I thought I would try an experiment, as I had several packages of the same thing being shipped from Texas to Oregon.
One package was sent UPS, one sent DHL and one sent USPS priority.
Cost for UPS was $15.35 and took 5 working days to arrive.
Cost for USPS priority was $12.78 and took 3 days to arrive.
Cost for DHL was $15.78 and it took 10 working days to arrive.

This is just a one time test, so it may not reflect what actually happens.
Thought I would share this.

that sounds about right to me...I've never dealt with DHL, but I can't figure out why anyone would ship UPS. They take twice as long and usually cost much more. USPS amazes me with how quickly it gets packages to their destination.

I have had experience with all three and I would rate them best to worst:
1) USPS
2) UPS
10) DHL

JMHO

Que

Aside from the holiday season, USPS has been on the money with my deliveries.

We ship USPS most of the time anymore because UPS is more expensive. Only problem is USPS closes too early. We have a UPS depot a mile from our house and they are open until 8:00pm. If we get an order---even at 7:00 at night, we can send it out the same night. We feel the good customer service is worth the extra money.

Also, another reason we started using USPS is because UPS called and told us we couldn't ship tobacco products any longer. Since we own a cigar company, that would be a big problem. We took out the "cigars" from the company name and they haven't said anything since.

We have never shipped DHL and from the bad comments I hear from people here on the forum, we never will.

Lauren

I pay the extra money and use UPS exclusively. My local PO has some strange phenomena of taking an extra day to process outgoing packages. If I ship to California the same day they ship to me, mine always arrives there at least 1 day later then theirs arrives here.

Nothing against the PO, just my local PO has major issues.

The public perception that UPS is better than the Postal Service is 100% wrong. There is no comparison as regards price or service. IMO and experience.

Man, Cexshun, you do like to keep me busy . . . lol . . .

I can shed a little light on the priority mail procedure, which while it won't change anything for you, will help explain some things . . . .

. . . USPS does not have it's own airfleet anymore . . . most of our air-transport Priority mail goes on FedEx planes . . . we lease a set percentage of space on their cargo planes . . . . overflow needs to wait for additional flights, or find room on commercial planes. . . .

. . . When a Priority package is mailed at a small PO, it is sent via truck to a dedicated Priority Mail Processing Center each night . . . . there, the parcels are sorted by major airports, and then trucks pick them up, and bring to the local airport to be loaded onto FedEx planes . . . . now, the amount of time this takes all depends on many variables, such as the local PO's proximity to the Priority Mail center, the Priority Mail Center's proximity to the local airport, the size of the local airport, the number of FedEx jets flying out of the local airport, the volume of Priority Mail that is sent out each night vs. the allowable volume on the FedEx planes, the FedEx flight patterns, airport proximity to PMPC on receiving end, and PMPC proximity to local PO on receiving end . . . . some area's of the country may see an extra day, because an incoming flight made it an hour late, causing a chain reaction which makes the dispatch miss the trip to the local po by it's cutoff time in the morning . . . .

Also, West to East should theoretically take longer, because there is smaller tolerance for delays based on time zone difference, but some of these variables can combine to make the east to west less predictable. . . usually, if you're seeing delays from one origin point, it is a result of airline logistics and not the local office . . .

Due to security concerns, dispatch and flight information should never be made public, and the best thing to do is to test it yourself to verify delivery standards . . . mail a few packages to the same zipcode to get a good feel for the normal delivery time . . . . 3 days coast to coast for $3.85 is still a very good deal, IMHO . . . .

Seth, thanks for the info. It does shed some light on the subject. I know that if I ship out of the post office near home, it arrives a day sooner then if I ship it from the PO right next to my work place. This is strange as they're only 20 minutes apart by car. I wonder where the airport is that they use.

However, the extra $2 or so is worth it to my lazy ass that I don't have to drive the packages to the PO at home, so I just use UPS since we have a daily pickup. I talked to the local mail carrier and said my shipments are pretty "spur of the moment", and I don't have the time to schedule a priority pickup the next day. Could I leave it for them anyway with the local mail? She told me no. Again, not bashing the USPS, but my local service is a little, well, unsatisfactory. Whether it's beyond their control or not is besides the fact.

Seth, I'd love to shadow you for a day at work. Who ever thought the USPS could be so interesting! BTW, do you get first dibs on undeliverable mail with no return addy?

i must say my win come dhl from cigarbid in penn???
to utah and it takes about 5 days not to bad at all if you ask me cuts down on the anticipation time 😉

Seth--thanks for the info. That is stuff most people have no idea about. It is interesting.

