Pardon? How Long Have We Been Partners With USPS?

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I've never heard of Basic. Do you when we started Basic service?

I want to say within the past 5 years. Basic is a service option offered to shippers in an effort to help reduce shipping costs. The pkg is picked up by UPS and then, usually depending on zip code, is delivered by either UPS or USPS. L L Bean uses Basic. Shippers cannot file claims on Basic packages and they can be DR at locations that we are not normally allowed to do so. The profit per package is minimal but the volume makes up for that loss of revenue.

 

[upsgrunt]

Only high volume shippers are eligible for basic service.

 

[wisedragonfly]

I want to say within the past 5 years. Basic is a service option offered to shippers in an effort to help reduce shipping costs. The pkg is picked up by UPS and then, usually depending on zip code, is delivered by either UPS or USPS. L L Bean uses Basic. Shippers cannot file claims on Basic packages and they can be DR at locations that we are not normally allowed to do so. The profit per package is minimal but the volume makes up for that loss of revenue.

Thanks UpstateNYUPSer. I appreciate the information.

 

[1989]

I want to say within the past 5 years. Basic is a service option offered to shippers in an effort to help reduce shipping costs. The pkg is picked up by UPS and then, usually depending on zip code, is delivered by either UPS or USPS. L L Bean uses Basic. Shippers cannot file claims on Basic packages and they can be DR at locations that we are not normally allowed to do so. The profit per package is minimal but the volume makes up for that loss of revenue.

Didn't the BASIC launch really start in about 2003 with the Harry Potter book that came out that summer?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Didn't the BASIC launch really start in about 2003 with the Harry Potter book that came out that summer?

It very well may have--that is why I guessed within the past 5 years.

 

[Dustyroads]

We've been using the BASIC drop ship service even before 2003, I believe. I drop an average of 10 packages a day at post offices in the small towns I deliver. Actually, UPS makes more money on those packages than they do on the rural route packages that I deliver. It's cheaper for the shipper, in that in a rural area, there is a residential surcharge and a rural surcharge on packages going to residences, so the BASIC service is a lot cheaper. The shippers have a special computer program that generates labels that have both a ups barcode and a usps barcode.

 

[Just Numbers]

You are so right about that.

Don't feed the troll!

 

[brownIEman]

The postal service in my neck of the woods is atrocious. 50-50 proposition . it;s so bad here that i got a po box in a town 20 miles away so I can get my most important mail.

UPS deliveries used to take about 3 days from most places. now it is taking twice as long but we are paying UPS rates.

can you understand my frustration now?

and doesn't this take jobs away from us?

Hard to say on the loss of jobs, but probably not. My reason for saying this is that these packages are shipped mainly on price, not service. Basic allowes them to ship with partial UPS reliability and a lower price. It is more than likely that were there no Basic service, most of these packages would go purely USPS. It also allows us to get customers who only have a PO box. We are prevented by law from delivering to PO boxes, so if folks had only a PO box and not a physical address, there is no way UPS could get that business, with Basic service, we can at least get a piece of that revenue, and therefore a piece of that work(jobs).

 

[beentheredonethat]

I didn't realize UPS gave packages to the Post Office to be delivered. However, somewhere around 2001 UPS offered a new service called UPS Mail Innovations. I'm not exactly sure how the program works but I'll bet one of the sales guys can explain it.

Mail Innovations is a totally seperate service then UPS Basic. Mail Innovations is for less then 1 lb pkgs. It works by picking up in bulk these very small pkgs and then it brings it to a sorting facility at night. That sort facility gets the work sorted down to the "local hub" for the USPS and then flies it to that location. This speeds up the delivery time for the pkg and we get the bulk mailing rate for dropping in a local hub (USPS lingo BMC Bulk Mailing Center). Customer gets faster delivery and usually a cheaper rate, we get the difference in our nearby bulk rate vs their non bulk rate.

Basic is for 1lb -5 lb and sometimes 1lb -10lb pkgs. UPS delivers roughly 80% of the pkgs to the final mile. The other 20% UPS delivers to the local DDU\Post Office and the mail man delivers the final mile. We were able to win over a very large account such as LL Bean due to offering Basic. If we didn't offer that service our price would have been too much and they would have stayed with FDX. We lost them about 18 years ago due to rates when we split commercial vs residential rates.