USPS shippers, how did Ground Advantage perform this week?

Selling on Amazon FBM
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OK, that’s not as bad. Personally (shipping from Oregon) I wouldn’t see the Wed shipment as a problem. With USPS, you want to count days in terms of ‘transit’ days, which excludes Sunday because that’s normally a non-delivery day.

So if a package shipped on the 12th arrived on Saturday the 15th, that would be 3 transit days, and if it didn’t make it in that short time, the next possibility would be Monday, or 4 transit days. That would be the same as shipping Monday for delivery on Friday.

Do your packages to Texas normally arrive in 3 days? You’re obviously much closer to Texas than I am, so I don’t know what ‘normal’ is for you. But the 12th packages seems ‘normal’ to me. The one shipped on Tuesday is a little less so, but as I reported in a post above, I’m seeing something similar - packages shipped on Tuesday are arriving on the same day as packages shipped on Wednesday.

Not sure what USPS’s issue is with Tuesdays. It used to be that Tuesday shipments moved quicker. Monday was the slow day, due to the volume of mail from the weekend.

Strange. :thinking:

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Yes, typically 2-3 days anywhere in TX for us.

I know Sunday’s aren’t business days, but I always feel like the packages are moving through the system still. That is why I will see shipments that leave on a Saturday to California arrive for delivery on Monday. IDK, though, always is a crap shoot with the PO.

I’ll have to keep an eye on on my Tuesday packages. Never noticed any issues, but now that I am aware, it may start standing out.

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I know Sunday’s aren’t business days, but I always feel like the packages are moving through the system still.

Right, they do, so you get basically a ‘free’ transit day. I was just trying to say that, when there’s a Sunday in the mix, if you count “actual” days in transit, it’s going to appear that your package took a day longer to arrive, which can skew your statistics.

For instance, something that would normally arrive in 1 day (shipped Monday, delivered Tuesday) is going to appear to take 2 days if you ship on a Saturday, because it won’t arrive until Monday. But if you count transit days instead of “actual” days, Sat to Mon is 1 transit day, so it’s more of an apples-to-apples comparison.

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This one this morning had me scratching my head. NC to MI. Of course, Regional Rates no longer exist, but the dimensions are correct and are what Amazon is (hopefully) using to determine the rates. But Parcel Select (now Ground Advantage) will get there a day earlier than Priority?

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Amazon estimated delivery dates have been wonky for a while now. We got this email from USPS and hope that it will help Amazon get Buy Shipping on track.

Hello Click-N-Ship® Customer,

Thank you for using USPS.com® to print shipping labels online!

Important: In case you haven’t heard, Click-N-Ship® is changing soon. All customers will be able to upgrade to a new, enhanced Click-N-Ship® version.

What’s Changing: If you’ve been using the legacy version of Click-N-Ship®, you won’t have access to all your shipping history in the new version. You’ll only be able to see your shipping history for the last year. If you have any existing loyalty credits, those will be available to use in the new version. Find out more in our FAQs.

Action: Please save/download any labels in your legacy Click-N-Ship® shipping history that you’d like to keep for your records.

Also, try out the new features in enhanced Click-N-Ship® now (including built-in discounted commercial rates for all customers)!

Look at the last line … USPS is saying that commercial rates will be available on USPS site.

Wondering if this is an attempt by USPS to get back some direct volume by pulling away from some of the USPS label vendors?

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Email from [email protected],

Dear Seller,

In July, the United States Postal Service (USPS) launched a new domestic shipping service called USPS Ground Advantage, which consolidates the current First-Class package service, Parcel Select ground, and Parcel Select Cubic shipping methods. We’re currently working to bring this shipping service to you with Amazon Buy Shipping.
Once enabled, USPS Ground Advantage will offer the following ship methods:
• USPS Ground Advantage Light: For packages less than 1 lb.
• USPS Ground Advantage Heavy: For packages 1lb to 70 lb.
• USPS Ground Advantage Cubic: Dimension-based ship method for packages that exceed 70 lb.
With the USPS Ground Advantage rebrand, USPS updated their shipping service prices. Those new prices have been replicated in Buy Shipping and will remain in place.
When the new ship methods launch, you can purchase labels through Amazon Buy Shipping and your existing ship methods will automatically update to the equivalent USPS Ground Advantage ship method.
In the meantime, you can continue to use existing USPS shipping services for your orders.
We’ll share more information on the launch date and any actions to take when we enable the new ship methods.
To learn more about the USPS Ground Advantage ship methods, go to USPS Ground Advantage.

