If you wonder why shipping rates are so high!
06-12-2011, 08:51 AM
#62
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Western Nevada
Posts: 2,520
OK, a few things about shipping --
It could be that the vendor carries just a few sizes of shipping container because that's the smallest one they normally use. It may very well be that the vast majority of their orders take a container that is at least that big.
Shipping containers are priced by volume, i.e. the more you buy of them the cheaper you get them. It also takes time and space to stock and keep track of a lot of different sizes of container, so those shippers that use UPS and Fedex especially try to minimize the number of different containers they stock. It costs about the same amount to buy that small box as it does for a small padded envelope, maybe less if they're purchased in huge volume.
For larger shippers, their packing lines are set up assembly line style for boxes -- throw something in a box, fill it with padding material like packing peanuts from a chute, seal it with tape and slap a label on it. Messing with small containers takes extra time and time is money.
Automated sorting systems like UPS and Fedex use are set up for boxes, and those services charge a premium for shipping small containers that need special handling, so to ship a small padded envelope via UPS, which is what it looks like you have there, may actually cost as much or more as shipping that small box.
Using envelopes with special labeling, rather than a standard 3 x 5 or 4x6 label also takes time, an investment in multiple label stocks and multiple label printers, etc. so this all adds to the cost of using small container sizes.
Your shipper has a minimum shipping charge -- you paid a little under $5 for that parcel, which is probably about the amount, or a little more than the amount the shipper had to pay for the packaging, labor and shipping cost, if it was a high-volume shipper. They probably made a few cents shipping it to you at that price.
Typically, big shippers use one method to ship, two at most, so they're not going to ship this package via USPS and the next one by UPS, taking time each time to calculate which is cheaper. That's why they have flat rate shipping in the first place.
Additionally, they aren't going to lower the shipping price for a small blister-pack of needles -- here's why;
It takes almost as much time, thus labor cost, for instance, to pick and pack one blister pack of needles as it does to cut and pack multiple yards of fabric, and there is no profit in selling just a single pack of needles. They don't make enough on those needles to pay for the labor to pack them. That's why they're trying to make a little on the shipping, to maybe at least come close to breaking even on your order.
There's a lot more to the shipping business than there is time to go into here, but the bottom line is that what seems stupid to you as a person who would mail a small item to a friend isn't necessarily stupid from a business perspective.
It could be that the vendor carries just a few sizes of shipping container because that's the smallest one they normally use. It may very well be that the vast majority of their orders take a container that is at least that big.
Shipping containers are priced by volume, i.e. the more you buy of them the cheaper you get them. It also takes time and space to stock and keep track of a lot of different sizes of container, so those shippers that use UPS and Fedex especially try to minimize the number of different containers they stock. It costs about the same amount to buy that small box as it does for a small padded envelope, maybe less if they're purchased in huge volume.
For larger shippers, their packing lines are set up assembly line style for boxes -- throw something in a box, fill it with padding material like packing peanuts from a chute, seal it with tape and slap a label on it. Messing with small containers takes extra time and time is money.
Automated sorting systems like UPS and Fedex use are set up for boxes, and those services charge a premium for shipping small containers that need special handling, so to ship a small padded envelope via UPS, which is what it looks like you have there, may actually cost as much or more as shipping that small box.
Using envelopes with special labeling, rather than a standard 3 x 5 or 4x6 label also takes time, an investment in multiple label stocks and multiple label printers, etc. so this all adds to the cost of using small container sizes.
Your shipper has a minimum shipping charge -- you paid a little under $5 for that parcel, which is probably about the amount, or a little more than the amount the shipper had to pay for the packaging, labor and shipping cost, if it was a high-volume shipper. They probably made a few cents shipping it to you at that price.
Typically, big shippers use one method to ship, two at most, so they're not going to ship this package via USPS and the next one by UPS, taking time each time to calculate which is cheaper. That's why they have flat rate shipping in the first place.
Additionally, they aren't going to lower the shipping price for a small blister-pack of needles -- here's why;
It takes almost as much time, thus labor cost, for instance, to pick and pack one blister pack of needles as it does to cut and pack multiple yards of fabric, and there is no profit in selling just a single pack of needles. They don't make enough on those needles to pay for the labor to pack them. That's why they're trying to make a little on the shipping, to maybe at least come close to breaking even on your order.
There's a lot more to the shipping business than there is time to go into here, but the bottom line is that what seems stupid to you as a person who would mail a small item to a friend isn't necessarily stupid from a business perspective.
06-12-2011, 09:26 AM
#67
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Southwest Kansas
Posts: 4,820
Originally Posted by matraina
Now that I think of it, we have mail order pharmacy, too. We are both on lots of meds. They always come in a bubbled envelope. Go figure.
