WHERE TO PLACE USPS LABEL ON A 2" X 2" X 77" SQUARE PACKAGE

[ia_dane]

Where is the best place to put the postage label on the above size package so the poat office does not screw it up

[sam9876]

Doesn't matter.

[nobody*s_perfect]

You're asking the question because you know that a box 2 inches wide isn't a good idea.  Why not put it in a wider package so there's plenty of room for the label?

[pauls-parts]

That almost sounds like a tube or triangle type of package. Put the label so that when it is rolled the address can be seen. Not so they have to stand the package upright to see the address and bar code because the will still have to roll it while sticking 77" up in the air. Told to me by USPS rep. I sent a piece of trim that was long and flat and I put it in a tube.

[buyselljack2016]

print a small label, and place it so that the bar code is not going around a corner

[pauls-parts]

Sorry just saw you said it was square. Same concept though. Make it so they can read it when it is horiz. Versus Vert.

[berserkerplanet]

Technically you can't. Labels are supposed to fit on a face of the package without wrapping around and edge.

In practice, you can probably get away with wrapping it long way around near one end (a foot from the end or more), making sure to not have any of the barcode on an edge and the destination address also not on an edge. Scanning equipment along the way only needs to read the barcode, and humans need to read the delivery address the last mile.

Something like this where the red lines are the pkg edges it is folded around:

Try not to place the Retail Distribution Code (RDC) or the Carrier Route number (CRT) on an edge either - they are used by humans for origin and destination PO sorting (RDC is the 0000 and CRT is the C019 in the label above)

I'd cover the label with clear tape (if you don't already) since there is going to be stuff near and on edges, and edges will rub on things and may tend to scrub off the print more than on a flat surface.

[drusalina]

I have been shrinking my labels to fit my small boxes for years.  If you have a printer that shrinks the label by percentages, you can do a 60% label to fit on a small box.  I have Never had a problem with shrinking my labels.  The Clerks at the Post Office love them because everything is right there on the top of the box, with no wrapping it around the box, which they don't like.  As long as you have a good printer and the bar code is not covered with tape, you shouldn't have a problem. 

[sam9876]

I always cover the bar code with tape. 

[berserkerplanet]

>>I have been shrinking my labels to fit my small boxes for years.

I shrink my labels slightly too but have never pushed it as far as 60%.

Shrinking the label violates the label layout standards (heights of label fields defined in USPS documents), and more importantly shrinks the barcode, which will fail at some shrinkage level since bar code standards are based on barcode line width and spacing - at some point the barcode scanner firmware won't recognize a barcode.

Which could be happening sometimes with your labels and they are getting keyed in manually with USPS employees reading the tracking number with a magnifying glass and keying it in manually :=)

(I don't believe a USPS barcode misread produces an exception in visible tracking, unless it results in a misroute somehow)

[drusalina]

I have had them scanned at the PO and by my carrier up to 50% and I have never ever had a problem.   The PO has gotten new scanners in the last year or so. 

[berserkerplanet]

It may work in practice, but is still in total contravention of the published label requirements.

(barcode must be a minimum 3/4" high, width of narrowest bars and spacing between barcode lines must be 0.013" to 0.021" minimum, along with minimum font sizes and heights for the human readable parts of the label, etc.)

Equipment may have gotten better, but USPS hasn't changed the label specs. In the same way that eBay hasn't removed the "don't tape over the labels" warning, even though UPS and FedEx encourage tape over labels or labels in plastic pouches, and USPS unofficially encourages it and doesn't care as long as the reflectance and contrast of the label meet the published standards and/or the labels scan successfully (which they do).

Just want everyone to understand that although you may be getting away with it, it isn't "up to code", and any failures to read barcodes, resulting eBay late shipment dings for missed acceptance scans, misdeliveries due to carrier misreading of tiny addresses, packages returned for unreadable address or ending up in the "dead letter office" are on the shipper.

Wrapping the label around the package is also clearly prohibited by verbiage in the DMM, but my opinion is that it is the least of the evils (shrinking the label vs wrapping the label) because at least the wrapped label is more human readable and less likely to mis-scan.

Unknown if a wrapped label fails automated scanning because indicia at top of label may need to be read at same time as barcode for APV, etc, or photographing of labels (because 911 - supposedly all mailpieces are now photographed by USPS), so don't know if those reasons make a wrapped label "more evil" in USPS's eyes than a shrunken one.

If you want to get technical, that 2"x2"x77" package isn't shippable since a correctly sized label can't be affixed to it properly. Although, from reading the DMM and other documents it looks like it might be possible to "split" the label and put the various parts on the same face (unclear if that applies to PC postage label formats)

But, in practice, USPS deals with it one way or another, with manual handling, human keying in of barcodes, etc.

[ia_dane]

It is the staff of a ceromonial spear. if I box the shaft to the size of a label the shipping cost goes from less than 10 to more than 30!!! Good enough reason for me

[nobody*s_perfect]

The length-plus-girth of your original box is 85 inches, which is already above the limit for paying the regular postage rate.  If you are shipping via Priority Mail to Zones 1 - 4, or via Parcel Select Ground or Retail Ground to any Zone, you will hvae to pay the 'balloon" rate, which is the sme as the zoned postage cost for 20 pounds.

On the other hand, if you are shipping via Priority Mail to Zones 5 - 9, then the surcharge is called a "dimensional weight" and it is applied to package with a volume over 1 cubic foot (1728 cubic inches).  Dividing 1728 by the 77-inch length of your box gives us 22 inches, so you could pack your item in a box that's 77 by 2 by 11 inches (77 x 2 x 11 = 1694).

So either way (via Priroity or pParcel Select, regardless of Zone), you're paying the same postage cost whether your box is 2 inches wide or 11 inches wide.

[muttlymob]

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@drusalina wrote:

I have been shrinking my labels to fit my small boxes for years.  If you have a printer that shrinks the label by percentages, you can do a 60% label to fit on a small box.  I have Never had a problem with shrinking my labels.  The Clerks at the Post Office love them because everything is right there on the top of the box, with no wrapping it around the box, which they don't like.  As long as you have a good printer and the bar code is not covered with tape, you shouldn't have a problem. 

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Unless you are sending everything to PO Boxes, the clerks aren't the ones who matter.  Ask the carriers who have to try to read those miniature addresses.  This time of year sometimes in the dark.  Or sitting in a vehicle halfway in the travel lane at a mailbox on a highway with traffic wizzing by at 60 miles an hour.  Maybe in the dark.

If you don't have a 4x6 inch area at least on one side of your package to fit the entire unshrunk label, get a bigger box or put it in an envelope with bigger surface area.  Shrinking labels down to tiny dimensions is not as great a solution as you might think.