I ship 10-12 packages per day,I've been a ups shipper for 5-6 years and have a scheduled pickup each day, I have reached the point where I cant afford to ship with ups becasue so many of my customers dont know where they live..There is not alot of profit in my sales and when I get hit with address correction fees, fuel charge fees, out of area fees,and so forth..on some shipments I actually loose money, Is there any chance ups might have a flat rate box anytime in the future? I dont want to quit shipping with ups its just not economically feaseble right now. thanks!
Any chance of flat rate or no extra fees??
- Thread starter petmeds
- Start date
if your customers do not know where they live, this is a problem. UPS uses the United States Postal Service (aka the Post Office) data for addresses.
If you use WorldShip or Internet Shipping, you will get a pretty good idea of the total shipping costs; including any residential surcharges, delivery area surcharges, etc. Address correction happens after the fact and will not be represented in any shipping system.
brownrodster
Well-Known Member
We don't make money on those address correction packages either. Those packages waste a lot of peoples time. Perhaps you should pass that cost on too your customers.
hutcherintherye
Member
+1 on WorldShip. It will tell you if the address is unknown, and you will know the exact cost, aside from extras.
When I get a run of people like that I start averaging costs across the board. Seems to help.
Very rarely do I get extra charges anymore. Flat Rates from USPS are okay, but I love me some trackers.
When I get a run of people like that I start averaging costs across the board. Seems to help.
Very rarely do I get extra charges anymore. Flat Rates from USPS are okay, but I love me some trackers.
First - If you are shipping that much for that long, you likely have a sales person assigned to you or else are in a bucket of unassigned accounts. Call Customer Service and request that a sales person call you to speak with you about any discounts that you may qualify for. Also let your driver know that you want to speak with somebody about discounts and s/he should will submit a sales lead. Between the two of them, somebody should be in touch within a couple of days.
Secondly - If your customer's don't know where they live, that can be a problem . . . Both WorldShip and UPS.com have built in address correction features. You should use them. Also, if your orders are coming in from a website, UPS online tools has an address correction that you can bring into your website at no charge.
Third - Fuel Surcharges are lower than have been in a long time. March Ground is 2.75% and Air is 2.5%. April Ground is 2.5% and Air is 0.0%. At the peak last summer Ground was at 10.5% and air was at 34.5%. That's a big difference.
Out of area fees while going up in dollar amount are going down in number each year. The structure changed slightly this year, so you may be seeing them a little bit differently and noticing them, but they've always been there.
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brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
I think a flat rate box would be a huge hit for customers. It would also be a huge hit to UPS' bottom line.
I think you are thinking about a 10K or 25K Box for International Packages
A 5K Box (11 Pounds) at those rates would not cover expenses. Keep in mind that we also provide the box.
If you want to join the people out of work at DHL, I'm sure Management would be more than willing to do it. That was after all their strategy.
Ground is only a couple of bucks off, the Air Services are about 1/2 of what they would have to be and the international would have to be 4X more.
bad company
semi-pro
Somebody give this man a tie... he's ready for the big leagues.
DS
Fenderbender
Well, once they figure out where they live,they can pass this info to you and you can send them thier petmeds.An easy way to do this is get a website,although if your customers dont know where they live,they may not have phones let alone computers.How did they hear about you?
How can they afford pet drugs?
I have an overweight cat,but I dont know where I live.
pls splain
upsdude
Well-Known Member
How far away are you from a UPS Store or UPS delivery center? Is there someplace you see a UPS driver everyday, other than your place of business? I ask these questions because you could save the daily pickup fee by dropping the daily pickup. You could switch to internet shipping and drop off the packages yourself.
I have a few customers that considered leaving UPS due to cost issues. I suggested they use internet shipping and drop the daily pickup. They’re saving money and we still get all their packages.
Just something to consider.
brownmonster
Man of Great Wisdom
Now they pay the 5$ per pkg internet fee instead.
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
No--they simply prepare the shipment online and then it is up to them to get it to us, thereby avoiding a daily P/U charge or the $10 charge for an online pickup.
I have a couple of customers who do this and I simply P/U their pkgs when I make their delivery. If they happen to have more P/U pkgs they call me on my cell or bring them to the UPS Store.
True, but some customers (very few) would revert to Retail Rates.
Also, some customers may be integrated with WorldShip or prefer to use it for record keeping purposes. The website only keeps records for a finite period of time unless you back it up, whereas WorldShip keeps it forever.
I do think that WorldShip at times is oversold to customers who don't really need it.
upsdude
Well-Known Member
The original poster is a good example of a problem we face as a company today. He needs to cut his costs and his UPS bill is a target. Does he need a daily pickup? I don’t know, he’s really the only person that can answer that. I had folks with a daily pickup that were shipping 3-4 packages a week, not very cost effective for them. They were looking at the USPS as an alternative. I suggested they look at Internet shipping. It worked out, we still get the business, and they get the service with a very cost effective minor inconvenience.
Isnt a scheduled daily pu like 10 bucks a week but a call in is like 4 bucks each?
gandydancer
Well-Known Member
Saving on the pick-up fee is nice for the customer, but does nothing about "address correction fees, fuel charge fees, out of area fees,and so forth..." Bottom line is that if he can't get his customers to give him correct addresses or if he can't correctly record the addresses they provide somebody is going to have to pay the resultant cost. He needs to fix the problem, whatever it is.
upsdude
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure. I know it's at least 10, but i'm thinking it's more depending on how much is shipped during a single week.
Maybe Hoax can chime in?
upsdude
Well-Known Member
Is it his customers or PAS? I have three 7-11 stores, they all get PAL'd to one address. My loader sends them back, the clerk does an address correction to match the PAL label. Loader sends them back again, ya da ya da ya da. I wonder if we're charging someone for an incorrect address correction.
Catatonic
Nine Lives
In the US and Puerto Rico:
Daily pickup is based on your weekly shipping volume. I ranges from ~ $7 to $17 per week.
On-call pickup varies from $3 - $5 per package based on access point and when
Same Day Pickup via UPS.com (self-serve) = $4
Future Day Pickup via UPS.com (self-serve) = $3
Same Day Pickup via 1-800-Pick-UPS = $5
Future Day Pickup via 1-800-Pick-UPS = $4
Pickup charges are a surcharge for Ground and 3 Day Select packages. The pickup charge of $4 for Air packages are included in the On-Call Air rate chart.
International packages are not assessed a pickup charge.
In Germany a pickup surcharge per pickup is assessed for pickups consisting of Germany to Germany UPS Standard shipments. The charge is 2,80 Euros.
There are no other countries that have pickup charges.
That enough chiming in?
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