UPS/FedEx/USPS experts, shipping for business???

Hey all--

So I have a little tennis/racquetball/squash business that I run out of my home. I'm looking to expand to mail order. There are a few places in the country that already do this, so no harm in me getting involved on that end. Basically, I spring for a PO Box.

A racquet box is 13"x3"x30 and I'd like to hear the forum's thoughts on the most cost effective way to ship. I'm figuring customer pays shipping out and I pay it on the way back (likely working it into stringing cost to recoup).

Any thoughts???

From dealing with internet businesses and some customers of my own through eBay and forums purchases, I'd sign up for service with all of the carriers as some people only want to deal with certain carriers due to personal preference. It should be free to setup business accounts for each service via their website.

Another thought is that, if you're renting a box from a local Postal shop (UPS Store, Mail-n-More, etc.) then perhaps they can handle the shipping for you and not charge you through the nose for it (most up the rates by 20% and charge stupid amounts of money for supplies). OF course if you have an account number from the above, then you'll likely get a discounted rate and have it charged to your account.

UPS has a new pickup option for $10 per week (if you use it) and ship through their internet site. I use this in my company and it is great. If we have nothing that day, UPS doesn't come. If I enter a shipment by 3:35 PM (dictated by my chosen 4:30 pickup time), they come and collect what we have shipping that day. If I use this service during the week I get charged $10 for the week, if nothing goes out that week I don't get charged. This greatly beats their old monthly pickup rate of $100 flat.

Unless you are using a flat rate USPS box I wouldn't think the PS option would be worth it. FedEx picks up for free and while their ground service is getting better, UPS still has better coverage.

UPS ground > FedEx ground

I've found (when shipping things to folk that buy them from me) that UPS & FedX tend to cost WAY more than USPS … it might take a bit longer, but the cost is substantially less ..

as in nearly $40 to ship a pair of shoes UPS vs ~$10 to ship USPS … no special handling or rush in either case

Jerry wrote: UPS ground > FedEx ground

QFT, FedEx is the only group of retards who will leave electronics sitting in a snowdrift in front of the house by the road......

Its sad, their frieght(Semi) service is awesome

wbjones wrote: I've found (when shipping things to folk that buy them from me) that UPS & FedX tend to cost WAY more than USPS … it might take a bit longer, but the cost is substantially less .. as in nearly $40 to ship a pair of shoes UPS vs ~$10 to ship USPS … no special handling or rush in either case

Are you in a rural locale?

I only know what my ex- did with her tire bag/embroidery business. She shipped everything via USPS. She would buy boxes in bulk from some online source (U-boxes or something) since a 6x6x6 box can handle most of what she sells. It was funny seeing one of her t-shirts on a guy in a magazine a couple of months ago.

Great feedback, folks.

I did a little digging and it looks like USPS Parcel Post is around $5-7 to ship a racquet. If I could do $30 all-in shipped back to customer, that would work, IMHO.

Hmmm...

In reply to yamaha:

At work I ship UPS ground and air, FedEx air only. We even use FedEx freight to ship ~300# worth of XRay machines on skids. FedEx ground? Never. They even charge a $10 "pickup fee" even if we use the customer's account number.

From talking to shippers trying to get stuff to my house, I've gathered that the following situation isn't terribly uncommon. You might want to consider solutions while you're in this phase.

Shipping things to my house is difficult. I live in a small town with no mail delivery. Living in town also means no rural route, so I need a PO Box.

Consequences of the above fact:

1) The Post Office does not deliver to my street address

2) FedEx and UPS do not deliver to my PO Box

3) Due to #1, the Post Office does not recognize my street address as legit

4) UPS (who doesn't ship to PO Boxes) often uses local post offices for final delivery (who don't deliver to my street address)

5) FedEx SmartPost has no issues with PO boxes, normal FedEx does. Most places just say they use FedEx and I have to call to sort out exactly what they mean

6) Many pieces of shipping software use the USPS to validate street addresses even if the carrier will be something else (see #3 for why this is a problem)

7)Sometimes I can get away with including both a street address and a PO box by manipulating the address field on online forms, this isn't terribly reliable though.

Having had to sort out various shipping hassles due to this situation, I've had many conversations with people in assorted mail order businesses. They all indicate that while not extremely common it happens often enough that it gives them substantial headaches.

Before you say something like "yeah, but even at that, how common can it be..." this is the third house in a row in three separate towns (across two states) that worked like this.

No real suggestions for how to arrange shipping, just pointing out a problem that if I hadn't spend a decade being on one end of I would never have even known it existed.

Jerry wrote: In reply to yamaha: At work I ship UPS ground and air, FedEx air only. We even use FedEx freight to ship ~300# worth of XRay machines on skids. FedEx ground? Never. They even charge a $10 "pickup fee" even if we use the customer's account number.

Same story here at my job. We'll have some vendors ship us fedex(it normally shows up at 1645hrs(we're a 8-5 business for crying out loud), and half the time its partial shipments......all the boxes say x of 5 but only 3 arrived.....

Just stick with USPS/UPS unless you're shipping a skid.

mtn wrote:

wbjones wrote: I've found (when shipping things to folk that buy them from me) that UPS & FedX tend to cost WAY more than USPS … it might take a bit longer, but the cost is substantially less .. as in nearly $40 to ship a pair of shoes UPS vs ~$10 to ship USPS … no special handling or rush in either case

Are you in a rural locale?

yes … even our "big city" isn't all that big