USPS Ground Advantage

[alaskapicks]

How will this affect Alaska?

Ground shipping is so slow and usually always a week longer than their estimations that it's usually not even worth shipping anything Ground ir media mail on ebay for us. First Class and priority are on time 99 percent of the time though. First Class being 2-5 days.

My concern is that if it changes to Ground it wouldn't even be worth it for Alaska resellers and it would be devastating.

[richard1rst]

I am guessing by your ID that you are in Alaska.  Priority can still be used and will not be affected by the change of first class to parcel select.  At this point we do not know what the actual changes are going to be so it is a bit premature to fret over it.

BUT when the time comes, if delivery time is extra long, you may have to change your pricing and send every thing Priority. Or concentrate on only items which would normally go Priority. In other words, no more small light items.

Judging by a quick look at your listings it does seem that many of them do not qualify for first class in the first place. So for those at least it is a non-issue.

[deserdog]

Parcel select ground does not take that long any more. 

Starting Aug. 1, USPS will shorten the delivery window for its Retail Ground (RG) and Parcel Select Ground (PSG) products from two-to-eight days to two-to-five days within the contiguous U.S. There’s no price increase attached to the accelerated service.

I have many parcel select ground packages delivered in 3 days to zone 8, so obviously it did not go by ground, but by air.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@deserdog wrote: ... 

Starting Aug. 1, USPS will shorten the delivery window for its Retail Ground (RG) and Parcel Select Ground (PSG) products from two-to-eight days to two-to-five days within the contiguous U.S. ....

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But that statement says "contiguous" US, which specifically excludes Alaska, so it doesn't address the OP's issue.

[alaskapicks]

Trust me, it takes a long time from Alaska because they put it on a barge. It will never be 5 days and is always longer than 8 days.

[wastingtime101 · Accepted solution]

According to eBay's FAQs @alaskapicks  :

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/choosing-a-carrier-and-service/usps-and-ebay-labels

Will USPS Ground Advantage fly offshore?
Yes. USPS Ground Advantage will fly to/from/throughout offshore destinations as a 2-5 service whereas PSG currently travels by boat and is a 2-8 day service.

So it seems packages to Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico will often travel by air to maintain the 2-5 biz day delivery time.

One exception would be packages that have to travel surface transportation only (hazmat, etc) and USPS will identify those packages as they need to be marked in accordance with USPS guidelines.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

According to eBay's FAQs @alaskapicks  :

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/choosing-a-carrier-and-service/usps-and-ebay-labels

Will USPS Ground Advantage fly offshore?
Yes. USPS Ground Advantage will fly to/from/throughout offshore destinations as a 2-5 service whereas PSG currently travels by boat and is a 2-8 day service.

So it seems packages to Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico will often travel by air to maintain the 2-5 biz day delivery time. ....

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Hmmm, that's not what USPS says on their page about Ground Advantage: "For mailable items up to 70 lbs. Expected delivery in 2–5 business days. Packages going to certain places (including Alaska, Hawaii, and offshore destinations), or containing hazardous materials or live animals may receive slower service."

https://www.usps.com/ship/ground-advantage.htm

[wastingtime101]

I'll go out on a limb and say the key word is "may" - and my guess is packages under a pound are more likely to travel by air while heavier/larger packages are more likely to fall under that "may" receive slower service.

Like I said, just a guess.

[northern_aisle]

I sell and ship from Sitka, Alaska.  Ebay was wrong to issue a blanket statement on the FAQs about the new Ground Advantage shipping. They said that it would fly to and from offshore locations. That is NOT true for me. All Ground Advantage packages are shipped via the barge, aka the slow boat, to Seattle and then dispersed across the country. Only one barge goes out from here each week on Friday mornings. Depending on what day the order is placed, a package going Ground Advantage might sit at the post office here for up to a week before it is loaded on the barge where it takes another week to get to Seattle, then however long past that to get to the final destination. 

I shipped a few Ground Advantage packages as it was implemented. Needless to say, the buyers were not happy that their purchases took so much longer to get there than expected. Honestly, I'm not happy either that we were led to believe this might be an easy change. 

Buyers like low cost, but quick shipping. Ground Advantage gives low cost, but long delivery times from our location. It looks like I will only be offering Priority shipping from now on.  Hopefully my sales will not suffer due to this.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@northern_aisle wrote:

I sell and ship from Sitka, Alaska.  .... All Ground Advantage packages are shipped via the barge, aka the slow boat, to Seattle and then dispersed across the country. Only one barge goes out from here each week on Friday mornings. Depending on what day the order is placed, a package going Ground Advantage might sit at the post office here for up to a week before it is loaded on the barge where it takes another week to get to Seattle....

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Yikes, I guess that's what USPS meant when they said that Alaska "may receive slower service".   

[alotofjewelry]

I am in Hawaii and had an eBay order shipped 4 weeks ago, it’s coming by boat and may take 4-6 weeks according to USPS…not happy..as a seller I will only offer flat rate priority from now on.