Triangular tube. Irregular? How to calculate postage?

[smiles1012]

To clarify up front, I am not talking about USPS Priority triangular boxes. 

I have my own triangular shaped box that I bought a UV light bulb in.  I wanted to re-use the box since it's such a protective/sturdy box. It's approximately 15" long, with each of the three sides of the triangle being 4". 

Forum searches only seem to bring up responses talking about the USPS supplied Priority boxes. 

Can I ship using this box? Do I just input the dimensions as 15" x 4" x 4"?

Thanks!

[sam9876 · Accepted solution]

It is under one cubic foot.  No need to input dimensions.

Weigh it and ship it like any other box.

[nobody*s_perfect]

But if you feel that you  must put in dimensions, then it's OK to put 15x4x4.

[smiles1012]

Thank you. I don't know where I had heard somewhere that USPS didn't like trangular boxes... good to know I was mistaken. 

[smiles1012]

Thanks! That's what I ended up doing... just to be safe. 

[robot-hands]

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@smiles1012 wrote:

Thank you. I don't know where I had heard somewhere that USPS didn't like trangular boxes... good to know I was mistaken. 

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The USPS supplies their own branded triangular boxes for customers.

[castanea_sue]

3. Parcels are subject to a $0.20 surcharge if they are irregularly shaped, such as rolls, tubes, and triangles.

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Saw this in the USPS Document as a footnote under First Class. I'm assuming that since it was not similarly footnoted under Priority that it only applies to First Class. Safe assumption?

I did send a triangle box Priority recently and did not check the irregular box, and there were no issues.

[berserkerplanet]

That only applies to First Class.

USPS Priority Mail Non-rectangular calculation formulas for volume are different. See here for some ramblings:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping-Returns/USPS-dimensional-weight-rate-change-in-June/m-p/29420...

Only matters if computed volume using the non-rectangular formula exceeds 1728 in³ - then PM dimensional weight factors in.

The eBay calculator can't handle that correctly - it has no provision for non-rectangular, and if your non-rectangular (tubular. triangular) pkg falls into the realm where dimensional weight may apply, you would need to reverse engineer the numbers and put fake numbers in the listing and/or calculators to fool the calculators and produce the correct charges.

Basically, you compute the correct adjusted volume using the formula V(adj) = LxWxHx0.785
If less than 1728 in³ you don't worry about it.
If more than 1728 in³ then you use a fake height in the listings/calculators/label flow that will produce the correct adjusted volume but using the calculator's rectangular formula

H (fake) =(V adj) / (LxW) = (LxWxHx0.785) / (LxW) = H x 0.785  ►  H (adj) = H (actual) x 0.785

For a 50x8x8 triangular pkg, using dimensions with the computed fake height (50x8x7) in the calculator results in a correct label charge that is approx 10% lower (about $5) than if the (wrong) actual pkg height is used

Note that you need to do mental calculations using the actual Length+Girth to ensure you aren't wandering into L+G>108" territory which is the max allowed to use Priority Mail. If you use the adjusted height in the listing and/or calculators it won't/may not correctly flag L+G>108" criterion because H (adj) is always less than actual H. Thus L+G based on inputting H (adj) is always too low. If your pkg is in that realm you have a problem, but unlikely - would need to be in the 60x12x12 or 84x6x6 range for that to happen.

[thriftngo]

^^^This

Sending things like bike wheels which weigh only a couple pounds but exceed dimension measurements requiring them to be billed as volumetric weight can be very costly. Because these boxes are sometimes non-rectangular, what berserkerplanet posted is the only solution to the problem until eBay adds the USPS equation to their algorithm to properly calculate volumetric weight of non-rectangular parcels. Either that or there should be an input for "Girth" in their shipping calculator so an accurate value can be entered.