New USPS Rates on Boxes

[cathydale]

June 1st the USPS is charging NOT just by weight, but by the size of the box.  Has anyone figured out exactly how to calculate this? Went on USPS sight and putting in dimensions and coming up with some crazy amount !  If it is THAT high I will have to just stop buying anything larger than a coffee mug to sell. People will just not accept shipping that high !  I have a latch hook rug kit and the box is LARGE and will have to go into another box.  Going by the formula on the post office sight it would cost more to ship than I would charge for it !!!

[crescentstation]

That's 1.5 pounds not 15 pounds, so it goes as a 2 pound parcel.

[orangehound]

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@vintagehoundsantiques wrote:

 So if you ship 2 lbs in a 12x12x12 box,  you're going to be charged for 10 lbs.

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No ... dimensional weights only apply to dimensions OVER 1 cubic foot ... so 2 pounds in a 12x12x12 box is still 2 pounds.

Of course, if the box is 13x12x12, then it is over 1 cubic foot, and the exorbitant dimensional weights start to kick in.

[orangehound]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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@orangehound wrote: ... wait in line and buy Retail Ground at the USPS counter ... though it could be tricky for zones 1-4.   Pretty sure the dimensional rates don't apply to that service.

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Yes, in the new version of Notice 123 that goes into effect on June 23, the page about Retail Ground still has the regular descriptions of balloon and oversize rates, with no reference to dimensional weight (which CAN be seen on the page about Parcel Select Ground).

https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/June%202019%20-%20Notice123.pdf

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Yeah.  I think I'm going to have to buy some individually wrapped isopropryl alcohol wipes to include in those oversized packages as a free gift to my Zone 1-4 customers who buy large sized packages.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Changing the divisor really is what is going to bump it up

[lja440]

I culled many of my XL items (Horse Saddles, Heavy weight horse blankets, ect) a while back in response to the Free Returns rule. So most of my items are 1 cubic foot or under. Even my sets of china I rather ship in multiple boxes rather than one large box. Yes I am aware that to do this postage tends to be higher but with working as a mail carrier for 19 years I know that 2 or 3 20# or 30# boxes will fail less often than 1 60# box no matter how well you pack it. I even do this with my Media Mail, I'll split up a 50# lot of LP's into 2 boxes. I have received many record lots with split box corners.

[ms.rodriguez*]

I don’t sell big items mainly because I don’t want Ebay to make extra profits. Eventually the buyers of big items will come to accept paying for these big items.  It won’t matter what site they go to.  

I want to point out that if you are going to remove an item from the big box, do it before you take the photos. If the buyer sees the big doll in the box, they want it in the box. Removing item from box can disappoint a buyer and get the seller a negative. Very few buyers will read that seller is going to take item out of box prior to shipping.  So proceed with caution.

[berserkerplanet]

>>The formula is LXWXH/166, not L+W+H/166. So a 12x12x12 box is 1728 cu in. 1728/166 = 10.4
>>So if you ship 2 lbs in a 12x12x12 box, you're going to be charged for 10 lbs.

As already pointed out, it has to be OVER 1728 in³ for USPS dimensional weight to apply. That 12x12x12 package ships at 2 lbs

I just had a 3 lb item that I found a box for that clocked in at 19x13x7 → that's 1729 in³ Arghhh. That made the dim weight 9 lb using the current divisor (or 11 lb when things change). I cut it down to be 18x13x7 (1638 in³), and it will be good to go for PS and PM even after 6/23/19 when things change (the FedEx dim weights are still bad though and pretty much take FedEx off the table relative to USPS services)


Re - the other part of your post: A 10.4 lb dimensional weight does not round down to 10 lbs - it rounds UP to 11 lbs. All dimensional weights for all carriers round dim weight up. 10.01 lbs is also 11 lbs.

