Through no particular desire of my own, I have become the queen of shipping. One son/daughter-in-law/grandchildren combination lives in Seattle. Another in Nashville. My goddaughter, Libby, and her family are in Denver. Nephews and great-nephews hang their hats from Birmingham to Mississippi to Atlanta.
So, I ship. Major gifts are usually left to whatever internet site I buy the gifts from, but that still leaves things like holiday treats, cards, little things I find shopping locally that I want to give them. I find myself at either FedEx, UPS or the post office fairly regularly.
Deciding which carrier to give my business to has been an interesting lesson in pricing, dependability and customer service. Not all carriers are created equal, and I have learned to carefully weigh my options as well as my box to get the best deal.
For simple cards and small packages, I lean almost exclusively on the U.S. Postal Service. Even when I am late and need a card to get to somewhere quickly, USPS and the 2-day shipping is still usually my best bet.
For packages that have some heft to them, I am usually shopping between the other two. The FedEx folks are the nicest, plus they stay open later, which helps my busy schedule. As long as I do not have to purchase boxes and packing material, I can usually ship things to arrive in 3 to 5 days at a reasonable rate.
What I find really interesting, however, is Amazon shipping. You don’t pick your shipper when you shop the Amazon giant. UPS seems to be the most frequent means of getting packages from Amazon, but they also ship with the other two and, occasionally, with DHL.
I wondered how Amazon picks the carrier, so I did a little research (meaning, of course, that I Googled it!). No clear answers, except that the USPS seems to be chosen if Saturday delivery is needed and for that “last mile” delivery in areas that may be more rural. Still, FedEx and UPS insist that Amazon only makes up a fraction of their income.
That Google search found a Business Insider article that said while Amazon business accounts for almost $1 billion in annual revenue for UPS, it is still less than 10 percent of their “business to customer” revenue. For FedEx, Amazon accounts for only 3 percent. For the USPS, all we know is that “private shippers,” like Amazon, account for $7 billion of the $19.5 billion in revenue.
As Amazon explores their options on entering the logistics market themselves, moving them from customer to competitor, I wonder what will become of the USPS. As patriotic as I want to be, I always do an involuntary shudder when I learn through one of Amazon’s constant email messages that my package will arrive from the U.S. post office.
Why? Because the only claims I have ever filed because a package didn’t arrive or arrived opened with most of the contents stolen has been with USPS. That happens less frequently with Amazon-shipped packages than it does when I ship things myself.
The USPS faces changes and challenges that are well-above my pay grade, with the most difficult being restrictions and laws from Congress. First-class mail is still the USPS biggest revenue source, and the postal service recorded a $1.87 billion revenue loss in fiscal year 2017. While email and social media are impacting their volume, and therefore, income, giving instant-gratification millennials what they want when they do ship may be the biggest threat.
This little ditty was circulating the Facebook world lately. I found it funny, and, unfortunately, true:
USPS: What package?
FedEx: Your package is somewhere, and we will deliver it when we’re good and ready.
UPS: Your package is in X City on a truck driven by Jim, who just stopped for coffee and will be in your neighborhood in 10 minutes.
Amazon: We are inside your house. Open your package now.