Shipping is KILLING me

[peter cardoso]

Hey All,
Just wondering has anyone had better luck with shipping prices at other places besides USPS? Like FedEx or UPS?
I have been a supporter of the US Post Office for many years, I know there going through a tough time but MAN they are KILLING me with there shipping costs lately.
Yesterday It cost me almost DOUBLE to send something Priority mail to Southern California then it did to Australia.
I mean even though it was Priority it should still be cheaper then sending something across the WORLD!
When I asked her why this was the case even she said she no longer has ANY Idea why there cost structure is the way it is. it makes no sense to her.

I want to give the best deal on shipping to my customers and it used to be that depending on what was going where it would all work it self out in the long run with one flat rate. Now forget it, I'm actually losing money.

Thoughts?

[Tooth]

catapult

[peter cardoso]

Not a bad idea, or maybe I can train a Hawk to grab tubes by the talons and fly them over. If pigeons can do it........

[vastagh]

I noticed shipping to CA was drastically more expensive than it has been in the past.

wish i knew what to tell ya pal. it just sort of sucks.

[squeegeethree]

It's only going to get more expensive with time. One flat price never works out.
Use the postal calculator Postage Price Calculator and set up a zoned pricing system for yourself.

[Andymac]

don't feel too bad, we have the same problem here, cheaper to ship to the USA than within Canada. I have noticed a few times I go in to get a book or common parcel shipped, they sometimes get on a weird track and charge me double. If I say no thanks and come back the next day, it goes back to regular price. I've tried to tell the clerk you're wrong, but they of course know better.

The capper came last year when I shipped two identical packages down island. they charged me MORE for the shorter distance because they took it all to Victoria (120 miles from me) to sort, then brought it back up to a town between me and Victoria. (only 90 miles away) the mail truck stops in the town on the way down, but they don't sort mail locally anymore. This system was thought up by some efficiency expert 3500 miles away.

[peter cardoso]

Thats CRAZY

[swampviking]

The capper came last year when I shipped two identical packages down island. they charged me MORE for the shorter distance because they took it all to Victoria (120 miles from me) to sort, then brought it back up to a town between me and Victoria. (only 90 miles away) the mail truck stops in the town on the way down, but they don't sort mail locally anymore. This system was thought up by some efficiency expert 3500 miles away.

USPS is about to start doing this as well. They are closing a ton of their sorting offices.

[Iron Canvas Studios]

Just read an article yesterday about how they're closing a whole crap load of post offices soon so sorting will take a lot longer and they're basically not doing next day shipping anymore - everything will take AT LEAST 2 days - even for in town mail. And they're raising the price of postage - that sucks. We only use USPS but it's going to start getting ugly soon.

[Andymac]

I just finished my year end, $7400 in shipping last year. It only gets worse.