[dasarock]

you can go here:  https://postcalc.usps.com/DomesticZoneChart 

to get a tailored zipcode zone calculator based on your location, then copy it to a spreadsheet if you want to. 

here for final june2019 weight/zone prices:  https://pe.usps.com/pricechange/index

[dasarock]

i took the above zipcode zone set to my zipcode. the priority weight and zone index. and coded in an easy DimWeight Calculator for USPS and FEDEX effective 23jun2019.  (you can copy/paste the first 2 from the links above)

the dimweight calculator is just 3 lines  and 8 columns

DIMENSION length width height dim size dim wt devisor carrier WEIGHT 32 4 8 1024 6.17 166 usps CALCULATOR 32 4 2 256 1.84 139 fedex

dim size column = LxWxH

dim wt = dim size/devisor

USPS Divisor is 166, FEDEX is 139.  (you can check these yourself if you wish)

...if i am right, for over 1 cubic foot (on 23JUN19 and after), you take the new DimWt and use the appropriate mail class (priority. smartpost, etc) for weight and zone. (DimWeight Zones Only Affect Zones 5 - 9, so it is important to print off the zipcode zone list tailored to your zipcode.)

this will give you an idea of what items you want to dispose of though, due to shipping costs and sale-ability of item on ebay now.  😞

[berserkerplanet]

The eBay FedEx Ground/Home Delivery dimensional weight divisor is 166

The eBay FedEx Smartpost DWD is 250

Although the eBay FedEx discounts can (could?) be linked to a personal FedEx account, and some have negotiated rates for their own FedEx accounts, many/most here use the eBay FedEx label flow because it's easy with pre-populated fields (and because of the really good eBay specific discounts)

The FedEx DW divisor is 139 for FedEx pkg services (Express, Ground, Smartpost) when NOT using eBay FedEx labels.

(UPS DW divisors are 139 or 166 depending on context. 139 for online rates, 166 for domestic services at retail counter, 139 for import/export services at retail counter)


Starting 6/23/19 ALL USPS Parcel Select, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express are subject to dimensional weight consideration to ALL zones.

FedEx and UPS consider dimensional weight for ALL user supplied packaging shipments (there is no volume threshold like USPS has) to ALL zones, and have for as long as I can remember.

[beez5720]

@vintagehoundsantiques
You can thank a bunch of dishonest sellers in the beginnings of ebay for abusing pricing practices, and charging for the shipping and not for the item. People were buying stuff for 99 cents, but paying close to the item's actual worth in shipping costs so that dishonest sellers could wiggle out of paying ebay their honest fees. Ebay punished all sellers by placing FVF on the invoice total and not just the item total. So ebay did not do anything wrong by protecting their interests. If people WERE HONEST, ebay wouldn't have to come up with these ridiculous polices.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

The change was more likely made because it made fees standard on the same total whether the seller used actual shipping, free shipping or shipping and handling. They were encouraging "free" shipping and it wouldn't have worked if the sellers were penalized with higher fees if they used it.

Furthermore when they extended FVF to shipping they dropped some rates, starting giving free listings and pictures. Most sellers (except large heavy item sellers) reported they paid about the same fees before and after. So most sellers weren't actually "punished".

People conveniently forget about all the fees they saved when the change was made.

[dasarock]

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@berserkerplanet wrote:

The eBay FedEx Ground/Home Delivery dimensional weight divisor is 166

The eBay FedEx Smartpost DWD is 250

Although the eBay FedEx discounts can (could?) be linked to a personal FedEx account, and some have negotiated rates for their own FedEx accounts, many/most here use the eBay FedEx label flow because it's easy with pre-populated fields (and because of the really good eBay specific discounts)

The FedEx DW divisor is 139 for FedEx pkg services (Express, Ground, Smartpost) when NOT using eBay FedEx labels.

(UPS DW divisors are 139 or 166 depending on context. 139 for online rates, 166 for domestic services at retail counter, 139 for import/export services at retail counter)


Starting 6/23/19 ALL USPS Parcel Select, Priority Mail, and Priority Mail Express are subject to dimensional weight consideration to ALL zones.

FedEx and UPS consider dimensional weight for ALL user supplied packaging shipments (there is no volume threshold like USPS has) to ALL zones, and have for as long as I can remember.

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.... i think this corrects the calcs ...

[berserkerplanet]

That looks better. Only thing I'd do is go ahead and round all the dim weights up (since that's what the label calcs and carriers will do and some folks 100's of years from now may use that chart as a learning reference and incorrectly perform that last rounding step)

Also note that those eBay dimensional weight divisors may change without notice at any time (based on contract dates and any new terms with FedEx). I do sanity checks on the FedEx DWDs once in a while to be sure by reverse engineering calculator rate quotes, but that is going to become very difficult, if not impossible when the classic label flow is finally completely killed off

(the new label flow does not break down the transportation costs, and it's difficult to guess what the DWD is not knowing the actual base rate without variable eBay discounts applied and wrapped up in the numbers shown. I asked for that functionality to be retained but got crickets)