Air vs Ground Shipping

Jerryc41

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I sold a uke to someone in CA, and it made the trip from my house to his in two days, Priority Mail for $28.

I'm waiting for a uke (KoAloha) to arrive from Hawaii. It was sent on 6/29, UPS, for $50. It should arrive on Tuesday, 7/10. Tracking shows that it's making its way cross-country by truck right now. At least it took a plane from Honolulu to CA. Imagine if it had gone by ship!
 
I sent my KoAloha back to KoAloha to have the bridge worked on, and decided to ship ground vs. any other mode. Priority was going to be $80; UPS was $120 (I was sending it in a case in a larger box). We don’t have a FedEx close to my house (I’d have to drive 20 minutes) so I don’t know what FedEx would charge. Ground from MN to HI was $35.

What KoAloha did you buy now?
 
USPS Priority Mail fan myself. I'm not going to say that they never screw up, but overall and over time they have been the best for me. I live in two places, one of them being a gated condo in Puerto Rico. I forward mail back and forth all of the time. I pretty much won't do business with a company if they won't send it to my P.O. Box. One interesting thing is that some companies will not send packages to Puerto Rico. I don't know why. But if they won't, I have the packages sent to my address in Iowa. USPS will forward them to me in PR. No extra charge. It takes the packages four extra days to get to me in PR doing that. Generally speaking I still get it in less than a week. Works for me.
 
USPS Priority Mail fan myself. I'm not going to say that they never screw up, but overall and over time they have been the best for me. I live in two places, one of them being a gated condo in Puerto Rico. I forward mail back and forth all of the time. I pretty much won't do business with a company if they won't send it to my P.O. Box. One interesting thing is that some companies will not send packages to Puerto Rico. I don't know why. But if they won't, I have the packages sent to my address in Iowa. USPS will forward them to me in PR. No extra charge. It takes the packages four extra days to get to me in PR doing that. Generally speaking I still get it in less than a week. Works for me.

When I taught in the Dominican Republic—23 years ago (sigh)—the school had a PO Box in Miami and had regular couriers who would pick up the mail and bring it to the school. DHS was also popular. People didn’t mail directly via the DR mail system out of fear that things would never arrive.

Things are probably better 23 years later—but I know couriers are probably still the way to go.

I just read about a town in the Northern US that has thousands of PO Boxes and services for Canadians who come across the border to pick up Amazon and other packages.
 
I sent my KoAloha back to KoAloha to have the bridge worked on, and decided to ship ground vs. any other mode. Priority was going to be $80; UPS was $120 (I was sending it in a case in a larger box). We don’t have a FedEx close to my house (I’d have to drive 20 minutes) so I don’t know what FedEx would charge. Ground from MN to HI was $35.

What KoAloha did you buy now?

The size of the box makes a big difference. One pkg would have cost me $9 to send locally, but $40+ to CA. FedEx is over an hour away from me. UPS is "close" - half an hour. Everything is at least half an hour for me, so I try to do everything in one trip.

KoAloha Scepter.

I have two wireless keyboards that are driving me crazy. They miss letters, and I don't type all that fast. I look back and see missing letters or entire words.
 
USPS Priority Mail fan myself.

Yes - very good service. I print the labels at home with Click 'N Ship and bring the pkg to the PO. There used to be a discount for printing at home, but not any more.

I just sent a pkg to CA, and it arrived Saturday, rather than the following Monday. Nice surprise.
 
The least expensive domestic shipping service for me has been FedEx Ground. I have checked UPS, USPS, and FedEx several times this year . But USPS seems the best for shipping to Hawaii from the mainland, and shipping internationally.

USPS tracking isn’t the best, and delivery standards are inconsistent. They can be quick or slow.
 
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