Shipping

[levelbest]

Does anyone know how to get discounted rates with UPS or have any suggestions for shipping. It's frustrating that if you don't pay for daily pickup, you can't get any discounts. I just sent 20 pieces of ogio luggage out today and shipping via UPS at a UPS Customer Center (where the brown trucks go) was $234.72.

Are there any trade organizations, AAA, sams or other discounts I may be missing that would allow me to ship things cheaper?

Your thoughts much appreciated.

[levelbest]

Posting for Rolland - temporary glitch with website.

We have 'shipper status' with UPS and do not pay for daily pickup...Sue can go through the UPS website and
make up barcode printable labels after weighing and measuring, slap them on the package, and if UPS
doesn't happen to stop in, we can hail any UPS truck and they take it-or we run it across town to the UPS
store and drop it off there. Monthly itemized billing, no service fees or minimum bill. Sometimes we don't
ship for weeks or even months-then we hit a spurt where we ship every other day or so.
She can also compare prices on line with Post Office rates-and we found a HUGE difference.
To ship a set of plastic fender flares off my Rubicon across the country was going to be $150 by UPS,
I mailed them for $17.....
so we always doublecheck with the customer to see if they want it FAST, or CHEAP before we ship.


Roland

[levelbest]

Posting for Aaron - same reason:

Ive been using the flat rate Priority Mail through the USPS. You can order
up to 500 boxes for free and whatever you can get into the 11x8.5x5.5 is
9.30 or 12x12x5.5 is 12.50 anywhere in the US and from West coast to East
Coast is approx 3 days so its fast but not guaranteed. The envelope is 12.5
x 9.5 for $4.80. I got some of all 3 sizes and when it fits in them its
usually a good rate. As far as UPS I use my neighbors account so he pays
the misc fees and I just reap the benefits of having his computerized
shipping labels and daily pickup [img]smile.gif[/img]

On the USPS you can print labels from online on your regular printer, pay
with a CC and have your regular postal dud or dudette pick them up. You
need a days advance notice for pickup on the boxes but we put the envelopes
right out with our mail and he takes them.

[Theresa S.]

If you belong to the ETA, you can get a FedEX account and get a good rates. I generally use FedEx ground, gets anywhere in the lower 48 in 5 days. I have used it for air (3 day)quite some time ago; but didn't compare what they charged me vs retail rate. My day job is in logistics..and it is very difficult to get UPS to discount anything.

[levelbest]

Posted for Judy - problem fixed now.

I can't get onto the amayausers.com site. Well, I can get to the site, but am locked out of the discussion boards. HELP!

For shipping, I always use Fed Ex Ground for the big stuff. In my area, UPS hires ticked off gorillas to handle stuff, and it always gets dinged up. UPS permanently lost me when I ordered a 150# package. I had to go and inspect it because it was "damaged". In reality, the paper was slightly torn. They then wanted all 5'3" of me to put it into my car and take it home! When I declined, they sent TWO big ol' guys to deliver it!

I find I get better service as well. One of my packages made it from the east coast to the west coast hub, five hours away from me, in only three days, arriving on a Thursday morning. It then SAT THERE until Sunday night, and I got it Monday morning. When I questioned UPS about it, they said they had a five day shipping time to get it from there to me. Fed Ex Ground? If it's ahead of schedule, they don't care, just get it there!

HTH,
Judy

[levelbest]

What's ETA

[Theresa S.]

Embroidery Trade Association ...will look up link when I get home tonight and post

[Theresa S.]

here's the link...discussed FedEx discount on home page:

http://www.embroiderytrade.org/

[Just Sew It]

I signed up for an account with FedEx several years ago thru NNEP. It is called Partner Ship.I have a large green magnetic sticker I slapped on the side of the file cabinet for the driver to scan when he or she delivers.
Since I hardly ever ship anything, I can't tell you how much it saves.
I also have an account with UPS which I got at the same time and use more often.
JO

[Steve]

I personally wouldn't use FedEx Ground because they have lost many packages in the past as well as for some unknown reason they couldn't find my house in Maryland but UPS and USPS had no problem. I never had a problem with FedEx next day air though. I do use UPS and USPS for shipping outbound and have an account with UPS. I'm not sure what the formula is for getting a discount but I was shipping about 5 boxes a day and getting a discount off the web rates. I have a UPS barcode printer which saves money for paper and ink and love it. UPS supplies the labels for it but the printer isn't cheap, I think it starts around $250 depending on what model you get.

[levelbest]

UPS told me today you need to spend $50 a week for 4 consecutive weeks to get discount rates. Problem is, if you don't maintain that volume, they said you get bumped back down. Honestly, we normally don't do a ton of shipping - most of it is local pickup - but corporate orders requiring shipping are on the uptick.

[levelbest]

Interesting - we're a sams club business plus member - and I just found this...

http://samsclubmemberservices.com/Me...nroll_2007.pdf

Says something about saving up to 21%

[levelbest]

Sorry, that's the application here are the details...

Features & Benefits
You know you can count on FedEx to deliver expertise, great service and great value for all your shipping needs, virtually anytime, anywhere. A major advantage is that there are no enrollment fees and no minimum-shipping-volume requirements so you can start saving quickly with the FedEx AdvantageSM program.

Sam's Club Plus Members can save up to:
21% on select FedEx Express® services
15% on select FedEx Ground® services
20% on select FedEx Kinko´s® business services

Sam's Club Business Members can save up to:
16% on select FedEx Express® services
12% on select FedEx Ground® services
15% on select FedEx Kinko´s® business services

http://samsclubmemberservices.com/Bu...ces/FedEx.aspx

I hate it when I pay for services, and then forget I can actually get discounts with them!!

[Theresa S.]

Whatever method you decide on, when you quote your customer for freight charges, use the "retail" rate (and be sure to include cost of packaging materials). If they think it's too much, you can offer to use their preferred carrier providing they give you their corporate account number. You are in an urban area, so UPS, FedEX and DHL should be able to pick up for the corporate customer. (saving you time and gas!)

[levelbest]

Theresa-

Great idea to offer corporate people the option to use their account number. I never would have thought of that. Indeed on the packing. Normally we would have reused the boxes - but in this case, we had to buy 4 new boxes at $4 a pop plus packing tape. Luckily it's soft side luggage so we were able to pack em tight without any stuffing/peanuts etc.