The Real Reason Why USPS Jacked Up Shipping Costs For Printing Our Own Labels!!

[futurespast1113]

On June 23rd, USPS raised their rates astronomically. Now even Parcel Select is subjected to a DIM increase of greater than 1 cubic foot (12"x12"x12" or larger) going to all zones which is now considered oversized. As a buyer and a seller, packages greater that one cubic foot used to average me between $13-$25 to ship. If I were shipping to the east coast it was much less. Now shipping to the east coast is just as high as shipping to California. Those parcels that were averaging me between $13-$25 are now averaging $28-$52 to ship or receive. Some packages that are 5 pounds or less can cost my customers as high as $60-$75!! It is ludicrous and I am losing sales on my larger sized items.

A few of you have come to say on the forum that if you buy a Parcel Select label for a box over a cubic foot it is way more expensive by almost 50% than if you walk into a local USPS post office your packages are not getting those ridiculous fees and the retail version (Retail Ground) which is the same service as Parcel Select is way cheaper. Yes, I did hear that any parcel going to zones 1-4 that does not contain Live Animals or Hazardous materials cannot go via Retail ground. That can actually be avoided by throwing in something like an alcohol wipe in the box and telling the clerk you do have hazardous materials in the box and you still get the low rate.

We all used to get a discounts for printing our labels online. We also saved the USPS from being swamped with lines of people bringing their packages in and paying for the postage labels there. Now we are all getting penalized for doing this.

Here is what I found out. Do you know why we are all paying through the roof for printing our own labels? It is because the USPS does not have enough man power or trucks to do all the free pickups of larger sized packages anymore. Pickups are causing them to go broke because they are so inundated with delivering packages which include e-tailers like Amazon, Walmart, Ebay, Etsy, etc and they just do not have enough employees to handle to volume and the truck size to accommodate picking up all these packages while still trying to deliver the mail and packages. So when they did the recent increase they punished us all by discouraging us from printing out our labels online so they don't have to do free pick ups as much anymore.

I never once used pick ups when I printed my own labels because I did not trust the postal employees to scan my items. Because of that I always took my parcels inside the USPS and asked them to scan it and give me a receipt. By having the labels printed already, it was much quicker and easier for me to walk inside with the labels all printed and ready to be handed over.

Instead of jacking up the prices so high on shipping anything over 12"x12"x12", why couldn't the USPS just start charging people for pick ups? That would have solved USPS's dilemma. So now small sellers like me have no use for the printer and postal scale I paid for in order to conveniently print out my own labels. Now I must waste 20-30 minutes of my time having to wait on long lines, buying my labels inside and trying to save my small business from losing sales because when I print out my own labels my customers and I are getting gouged on shipping costs.

Here is an interesting article that states the pickups were the reason why they raised Parcel Select and printing your own labels are now so expensive!!

https://www.scavengerlife.com/forums/topic/usps-parcel-select-rate-changes-big-ones-2/

[nobody*s_perfect]

I don't believe that pirateship is a reliable source for explanations about how USPS arrives at their pricing policies, especially since they said, "... USPS didn’t advertise how they were handling this at all... Took us a couple weeks to figure it out, and we had the whole crew looking!"  

The new policy about expanded application of dimensional weight was part of the regular annual USPS rates changes that were discussed last summer, the policy was approved in October, and implementation was delayed from January until June due to clamoring from online commercial customers, though this apparently didn't include priateship. eBay had announcements about it  in the Community boards in January and again in May:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/2019-Shipping-Carrier-Rate-Changes/ba-p/29375727

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/USPS-dimensional-weight-changing-in-June/ba-p/29842834

[futurespast1113]

I asked my mailman of 10 years and he said it was true. He told me that the USPS doesn't have enough man power and that they have to hire subs to assist in delivering and picking up these packages. He said they hire lower paid subs just so they don't have to pay the full timers overtime as the fulltimers do not have enough time in the day to deliver the high volume of packages they have been dealing with since the explosion of e-commerce. He also told me their antiquated USPS LLC trucks are way too small for all the larger packages and that for example, he has to go back to the hub several times a day to reload his truck with packages as there is barely any room for them.

It has gotten so bad that several days last month, my block did not get any packages or mail as they did not have enough mail carriers to deliver all the packages and mail. I called up the local postmaster complaining and she said they just don't have enough employees especially since the subs have a big turn around and quit all the time because they are doing way too much for way too little money. As a matter of fact in July two of the subs that help my mailman deliver the mail walked off the job in the middle of the day and quit. We didn't get our mail that day as one of the guys abandoned the tuck filled with mail and quit. The supervisor had to come to retrieve the mail truck.

[whatmorefabric]

Fed Ex handles the shipping on most of the large packages for the post office.

Fed Ex raised their prices for larger packages,  so  the post office raised theirs.

[futurespast1113]

I know it's off topic but I hate FedEx, they often misdeliver my packages to the wrong address, take way too long and crush most of my fragile items. Anytime a seller offers FedEx only as a shipping option I hit the back button. As a seller, I avoid it at all costs. FedEx SmartPost is even worse than FedEx Ground or FedEx Home Delivery. FedEx is a **bleep** shipping company.

[whatmorefabric]

There is also a pull back  on the fed hiring Union representative jobs,   like Post Office employees. 

The powers that be want them to use more temp,  non benefit,  non Union ,  gig employees.

[futurespast1113]

There is also a pull back  on the fed hiring Union representative jobs,   like Post Office employees. 

The powers that be want them to use more temp,  non benefit,  non Union ,  gig employees.

You are right. My mailman of 10 years says that they pay the non union mail carriers otherwise known as subs peanuts. He said the subs are mostly ignorant and lazy people and a lot of them can't even deliver the mail to the right addresses. He said his helpers constantly mess his route up and he has to fix all their mistakes. He told me the post office rather hire non-unionized gig employees than pay more experienced or smarter people to do the job right.

The one sub we have constantly misdelivers our mail to the wrong address so many times that I am on a first name basis with my local postmaster. She gave me her direct number because so many of my packages tracking says delivered and when I go outside there are no packages there. This only happens when my regular mailman is off or on vacation. At least once a week when my long time mailman is off (he never makes mistakes),  I have to call the postmaster and she has to use GPS to find out where that sub has actually delivered my packages. Just last week I got a notification that two packages were delivered. When I went outside, my parcels were not there. I got her on the phone and she tracked down with GPS where he delivered them. They were two blocks away one someone else's porch. 

When I told my longtime mailman what has been going on he said that guy is a lazy idiot and that the post office is so desperate for cheap labor and non union employees that guy will never get fired for always fudging things up on his route. Now I know why the three complaints I made against this particular sub never did anything to reprimand or fire him. My mailman said the USPS gets what they pay for and the subs are really horrible workers who don't care because they get low pay and no perks .