UPS/USPS Connection

Thomason

Thomason

Joined
Nov 28, 2002
Messages
9,375
I have noticed something lately that I am a little curious about. There are a couple of clothing companies I do a little business with. They ship via UPS and provide me with a tracking number. I can watch the package move from place to place down the chain on the UPS website tracking page. Once the package arrives at the UPS terminal nearest to me, the final tracking info reads "routed to final destination" or something like that. The package shows up at my door the following day delivered by the post office. The shipping label has both my address and the address of the local post office.

It is as if the companies use UPS to move the packages cross country and then uses the post office for the final to the door delivery. I was wondering what the companies rationale is for this? I guessing cost somehow is involved. Just wondering.
 
Cost is what it's all about, Rob. Having the USPS do the final delivery is less expensive than having UPS bring it to your door. (LL Bean, huh? ;))
 
Yep, L.L. Bean. I'm a pretty new customer.
First time I ordered, I didn't know who delivered it(now I'm waiting on my 3rd order in two weeks-dang that L.L. Bean).
I flagged the UPS guy last week at a stop sign across from my house, and told him I'd save him a trip up the driveway(since tracking showed the package out for delivery). He said he didn't have anything for me, and asked what kind of package. When I said L.L. Bean, he told me "the post office delivers those".
 
I was told a year ago or a little more now,by our local Postmaster,that USPS was hauling all of the UPS items that traveled by air.
 
If I remember right, Best Buy does the same thing. They start out with UPS then after it sits in their terminal for several days then they ship it USPS the final leg of the packages journey.
 
USPS has a delivery network that touches every delivery point in the country. It is an enormous financial loser to have this as many places are not profitable, but USPS is required by federal law to provide universal service so it has no choice. As an attempt to offset this financial sinkhole Congress has, via the Private Express Statute, granted USPS the sole right to carry First-Class Mail. Since it is not profitable to deliver everywhere, the private carriers do not do so. In the past couple of years, the private carriers and USPS have reached agreements for USPS to carry the private carriers' parcels "the last mile." This is profitable for the private carriers becase it effectively expands their delivery network without any enormous capital outlay and it is profitable for USPS because they get paid to carry items to the addresses they are already covering. It is a win-win.

It works the other way, too. Much of the USPS mail that travels by air is carried by FedEx. USPS is not allowed by Congress to have its own fleet of airplanes so it needs to hire a common carrier and FedEx has excess lift capacity that it is happy to sell to USPS. Another win-win.

There are also reply/return mail agreements between USPS and common carriers and between USPS and UPS where USPS delivers mail from the home to consolidation points where it is taken by the private enterprise to be returned to the manufacturer or vendor. In this scenario it can be said that USPS uses its vast network to carry the goods "the first mile" after which it is tendered to the other carriers. Another win-win.
 
That's interesting and makes a lot of sense. I used to live in the middle of nowhere and the closest UPS/FedEx facility was 70 miles away. One time the delivery truck (FedEx) came from Billings, MT....a distance of 309 miles. :eek: I'm guessing they lost money on that delivery.
 
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