Monday, October 5, 2009

US Postal Service Mailing and Shipping Regulations

The USPS or Postal Service changes the cost of the First Class postage stamp about every year, and everyone groans until they get used to the new pricing. This seems to be a cover for the real changes they make that many Americans only feel at Christmas time.

The cost of shipping a package, and the rules regulating the shipping of parcels slips by most of us until we have an occasion to need them. That occasion usually strikes from about the middle of November to the end of the year. That is when "parcel shock" sets in.

You take the little package to the post office to send off to another state, with a $5 in hand, knowing that will more than cover the shipping. You wait in line with ten other people with larger packages than yours. You finally get to the counter, and plop that little package right in the clerk's face. She wants to know if it has anything liquid, fragile or perishable.

Shall you take a chance? Tell her it is fragile? If she marks it "fragile" it will probably get invited to the basketball game in the back. Make a fast choice. She is about to tell you the COST of shipping this little bugger to your favorite relative. Hang on! It went up from last year. LOTS. Are you ready?

You might want to consider a flat-rate box. If the item is small but heavy, and not fragile, that may work for you.

Are you interested in the USPS Rules? They are found in the DMM or Domestic Mail Manual provided by the Postal Service. We have a review of what you might need to know in an article about the USPS shipping and mailing regulations. That way, you don't have to read the DMM unless you have additional questions. You can quickly read the difference in a flat and a parcel, and find the size of a letter, according to the postal service. You may find some information you did not know that will help you make decisions before you go to stand in line at your local post office. We hope so.

Here is the article.


Hope you have an uneventful trip to the post office next time around!

Linda
cajunC

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