How to Select the Best Shipping Carrier Service

Photo Credit: http://www.123rf.com/photo_19606616_work-team-around-a-computer-in-an-international-transportation-context.html
Photo Credit: http://www.123rf.com/photo_19606616_work-team-around-a-computer-in-an-international-transportation-context.html

Most people have experienced standing in line at the post office, only to get to the front of the line and become confused by possible shipping options. At that point, they either hold up the line asking questions or they get out of line to mull over their options. There are so many different types of shipping services; it can feel impossible to choose the best one for speed and cost purposes. This primer can serve as a guide for the next time you have to choose the best shipping option for an important piece of mail.

The 2 Types of Carrier Services

When it comes to shipping services in the U.S., there are two main carrier services. The first is tracking and the second is delivery confirmation. You have probably heard both terms but, if you are like most people, you may not be certain what they mean.

  • Tracking. This literally refers to the step-by-step process of tracking the item of mail at each step along its journey to its destination.
  • Delivery confirmation. Delivery confirmation offers you two points of reference — when and where the item of mail is picked up and then delivered to its destination. But you will not know where it is at any other point along the route. Because it requires less work, delivery confirmation does not cost as much as tracking.

What About Reliability?

Unfortunately, no carrier service is 100-percent reliable. The most reliable service is tracking, but even tracked packages can get misrouted from time to time. The best way to safeguard against loss of a mail item is to purchase insurance when you send it. Insurance is typically offered in flat increments (for instance, $100 per mail piece).

Understanding Shipping Carriers

Selecting a shipping carrier is another area that frequently confuses people. Just as in some areas the terms “soda” and “pop” both refer to carbonated beverages, terms such as “UPS” and “FedEx” are often used interchangeably when, in fact, they refer to different shipping carriers. Here is a helpful guide to identify the basic carriers available in U.S.

 

  • UPS. UPS, or United Parcel Service, is frequently confused with USPS (U.S. Postal Service). However, UPS, is a private shipping carrier that ships throughout both the United States and internationally. Shipments are transported by ground and air.
  • FedEx. FedEx is short for “Federal Express.” FedEx is a shipping company that operates internationally using ground, air and sea transports. FedEx and UPS are also sometimes confused. Both offer expedited, regular and extended-shipping services, but are not affiliated in any way.
  • USPS. USPS, or the U.S. Postal Service, is the official government-operated postal and shipping service in the United States. USPS ships mail items by air, and by land domestically and internationally. Even though “USPS” and “UPS” seem identical, you must go to a separate facility to mail through these two separate carriers.
  • DHL. DHL is a shipping carrier service that serves only the international shipping market. DHL has numerous shipping solutions for letters, envelopes, packages and commercial international shipments.

Types of Shipment Methods

Just as there are different carriers, there are different shipment methods. You have probably seen this when you’ve ordered products online. Before paying, you are invited to choose a shipment method. Here is an overview of the basic shipment methods.

 

  • Table rate. Table rate is the most complicated way of calculating shipping costs. It uses a combination of destination, item number, item weight, item price and other factors.
  • Flat rate. Flat-rate shipping is the simplest shipping method. Instead of attempting to calculate the shipping cost down to the cent by ZIP code, flat-rate shipping just offers a certain rate per item or weight.
  • Free shipping. Some larger online vendors will offer free shipping if you order a certain dollar amount of their products or live in certain geographic areas.

 

This guide can serve as a point of reference for choosing the best shipping service and carrier the next time you’re mailing an important item domestically or internationally.

 

About the Author: Michael Morgan is in charge of shipping services for an international corporation.

 

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6 comments

  1. Great advice for choosing shipping company. Thanks for sharing!

  2. Thanks for letting me know that there’s a lot of shipping services that I can choose from. I’m thinking of sending a package to my sister who lives overseas but I’m not sure where to start. Maybe I can purchase some boxes first and pack the parcel first before choosing a courier.

  3. Great tips. But i want to know one thing. Will I be compensated if my package got lost?

  4. Thanks for the tips and I’m just curious with Table rates. It would be nice if there are sample computations per type of Shipment methods.

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