Sorry to threadjack but....

My next question is with Click & Ship. The only option I get is Priority which costs a lot more. Sometiems we only need to send regular mail. When I inquired at the PO, he said I should be able to send regular with C&S but I don't see that option. Would it be better to get a postage machine for the lighter packages we send? We spend a fortune in shipping. For our wholesale market, we don't charge shipping so we get hammered sometimes.

Send me an email at johnhaycigars at aol dot com if you want to take it off the boards. Thanks.

Threadjack off.

OP, thanks for sharing the experiment. Much appreciated.

. . . Cex, I'd never thought my job was interesting . . . I could have used a shadow today though - spent an hour digging one of our trucks out of the snow in a customer's driveway . . . . . sounds like you've got a Lemon for a local office. . . sorry to hear that . . . .

CBW, I can only offer my opinion on your Click-N-Ship question, as I'm not sure who's responsible for those decisions . . . . . . The Click-N-Ship on the website is a great marketing tool - The Priority and Express mail are the USPS premiere services, and where they need to concentrate their marketing - it's also the segment where the usps stands up against tough competition . . . . First class parcels represent a very small portion of USPS transactions, and are not nearly as profitable as Priority and Express . . . . with Click-N-Ship, USPS is able to address growing customer demands (particularly online auctioneers & small business) while also marketing their top services . . . again, just my opinion, but I don't believe they want to market 1C parcels . . . . So, while they do have great tools to help with your business online, not every single service is offered that way . . . . now there are other options - you can get a small scale - 1C packages must weigh 12 oz or less, so a basic scale is all that's necessary - and then print postage with your computer using a service such as stamps.com . . . . . then, hand off to carrier when you get your daily mail delivery . . . . it's not as efficient for you as printing the entire label with Click-N-Ship, but you can still mail from the comfort of your home or office . . . .

Man, now I sound like a salesman . . . sorry . . . .

Thank you Seth. I can understand their reasoning. It makes sense.

We have a good shipping scale already so maybe we can try to do the stamps.com way for the smaller packages and continue to use C&S for the larger ones.

I appreciate your feedback. I am sure the last thing you want to do after a long day at work is answer my stupid questions. Thanks.

Lauren

Seth, hate to bring your work home but it is greatly appreciated. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get these ?s answered during business hours? I'm sure you do but we here at the exclusive cbid club have Gold member connections and you my friend are one of them. Thanks again, Dave

Seth,
So USPS priority piggy backs on Fed Ex?

It is odd that USPS priority takes an average of 2 days less time than Fed Ex.
I had a shipment come from New york that took 7 days to get to me, while, as you know, USPS priority generally takes 3 days.

It is funny, I can remember a time when UPS was quickest and supposedly better. I've found that in the last 5 years, USPS has taken the lead.
Snail mail still has its problems, but if I want to ship something quickly, it goes USPS priority.

Tony, USPS has a flat rate box for 7.70 that what ever you can put in that's the price. I can fill them with my Avocados that would cost 20 bucks to send, anywhere in the US. Pablo says even Hawaii. The guy at the post office told me about them when I was mailing some gifts to the BOTL. I Came back to send some avo's to Blood and gave him his first ISOM and a couple CAO.

I typically use USPS for al my shipping needs. They are closer; two offices within 6 miles vs. UPS at 25 and DHL around 20 miles. Cheaper due to gas costs and I'm in town locally more often. Mostly reliable with no lost packages and acceptable delivery times. My biggest reason is that I know what time my mailperson runs their route. They know who I am and where my addres is. DHL has mishandled several packages from CBID and I requested USPS shipping only.

Tony, the relationship is a strange one . . . . usps directly competes with Fedex, but uses their planes. . . . you will find Fedex collection boxes outside of major Post Offices. . . . USPS delivers certain types of packages for UPS, FedEx and DHL . . . one of the strangest sights is when a customer walks into our lobby, to see the fedex & UPS guy standing there dropping off packages . . . .

I would guess your seeing USPS having better delivery turnaround than Fedex is due to local delivery network . . . there is a post office in every town, and they deliver to every address 6 days a week . . . the result is faster turnaround than a company handling packages on a per-diem basis, imho . . . . which is why the other companies have their own niche - Fedex's reputation is as a great overnight performer, and UPS handles large shipments to and from commercial clients . . . .

Dan,
Thanks for the info on the flat rate box. I definitely will check into that. Too cool!!

Seth, thanks for the info.
Learned a lot on this discussion.