Shipping Expense Is Killing Business

[AirgunSavant]

How many folks here operate a small mail order business?
I have been exporting since 1976 and it wasn't cheap then but now it's ridiculous.
I have the under 1 pound parcels figured out at a fair price but anything bigger is very expensive.

When you live in the USA you get raked over the coals by all of them.
USPS, UPS, fed Ex, and DHL are all horrible and most people have no real idea of what things cost to ship.

I'm having issues with parcels at 11-15 pounds ( exporting to individuals)
An example- I purchased a gift for my mother the other day off of Amazon. I ordered it quickly and really didn't pay attention to where it came out of. It weighed 13 pounds and was not under prime and I could not believe it was shipped
by UPS Global Express from Columbia- yeah Columbia and I only paid $15.01 for the shipping- no duty and no other fees.

Now if I go to UPS and I get 28% off across the board and my cost to return them if I wanted to would be near $270 USD.
Of course USPS would be Around $100 or so.

I have a competitor in Norway that can ship UPS Express anywhere in the USA for 42 Euros- One Euro is now only $1.05 USD. ( That's for 10-15 pound parcels)
Back in the day before the economy tanked I had a 200 week package rate with UPS- I got cheap air freight but nothing compared to that $15. Of course when you can't do 200 parcels a week- they take it away from you but its nothing like the deals these other countries get to export their wares to the USA.

Even sending to the USA is expensive. It costs about $150. to send 6 gun blanks to the Midwest from MD but I can send 100 of the same via freight ( truck) for $275........... Makes no sense.

One of these days it will be impossible for the little guy to ship anything and the niche businesses will be no more.

 

[AirgunSavant]

If you import anything and they want to use your shipping account number- don't.
Let them use theirs and pay them instead. Most likely it will save you a fortune.

 

[John_K]

A while back my wife bought a painting for her niece's birthday. We live in Columbus and she lives in Dayton.

UPS wanted $160 to ship approx 80 miles. You have got to be kidding me. I called a taxi place and they said I could have a taxi deliver it cheaper than that. Insane.

And yes, I sell on Ebay and shipping is making it harder and harder to make a profit.

John

 

[Chris142]

We used to ship stuff on greyhound but you had to go to the bus station to pick it up.

 

[AirgunSavant]

Agreed John!!!
If it helps anybody- I was getting stocks returned by the airport for no reason.
I called USPS and stamps.com and they were absolutely no help.
Plus when the item is undelivered because of the mail or customs you do not get a refund.
well those parcels were $80 a pop shipping.

So I re-boxed them and took the customs documents and put them in a new clear label and sent them out again.
I got lucky- they made it and I didn't eat the shipping loss. I also think you need to ship in boxes with absolutely no labels- meaning no writing on the box and always use tan or clear tape. Never use priority mail tape even if the parcel is being sent that way. Now with these stocks the Airport refused them- no reason given.

 

[Donald]

Do you have a FedEx account? I hear that can help with lowering shipping costs. Flat rate boxes can make sense in some cases.

Shipping has hurt EBAY also. Now it's few private sellers and mostly companies.

 

[sleddriver]

I've noticed shipping + garbage pickup have not dropped the "fuel surcharges" since the $$/barrel dropped. Go figure........

 

[seanf]

You should see the prices we pay in Canada to ship things, I sell a lot of things online to Americans and I find it most profitable to drive the hour to the USA border town and send it from there then sending it from Canada.

 

[The motor guy]

Yeah I called ups a while back about setting up an account and they were wanting to charge like 12 bucks for something that weighed 4 pounds. They said you don't get discounts until you start shipping like 10-20 packages a week.

 

[The motor guy]

Same with my oil samples that I box and send to blackstone. Costs me 9 bucks still. Even in a tiny box only a tad bigger than the little sample container.

 

[simple_gifts]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Same with my oil samples that I box and send to blackstone. Costs me 9 bucks still. Even in a tiny box only a tad bigger than the little sample container.


? You know you can have the PO weigh it and just put on 1st class postage; It runs me < $3 from CT IIRC.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Same with my oil samples that I box and send to blackstone. Costs me 9 bucks still. Even in a tiny box only a tad bigger than the little sample container.


? You know you can have the PO weigh it and just put on 1st class postage; It runs me < $3 from CT IIRC.


I read too many people had problems with it being "hazardous" and just went ups.

 

[69GTX]

$160 to ship a painting within the same state? I shipped 4 used auto tires about 500 miles via FedEx for $80. USPS wanted around $125.

 

[Bluestream]

Large companies pay nest to nothing to ship based on their volumes. Individual and small business pay much more, its just a fact of life

 

[fdcg27]

I've noticed this as well.
UPS used to be a cheap way of shipping almost anything below their weight limits but not anymore.
Small package freight charges are insane for low volume users.

 

[skyactiv]

Large customers like Amazon get a deal because they load semi trailers full of parcels. Much more efficient for a driver to drop and hook a 53' trailer and deal with it at Amazon and the UPS sort facility.
Whats insane is that FedEx Home contractor rip-off deal nets delivery drivers less than half the wage of a UPS driver. Plus UPS is still used more by large shippers than FedEx Home because its cheaper more often than not.

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Same with my oil samples that I box and send to blackstone. Costs me 9 bucks still. Even in a tiny box only a tad bigger than the little sample container.


? You know you can have the PO weigh it and just put on 1st class postage; It runs me < $3 from CT IIRC.


I read too many people had problems with it being "hazardous" and just went ups.


I shipped USPS with tracking for 3$..no issues. They ask if hazardous I said no...were zero issues. Blackstone also has a document you can print and provide to USPS if they refuse..

 

[jeepman3071]

The thing that kills me is their "insurance" on stuff. If you pay for the "insurance" and the item breaks, they just claim you didn't pack it well enough. The insurance is a scam.

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Large customers like Amazon get a deal because they load semi trailers full of parcels. Much more efficient for a driver to drop and hook a 53' trailer and deal with it at Amazon and the UPS sort facility.
Whats insane is that FedEx Home contractor rip-off deal nets delivery drivers less than half the wage of a UPS driver. Plus UPS is still used more by large shippers than FedEx Home because its cheaper more often than not.


Isn't FedEx home (ground) a franchise deal ?

 

[Wolf359]

I think it's actually cheaper for them to ship goods from China to the US than from one state to another. Some sort of international mail treaty. That's why a lot of the little guys in the US who used to sell to US customers got put out of business by business in China that include free shipping. Only drawback is that you have to wait about 2-3 weeks to get it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/stor...m=.cfad632b0f89