Seller Fulfilled Services

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27

Okay, I’ll now revise my 13Jul23 estimate (link, SAS) on our Seller Community receiving the promised update:

Shall we shoot for October 1?

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28

I’m going with what that Bill gella once said, “Beware the ides of March…”

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Not Amazon, but below is what we show for the last few weeks on packages (less than 8oz) we send every week to the same addresses. Ground Advantage looks to be the same as First Class transit wise:

Jax, FL to Des Moines, IA - Ground Adv. - Thur 7/13 to Mon 7/17
Jax, FL to Big Sandy, TX - Ground Adv. - Thur 7/13 to Sun 7/16

Jax, FL to Des Moines, IA - FC - Thur 7/06 to Mon 7/10
Jax, FL to Big Sandy, TX - FC - Thur 7/06 to Mon 7/10

Jax, FL to Des Moines, IA - FC - Fri 6/23 to Tues 6/27
Jax, FL to Big Sandy, TX - FC - Fri 6/23 to Mon 6/26

Still no Ground Advantage via Amazon Buy Shipping. Nothing has changed on that front (as noted in the email sent by Amazon today advising they are “currently working to bring this shipping service to you”).

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30

Once again … Amazon is on path to get it wrong from the get go …

USPS Ground Advantage Cubic:

What size is USPS ground advantage?

The Basics of USPS Ground Advantage

This domestic shipping service will be used for packages traveling via ground that weigh up to 70 lbs and measure up to 130 inches in combined length plus girth. Delivery times for this service can be between 2-5 business days

Amazon is saying exceed 70lbs but the limit is up to 70lbs.

Parcels exceeding one cubic foot are charged on the actual weight or the dimensional weight, whichever is greater.
IMpb Noncompliant Fee or eVS Unmanifested Fee 0.25
Dimension Noncompliance Fee 1.50
Nonstandard Length fee > 22"<=30" 4.00
Nonstandard Length fee > 30" 7.00
Nonstandard Volume fee > 2 cu. ft. 15.00

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This one this morning had me scratching my head.
But Parcel Select (now Ground Advantage) will get there a day earlier than Priority?

Here’s the thing - Buy Shipping estimates have never been accurate for USPS services, and can not be trusted. For whatever reason, Amazon seems to have their own “method” (and I use that term loosely) for determining the estimated arrival dates Buy Shipping shows you.

Most shipping companies follow a reasonable path, and pull this information straight from USPS. Amazon does not. Amazon has some kind of “logic” for how they come up with these dates that I have never been able to completely figure out.

But the bottom line is - it can’t be trusted, and you shouldn’t rely on it.

This applies only to USPS, and for the most part, Priority Mail and Express Mail estimates are semi-accurate, within 1 day. But other USPS services (first class and parcel select) are NOT. Ignore what Buy Shipping tells you on those.

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I learned long ago not to trust Amazon on many things, especially their Buy Shipping estimates. But I do wonder sometimes just how they come up with these estimates. To show Ground Advantage being delivered faster than Priority Mail is one of those times.

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34

Saw this yesterday and had an opportunity to check it out. 10 lb Priority Mail package to Zone 4. Commercial Rate on Click-N-Ship was $13.65. Cubic rate for the same package on Shipstation was $7.29.

There’s obviously another rate tier that doesn’t show on the USPS Rate Charts. For example, the commercial rate for a Flat Rate Envelope is $8.05 but Amazon, and others are charging $7.60

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But I do wonder sometimes just how they come up with these estimates. To show Ground Advantage being delivered faster than Priority Mail is one of those times.

Boy, so do I! I’ve been pretty good over the last few years at identifying what formulas Amazon is using, although the ‘why’ has always been a mystery. Recently, they’ve been all over the map with their estimates, as @Lost_My_Marbles mentioned above.

Marbles and I have been comparing notes since roughly Memorial Day and both of us are seeing really weird things that don’t make sense. I think you have to chalk it up to - Amazon has no idea about shipping times right now (or ever, but that’s another story). :laughing:

Here’s a 4-ounce package from Portland, OR to Miami. Not only does Buy Shipping “think” Parcel Select delivers on Sundays, but it also thinks it will deliver faster than UPS 2-day air. :laughing:

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There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. My first-class estimates don’t fluctuate. Amazon is currently using the (wrong) values of 3 transit days to the (1) west coast and (2) east coast, and 4 transit days to everywhere in the middle. :woman_facepalming: But at least they’re consistent so you can see what they’re doing.