06-12-2011, 09:38 AM
#68
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Posts: 1,978
With the Post Office advertising how business' should use Flat Rate boxes, you wonder why more of the business' don't get on board. But as QKO mentioned, it takes more time but these business' could surely do the flat rate boxes with the boxes being free, huh??? I sure do get miffed when a small item comes in a humongous box and charged big time for shipping on top of that.
06-12-2011, 10:24 AM
#69
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Illinois
Posts: 166
Originally Posted by QKO
OK, a few things about shipping --
It could be that the vendor carries just a few sizes of shipping container because that's the smallest one they normally use. It may very well be that the vast majority of their orders take a container that is at least that big.
Shipping containers are priced by volume, i.e. the more you buy of them the cheaper you get them. It also takes time and space to stock and keep track of a lot of different sizes of container, so those shippers that use UPS and Fedex especially try to minimize the number of different containers they stock. It costs about the same amount to buy that small box as it does for a small padded envelope, maybe less if they're purchased in huge volume.
For larger shippers, their packing lines are set up assembly line style for boxes -- throw something in a box, fill it with padding material like packing peanuts from a chute, seal it with tape and slap a label on it. Messing with small containers takes extra time and time is money.
Automated sorting systems like UPS and Fedex use are set up for boxes, and those services charge a premium for shipping small containers that need special handling, so to ship a small padded envelope via UPS, which is what it looks like you have there, may actually cost as much or more as shipping that small box.
Using envelopes with special labeling, rather than a standard 3 x 5 or 4x6 label also takes time, an investment in multiple label stocks and multiple label printers, etc. so this all adds to the cost of using small container sizes.
Your shipper has a minimum shipping charge -- you paid a little under $5 for that parcel, which is probably about the amount, or a little more than the amount the shipper had to pay for the packaging, labor and shipping cost, if it was a high-volume shipper. They probably made a few cents shipping it to you at that price.
Typically, big shippers use one method to ship, two at most, so they're not going to ship this package via USPS and the next one by UPS, taking time each time to calculate which is cheaper. That's why they have flat rate shipping in the first place.
Additionally, they aren't going to lower the shipping price for a small blister-pack of needles -- here's why;
It takes almost as much time, thus labor cost, for instance, to pick and pack one blister pack of needles as it does to cut and pack multiple yards of fabric, and there is no profit in selling just a single pack of needles. They don't make enough on those needles to pay for the labor to pack them. That's why they're trying to make a little on the shipping, to maybe at least come close to breaking even on your order.
There's a lot more to the shipping business than there is time to go into here, but the bottom line is that what seems stupid to you as a person who would mail a small item to a friend isn't necessarily stupid from a business perspective.
It could be that the vendor carries just a few sizes of shipping container because that's the smallest one they normally use. It may very well be that the vast majority of their orders take a container that is at least that big.
Shipping containers are priced by volume, i.e. the more you buy of them the cheaper you get them. It also takes time and space to stock and keep track of a lot of different sizes of container, so those shippers that use UPS and Fedex especially try to minimize the number of different containers they stock. It costs about the same amount to buy that small box as it does for a small padded envelope, maybe less if they're purchased in huge volume.
For larger shippers, their packing lines are set up assembly line style for boxes -- throw something in a box, fill it with padding material like packing peanuts from a chute, seal it with tape and slap a label on it. Messing with small containers takes extra time and time is money.
Automated sorting systems like UPS and Fedex use are set up for boxes, and those services charge a premium for shipping small containers that need special handling, so to ship a small padded envelope via UPS, which is what it looks like you have there, may actually cost as much or more as shipping that small box.
Using envelopes with special labeling, rather than a standard 3 x 5 or 4x6 label also takes time, an investment in multiple label stocks and multiple label printers, etc. so this all adds to the cost of using small container sizes.
Your shipper has a minimum shipping charge -- you paid a little under $5 for that parcel, which is probably about the amount, or a little more than the amount the shipper had to pay for the packaging, labor and shipping cost, if it was a high-volume shipper. They probably made a few cents shipping it to you at that price.
Typically, big shippers use one method to ship, two at most, so they're not going to ship this package via USPS and the next one by UPS, taking time each time to calculate which is cheaper. That's why they have flat rate shipping in the first place.
Additionally, they aren't going to lower the shipping price for a small blister-pack of needles -- here's why;
It takes almost as much time, thus labor cost, for instance, to pick and pack one blister pack of needles as it does to cut and pack multiple yards of fabric, and there is no profit in selling just a single pack of needles. They don't make enough on those needles to pay for the labor to pack them. That's why they're trying to make a little on the shipping, to maybe at least come close to breaking even on your order.
There's a lot more to the shipping business than there is time to go into here, but the bottom line is that what seems stupid to you as a person who would mail a small item to a friend isn't necessarily stupid from a business perspective.
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