aren't the problem with the USPS. There are some really top notch people working at the PO. The problem is that the USPS is run by political correctness. The top executives and managers were elevated because of sex, skin color or sexual preference, and not because of education, training or ability. They have no idea of how to run a business, nor do they care. After all, they have the treasury to make up for their inability to make ends meet.

[leehljp]

I use PM often and when I time delivery, it seems to me that PM comes out ahead regularly. I do not have the benefit of using another post office without traveling 20 miles; FedEx charges an arm and a leg only 30 miles from it headquarters; UPS is hard to get unless previous scheduled pickup is noted.

I do visit other post offices when I am traveling and I notice quite a bit of variances in different ones. Some Very nice and efficient, some like my local one are not. My local USPS will NOT place an item into the box unless it has a POBox number written on it. They will NOT deliver to my street. Some companies will NOT accept a POBox as a delivery address. Catch 22 for me. My PO box has been in my family for 55+ years, and the same house for 41 years. They just follow the letter of the law but that is a result of current local leadership. Past leadership was great!

I know of other small town locations where there is great service. So, in fairness, this is the same thing with FedEX and UPS. My UPS deliver man is very personable and friendly but the cost and ability to send from here is the pits. Same for FedEx! Those that find UPS and FedEx better, that is only for particular locations. And of course, you can find dozens and dozens of locations that are great. The converse is true also.

Back to the original question - Yes I use PM and it seems to get there quicker than the normal lowest price mailings. I think the local folks give more regard and higher priority to the higher priced mailings. I was in MO for the past 4 days and saw a whole different worker attitude there than I see in my region of MS.

[Holbren]

The one advantage USPS has over Fedex and UPS is they come to your house every day no matter what so they don't need to collect on residential deliveries. When you think about what USPS charges for PM and Express Mail it's more than fair. Wish they would partner up with Fedex and UPS and take care of the residential stuff if they could improve their tracking. I bet you it cost Fedex more than $5 to ship the same box USPS charges retail for.

[Pappy]

Wish they would partner up with Fedex and UPS and take care of the residential stuff if they could improve their tracking.

We do a lot of 'last mile' delivery for UPS, FedEx and DHL.

Tracking is a point of concern for many customers and it has gotten better. In our area the carriers scan everything that has a tracking # in the office and download our scanners bfore going to the street. I don't know what the last scan is before they are delivered to the stations.

[JimD]

This story is old, nearly 30 years now, but says something to me about USPS. I had an important quote to get out when I worked in Philadelphia. I only had enough cash in my pocket to send one of two envelopes by overnight at the post office. So I put a stamp on the other one and mailed them both. Guess which one was there the next day!

I like my mailman too and I think he works hard for whatever he makes. I checked my mail Saturday around 4pm and didn't have any. I put a birthday card in the box Monday morning and there was my Saturday mail. I don't know what time it was delivered but I thought at the time they were making up for having Veterans day off and I still think this affected the schedule - normally my mail is there around 2pm.

It would be interesting to see how much costs would change if USPS was run as a real business (rather than a quasi governmental agency) but I would not wish the changes that would likely cause on anybody. I'm OK with the way it is, even with first class on a never ending upward trend. I can also understand people getting envious if they work for a private firm that is laying people off and doing all sorts of heavy handed cost cutting and they see USPS just go back to Congress when they need more money. It does seem a bit broken.

Jim

[jnesmith]

I don't do much shipping/mailing so I can't comment on that side. I will say my regular USPS carrier and my regular UPS carrier are awesome. The fedex guy is not bad either.

My USPS carrier is a great lady. Always helpful. She knows I work from home most days, so she will bring my mail to the door when there is a large package.

A day or two after my youngest daughter was born a couple of years ago, she brought us a beautiful hand-stitched baby blanket she made for her. Up to that point, we had never said more than hello to the carrier, and certainly never mentioned having a baby on the way. She just figured it out from the baby gifts that were arriving, I suppose. I assume she knew the birth had occurred from the balloons in the yard. We were blown away by the gesture.