Originally Posted by bearisgray
Originally Posted by quiltmom04
I'm wondering why 2 packages ship for less than one, if the contents both equal 12 yds????
That has puzzled me, too.
I could/would have understood that "up to 8 yards in one envelope" would mean that more than 8 yards would go in some other sort of packaging - not that the "more" would be cut up to fit into more than one envelope.
Or I could/would have understood it that it meant that several short lengths that would/could total up to 8 yards could be stuffed in one envelope.
It's challenging to write something that is impossible to to misunderstand.
And it's also challenging to write something that is impossible to misunderstand, about something that is hard to understand in the first place!
A couple of years ago, when fuel prices went sky-high, the Post Office changed its rate structure from one that was (mostly) based on weight, to one that's based on the volume/size of the package too.
Keep in mind that most of the packages sent through USPS are Priority Mail now because you can make the labels and pay for the postage online. I believe this streamlines things for the Post Office and keeps some of their labor costs down, because now the customer does all the data entry and paying without taking up any of the Postal clerks' time.
Priority Mail packages travel by air. And there is a limited amount of space available in the cargo hold of an airplane.
So USPS must have figured that the flat-rate envelopes and boxes are the way to go because they're all uniform in size and can be machine processed and, with all that uniformity, it's probably easier to pack them in the cargo hold too. (I suppose.)
And so, they reward you financially for using the flat-rate products and kind of penalize you for anything else.
Suppose we want to ship a 15-yard bolt of fabric from the US to Austria (or Australia). It's too big to fit in a flat-rate envelope (they only hold 8 yards). The fabric plus the weight of a box will be 7 pounds. If we leave it on the bolt the size of the box needed to hold it will be about 24" x 10" x 4". The longest USPS flat-rate box is only 13 5/8" so it won't fit in a flat-rate box.
So if we send it on the bolt, in our own packaging, it will cost $43.99 to ship to Austria, or $54.72 to Australia, plus about $1 to cover the cost of the box. (Boxes are expensive!)
If we take it off the bolt, we can fold it so that it will fit in a flat-rate box, and will cost $41.28 to ship.
But a flat-rate envelope only costs $12.78 to ship; two of them will cost $25.56.
So if you cut that length of fabric in two and ship it in two flat-rate envelopes it will save about $15-$29 in shipping costs.
Go figure!! It's the exact same amount of merchandise being shipped, nearly the same weight (the two envelopes will weigh a bit less than a box).
Hard to comprehend the pricing, isn't it?
Oh... you DO get a little bit of package tracking if you ship it in either a flat-rate box or a box of your own. You can see when the package leaves the US and what city it left from. And a little bit of insurance too.
Big whoop! Is that worth $15-$29 extra?
(By the way... you can't insure those flat-rate envelopes through the Post Office but you CAN insure them through a third-party insurer such as Shipsurance. That's particularly important for those of us who don't like unpleasant surprises such as lost packages.)
So tell me... how'd I do on explaining this? Did anybody follow me? Or did I lose you?