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Why Is First Class Arriving Quicker Than Priority?

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
The title says it all. I just sent boxes out First Class, partially because it was cheaper and partially because they were butterworts, which have a good longevity for travel in the dark. I send the boxes on Tuesday and expected them to arrive on Friday. They got to their respective destinations on Thursday. I don't get 2 days from Priority mail and spend 3X as much to ship! What gives?
 
depends on where its going and whether you hit the trucks right......i can get first class mail from Hong Kong or Belgium faster than i can get first class from the other side of Montana....
 
So I just got lucky?
 
would be my guess.......one problem is alot of times, atleast in Montana, the times they list such as if dropped off by it will go out today kinda things arent always correct as to what really happens most days......ive dropped off stuff hours before that deadline and not had them go out that day and we are the major post office hub for this chunk of Montana, one of 8 or 9 in the state and not some lil tiny post office at one of the real out of the way places north of me....

course you could have just found one route that moves faster that most others through some quirk in the system aswell.....
 
Sometimes it's one-time luck and sometimes it's a quirk of the shipping path. Most Priority Mail goes through Memphis, carried by FedEx, and FedEx handles it as if it were 2nd day shipping, although post office connections can add 1-2 days. I order coffee for a few people from a roaster in RI every couple months and have it shipped UPS because it'll arrive the next day and for a lot less than priority mail, since the boxes run 12+ lb. It's a good idea to pay attention to how long different options actually take and how much they cost because sometimes there are surprises.
 
Yes, it can be funny how that works out. If I order Aves sculpting epoxy from River Falls WI using UPS ground I still get it next day here 30 miles west of Mineapolis. I could pay way more for "priority mail" and get it in 2-3 days. But the company ships ground for free and I always have it "tomorrow".

The Same goes for Amazon, I never pay for expedited shipping. If I order on Friday I always get it "the next Friday" no matter how long they say it may take or how much I pay so why pay more? :D
 
I know what you mean, Jim! It's a day difference between the 2 services (most times) if you're talking USPS and it's totally not wort it to pay priority. I like first class better.
 
No; priority mail is worth the price for some things to some destinations. If I ship a plant by priority mail to the west coast tomorrow, it'll likely arrive on Wednesday, unless it's going to a "special" address, such as SW OR, which seems to be a black hole of shipping. If I use 1st Class, it might and only might get there by the end of the week, after being exposed to a cross section of plant-destroying weather along the way. If time and conditions don't matter and the recipient doesn't mind, then 1st Class is fine. With Priority Mail, pay attention to weather conditions at the destination, because the final trip from the PO to the recipient can definitely be the plant's final trip if weather conditions aren't favorable. If they see a box is marked "live plant" and/or "keep out of sun", my USPS & UPS delivery people carry boxes around to a shady part of the house rather than leave them in direct afternoon sun at the front door. Not all will notice or make that extra effort.

By the way, Jim, if you aren't getting 2-day shipping on Priority Mail, ask your PO what time a package has to arrive by to get out that quickly or if there is another nearby PO that can move them quickly. As Rattler mentioned, some POs are hubs and packages tend to (but don't always) get into the system more quickly from them.
 
Thanks for the input. I thought someone once said that if your package is smalll; that is, there's room, they'll toss it in with the other Priority packages. I'm not sure how much the people at the desk really know anout the tendencies but it doesn't hurt to ask.
 
  • #10
That's true - the PO will "upgrade" something when there's room, but the decision probably happens at a hub, not at ordinary local offices. I'll sometimes get a letter/package from my mother in AZ two days after she mailed it or vice versa and those clearly travelled by means other than a truck.
 
  • #11
I know what you mean, Jim! It's a day difference between the 2 services (most times) if you're talking USPS and it's totally not wort it to pay priority. I like first class better.

if you dont send priority i wont trade with you, cause ive got a couple very narrow windows during the year where a plant might survive first class, the rest is way to hot or way to cold......im sure there are others that are the same.....our post office is a hub but its the last hub on the line.....first class can take 2 to 12 days to get to me depending on where its coming from and what hangups it encounters along the way.....when sending live plant material(other than seeds), unless yah know the system well enough to know a quirk thats there that is faster than normal from several past experiences sending it to that place, always send priority..... and you can usually get 2 day service with priority if you get out of bed and head down to the post office on Saturday morning....bout 80% of the time to most addresses if yah send a priority package on Saturday its to the person on Monday
 
  • #12
I agree; Saturday is the most reliable 2-day shipping day if you know that the box will get out of the PO and not spend the rest of the weekend at the loading bay door waiting for Monday to arrive. We're entering a tough time for shipping plants because of the high sun, hot temperatures and the fact that a lot of plants are in active growth right now. That's a combination for killing plants. Even though winter is tough too, I've received far fewer DOA plants in winter than in summer.

Double boxing - packing in a small box and packing that into a larger box - is a great way to protect against the weather, but Priority Mail's relatively new volumetric pricing makes double-boxing extremely expensive for anything but the smallest plants. Prices can easily jump from $5 to $25 as the package volume goes past 1728 cu. in. That's only 12x12x12. But even the extra $ is money well spent if it can protect a rare or valuable plant. There's no point in spending $5 to roast or freeze a plant. It costs much less to just put it in the oven or freezer at home and you save a trip to the PO. If the plant isn't worth the cost to safely ship it, don't make the trade.
 
  • #13
Weight and distance can also affect the price of priority shipping. For instance if I ship a 2 lbs priority package standard size box from Los Angeles to San Francisco it is $4.95. If I ship the same package to Miami it is $8.70. If it was 1 lbs or less it would be $4.95 for either destination.

Flate-rate shipping is probably the way to go with heavier packages but then you are constrained to using the USPS boxes.


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