"Threshold being arbitrary? Well yeah, probably. After all it is USPS's game to set the bar wherever they wish, no?"
Yes, you're right, whether it be in a fairness or not, or to say, an ethical, balanced approach or not: its self-prerogative, thus the negative effects to users, is irrelevant. And, in some ways, one might say, it's the same ideology used by eBay; and, with that said, I mean no disrespect towards eBay. I guess it's just self-preservation, you know, like in what's best for the mass, might not be very enriching for the one. And perhaps our fine elected representatives even use that same ideology, now and then, who knows?
"USPS has a mandate that not every shipper has - they HAVE TO deliver to EVERY address in the USA. Others don't do that. Shoot I was working one time in West Yellowstone MT and needed something from the office. They put it in an Express envelop for overnight delivery. A couple of days later, no package. On inquiry, I was told that was a "remote" location and they only deliver there once a week if they have enough volume to make it worthwhile. WTH? But still they collected our overnight fee."
Yes, such is understood; it reminds me of my old woodstove: my only means of warmth and it is a daunting process to it. There be the cutting of the wood, then the splitting of it, then the loading and hauling of it, then the unloading and stacking of it, then the continuous packing of it into the stove, then the last step: the continuous removal of the ashes. And every bit of it is done by hand, and not to mention the continuous home dusting, due to the ashfall. And, as each year passes me by, it becomes even more daunting... You know, a car hauler can haul like 8 or 10 or so cars in one whack, and let's say to make that trip from the east coast to the west coast, while keeping in mind the aspects of once it reaches point B from point A, there isn't any further distribution of it, thus the freight would probably be somewhere around 1k per car; giving the payload a total of something around 8k to 10k, so with those thoughts: it's understandable that USPS's payload values are 4 to 5 times higher, or even greater than the freight rate of the cars. So yeah, what you're stating is very understandable.
"If you were running USPS like a shipper with no mandate, then you would charge more for remote delivery and rural America would be priced out of the service. So it is a balancing act. I suspect that they don't want to price out a bulk of their packages (under 1cf) so they set the bar there."
Yeah, ok... I mostly just kick things around inside of my head, so my responses aren't derived from any thing beyond that... You know, I'd bet a load of wood, if one was to theorize about a shipping rate of that 12" x 12" x 14" package; by means of using USPS's logistics formula and working that formula from the upper end to the lower end, I'd surmise the rate for the referred package would be somewhere around $27.00. So, it's just my opinion, their balancing act is flawed, in which leads me to believe that their initial projected weight increase vs volume, is way too excessive. And with that in mind; so it would seem there are inquiring minds wondering, what is the true reasoning that drives USPS's enigmatic behavior?
"But all of this is beyond my pay grade. I'm just glad the rules are known up front so I can adjust and that there are other options to select from."
Me too. I really just like reading the responses, and I return to this thread just to go back over those responses, just for the heck of it... like in, Nobody's Perfect's response that noted ground-ship use to be a workaround, but not anymore, in which is very much true. And, 77 78 yankees response made me grin like a mule eating briers.
Ah, the eBay community; It's just part of my routine, whether it be in the moment or some unthinkable time in the future : )
