Just Curious: Will USPS discontinue regular Priorty Mail?

[duffy4444]

     When the USPS dumped First Class/Parcel Select and merged it into Ground Advantage, GA has become almost as fast as regular Priority Mail, and it now also has up to $100 insurance. For me, GA has been much more efficient all across the US, both in cost and speed. It makes me wonder if the USPS may be planning on sunsetting regular Priority Mail but not PM Express for those critical needs. It sure would cut USPS costs with nearly the same service as regular PM. I haven't had the need to use any of my PM boxes for the last 8 months, and feedback from my buyers has shown a lot of positive comments on how fast they have been receiving their GA shipments from me this past year.

   If I were in a position of authority at the USPS, I would consider dumping regular PM (maybe including Flat Rate?) in lieu of the success of  of GA, and yet keeping PM Express for those special needs.

   I'm just curious and have lately been thinking ahead of how much money the USPS could save, perhaps even cutting the remaining shipping rates (I know - yeah, rigggght!), and erase the cost of all those PM boxes and all the associated overhead.

   Let me know what you think, and what your own USPS shipping experiences have been this past year since GA was introduced. 

Cheers, Duffy

[onefootflippers]

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@duffy4444 wrote:

     When the USPS dumped First Class/Parcel Select and merged it into Ground Advantage, GA has become almost as fast as regular Priority Mail, and it now also has up to $100 insurance. For me, GA has been much more efficient all across the US, both in cost and speed. It makes me wonder if the USPS may be planning on sunsetting regular Priority Mail but not PM Express for those critical needs. It sure would cut USPS costs with nearly the same service as regular PM. I haven't had the need to use any of my PM boxes for the last 8 months, and feedback from my buyers has shown a lot of positive comments on how fast they have been receiving their GA shipments from me this past year.

   If I were in a position of authority at the USPS, I would consider dumping regular PM (maybe including Flat Rate?) in lieu of the success of  of GA, and yet keeping PM Express for those special needs.

   I'm just curious and have lately been thinking ahead of how much money the USPS could save, perhaps even cutting the remaining shipping rates (I know - yeah, rigggght!), and erase the cost of all those PM boxes and all the associated overhead.

   Let me know what you think, and what your own USPS shipping experiences have been. 

Cheers, Duffy

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They make a fortune on people shipping priority retail rate, I don't imagine they want to cut that cash cow off.

[heckofagame]

I agree. I believe that they are heading towards eliminating the non-express Priority Mail. It costs more than Ground Advantage and is not always faster, so why keep it?

[rockystradingpost]

I think Priority still gets packages there faster, at least across country, and I hope they don't ditch it. I recently had a buyer who needed a necklace in several days for a weekend event. GA wasn't going to cut it from CA to FL,  so we switched to Priority, and she had it in time. For just a few dollars more. 

[caldreamer]

I had excellent results with Ground Advantage (California to NY) is only 2 days.   That being said, I don't think USPS will get rid of Priority Mail brings in more money.

[slippinjimmy]

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@heckofagame wrote:

I agree. I believe that they are heading towards eliminating the non-express Priority Mail. It costs more than Ground Advantage and is not always faster, so why keep it?

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Simple....it's a money maker for USPS and there are plenty of people that will use PM just because of the free boxes.

[hartungcards]

"Free boxes" are a lot like "free shipping."  Neither of them actually exist.

[chapeau-noir]

Yeah, the cost of the box is bundled into the priority service.

[monster-deals]

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@caldreamer wrote:

I had excellent results with Ground Advantage (California to NY) is only 2 days.   That being said, I don't think USPS will get rid of Priority Mail brings in more money.

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Really? I have to get lucky to get Ground Advantage to go 150 miles in 3.

[heckofagame]

The success of the GA program is entirely dependent on the quality of your local office as well as the regional processing center. There are some across the country that are in dire need of a fix. 

[dirk12955]

They'll not give up the Priority mail cash cow and the public will keep on 

spending the extra because it's........PRIORITY

USPS even spends $$$ advertising on TV Priority mail.    

[inhawaii]

 A buddy of mine works for he USPS.

He knows or has heard of of no such thing.

[1786davycrockett]

For heavier shipments, I still find Priority to be cheaper than Ground Advantage, although I'm still very pleased that the cut-off weight for Ground Advantage is significantly higher than the old First Class Package weight.

[a_c_green]

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@1786davycrockett wrote:

For heavier shipments, I still find Priority to be cheaper than Ground Advantage, although I'm still very pleased that the cut-off weight for Ground Advantage is significantly higher than the old First Class Package weight.

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Likewise. I was used to shipping via Priority Mail anything weighing more than one pound, but now that First Class Package and [whatever the regular package rate was called] have been merged into Ground Advantage, and it has the same free insurance as Priority, and it gets there in about the same amount of time, then I have a bunch of unused PM boxes taking up space in my basement.