Shipping Schedules For Your Business Around The Holidays
October 07, 2009 | By
Knowing that Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and other important holidays are right around the corner, are you prepared to change your shipping schedule? Have you explored or thought of offering priority or overnight shipping options? Have you talked to your local post master?
Recently I went to my local postmaster and asked him several questions. One of which was what was the cut off date for shipping first class mail and having it delivered in time for Christmas. His answer was "According to the main office December 14th."
I asked him is that in general and he said yes. "But what people need to consider is if you live in a rural area to actually cut off another 2-3 days." He also mentioned "That in state deliveries can take up to 3-4 days during the holiday times even."
Throughout our discussion he pointed out many things and answered many questions. The typical date a post office sets for cut off times is not by the local post itself but Federal cut off time. There are many factors to consider when trying to determine what your shut off date should be.
1. Do you live in a rural or very small town?
2. Do you use click n ship from any Website such as USPS or PayPal? If so do you take your package to your post office or have it scheduled to be picked up?
3. What time does your mail run at your house if you do click n ship?
4. Do you live in an area that roads are hazardous to travel on during winter months?
5. Are you aware if your post office can offer overnight shipping?
Not all do. I learned mine can't. You can pay for postage for overnight shipping at my office but because of the pick up routes for such service, mine would actually be picked from our post office the next day. I would either have to offer 2nd day shipping or run to the next town who has a daily pick up for over night shipping. In my case the nearest place that offers daily pick up for overnight packages is 30 miles away. Would I offer overnight shipping to someone because of this? Yes but only if they are willing to provide the gas money to travel 30 miles there and back.
6. What time of day should be a good cut off time to have packages to the post office, in time to be picked up or sent out that day?
All facilities have a different time for trucks to pick up different package types, such as parcel post, priority mail, first class mail, expedited, international, overnight, and many others. Not all post offices run the same, however, most do. There are some post offices because of size or location can't offer same features as many others because of pick up routes. Most package types all go out on the same truck but not all facilities can handle this. Some don't have daily pick up for certain types of packages but can accept them. They would have to sit possibly over night before they leave the facility.
These are just some things to think about. I would sit and write a list of questions and go talk to your postmaster or a postal clerk at the office you ship from.
Holiday season generally means more sales because of people shopping for gifts or supplies. If you want to gain more sales consider offering Priority Mail, Overnight, and etc. But before you do be sure to know the limitations of what your post office can do for you so that you can accurately offer these services to your customers. Many customers if in a bind will be willing to pay for faster shipping.
Thanks for reading.
Marissa
www.libertydoll.artfire.com
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