But Parcel Select is all over the map. The only consistency I see in PS delivery estimates is that Buy Shipping thinks it’s the only USPS service that gets delivered on Sundays. :roll_eyes:

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36

The $7.60 price is a negotiated price with a USPS label commercial vendor. You will not see these types of pricing on the USPS price lists. Although, USPS just announced that their site will start reflecting these prices soon.

Just note that Priority Mail is a different class of mail than Ground Advantage and Ground Advantage Cubic. You will pay more for Priority Mail as it is the faster class of mail (in theory) and the contents has some privacy regulations that does not come with the other two. Ground Advantage and Ground Advantage Cubic can be opened and inspected at any time with or without reason by USPS. But the almost half the price and 2 to 5 day estimated delivery is a very reasonable and promising upgrade by USPS.

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[quote=“Nigel, post:34, topic:1610”]
10 lb Priority Mail package to Zone 4. Commercial Rate on Click-N-Ship was $13.65. Cubic rate for the same package on Shipstation was $7.29.

I should have been more precise. The $13.65 on Click-N-Ship and the $7.29 on Shipstation were both for Priority Mail. USPS Click-N-Ship was the regular Commercial Rate and Shipstation was apparently the negotiated Priority Mail Cubic rate.

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If USPS Click-N-Ship is going to offer Commercial Rates and Shipstation and Amazon continue the negotiated rates, I’ll stick with Shipstation and Amazon Buy Shipping.

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I’m a little iffy on this but I see @Lost_My_Marbles is replying too. Before the change to Ground Advantage, weren’t there two levels of Commercial pricing - Commercial and Commercial Plus?

Most shipping platforms (Amazon, ShipStation, PirateShip) offered Commercial Plus pricing. But I think I read that with Ground Advantage, there’s only going to be one level of ‘commercial’ pricing available.

Also, I think that ‘cubic’ rates went down in price recently, especially for destinations that were close to you. Also check for cubic rates, if they’re available in the software you ship.

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Keep watching USPS Click-N-Ship … we got an email from USPS today with this included

Also, try out the new features in enhanced Click-N-Ship® now (including built-in discounted commercial rates for all customers)!

The United States Postal Service® appreciates your business.

We will do some testing and report back if and when we see this enhanced Click-N-Ship® with the commercial rates kicks in.

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40

To show Ground Advantage being delivered faster than Priority Mail is one of those times.

I have a new observation to share on this. It appears that part of the issue is the daily cut-off time being implemented differently for Parcel Select. Look at this -

This is the same package, shipping from Oregon to Florida. These screenprints are from 4 pm local time.

image

As expected, for first class and priority mail, when I make the ship date one day later, the estimated delivery date also becomes one day later. But it doesn’t for parcel select.

What seems to be happening is that Amazon is using a different shipping cut-off time for Parcel Select than for the other USPS services. In other words, it’s changing the ship date to ‘tomorrow’ (no matter what you input) earlier in the day than for other USPS services.

You probably realize that the system has a set time after which it assumes you are shipping “tomorrow” even if you tell it you are shipping “today”. Like you could purchase a USPS label at 11:55 pm with today as the ship date, but the system would treat that as going out on Friday, since Thursday would only have 5 minutes left.

For me, in Portland, OR, the system decides it becomes “tomorrow” at 5 pm local time. So, if I bought a first-class label at 4:59 pm today, the system might show me Mon, July 24 as the estimated delivery date, but if I waited and bought the label at 5:01 pm instead, the system would push the delivery date to Tues, July 25 because it would automatically assume I was shipping tomorrow instead. It’s the same as if I manually changed the ship date to Friday myself, only the ship date box would still show Thursday. But the system would be quoting you ‘as if’ you were shipping on Friday.

But since the delivery date for Parcel Select isn’t changing when I choose ‘tomorrow’ as the ship date, that tells me the system is already treating the time as “tomorrow” as far as Parcel Select goes. Which means that’s it’s using an earlier in the day cut-off time.

For purposes of first-class and priority mail, it becomes “tomorrow” at 5 pm local time, but I’m guessing that for parcel select, “tomorrow” comes at 2 pm.