Anybody else noticed?

[Nick]

That shipping things via USPS from the states has gone up a shitload recently or does it just seem that way? I bought a motor & controller for the vibes I'm building just recently & it cost US$150 in a package no bigger than a cigar box. Went onto RC Tonewoods today & two tops & a B&S set will cost US$134 to ship to NZ (sure the last shipment was only about $60 or something). Not Bob's fault of course but just wondering if USPS are now cashing in on the fact that they were cheaper than others & have gotten more popular.

[Pete Brown]

Went onto RC Tonewoods today & two tops & a B&S set will cost US$134 to ship to NZ (sure the last shipment was only about $60 or something).

Just for the heck of it, I placed a "make believe" order for the same materials from Stew-Mac and nominated NZ as the destination. DHL Express Air shipping was quoted at $41.25 USD.

[kiwigeo]

I just put in an order to Stewmac and the shipping via DHL seemed cheap compared to USPS.

[Lillian]

I just asked the Bookkeeper/Shipping Department (Fran), if shipping had gone up. In a word, yes all the international and domestic shipping has gone up. The bookshop has gone to shipping First Class as opposed to Priority. Takes longer, but is cheaper. USPS is citing email/internet and fuel prices for their justification. I can accept that. All I'm really receiving on a regular basis is ads and junk mail. I receive all my monthly bills online.

Remember that the USPS is not a governmental agency. It does not receive subsidy from the Feds. It was privatized years ago.

DHL is cheap for a reason. All of the major publishing houses have stopped using them. They have no regard for the packages intrusted in their care. Boxes and boxes of hardback books would arrive damaged and would have to be returned.

[kiwigeo]

Last week I air mailed a box of chocolate biscuits to my niece in Switzerland (yeah I know its the home of chocolate)....$120 postage for $60 worth of biscuits. But shes my niece so no expense is spared

[P Bill]

In feb. I visited rellies in Prescott, Az. and bought 2 mexican cowboy hats made of palm leaf ( think urban sombrero ). Great sun protection here in S.E. Qld. The hats cost $25 each. UPS wanted $150 and USPS about the same. I took them as baggage.

[charangohabsburg]

Last week I air mailed a box of chocolate biscuits to my niece in Switzerland (yeah I know its the home of chocolate)....$120 postage for $60 worth of biscuits.

Truth is that Swiss chocolate is made of Australian/NZ chocolate biscuits (don't tell anybody). Because shipping costs are so high Swiss chocolate is expensive.

[Kim]

USPS may not be owned by the feds on paper, but it is certainly the feds who hold the purse strings as it remains a government agency with an explicit authorization under the constitution and retains exclusive access to all mail boxes marked US Mail and private mail boxes. USPS employs around 600,000 people making it the second largest private employer in the USA. Another facet to this is that USPS has/had/is been seen as a resource by successive US governments from both sides as a fail safe place of employment for returning military personal to assist them in their transition back into civilian life and I am led to believe it has also been used to facilitate prisoners on work programs to assist in paroling them out of correctional facilities...To put it simply..USPS MUST continue to function in the interest of the US economy. Therefore the US government still subsidizes the operation costs of USPS.

With declining mail volumes that are the result of the rising popularity of electronic communications, the amount of revenue that USPS can raise has fallen. This has resulted in a dramatic fall in the funds they contribute toward their own running cost because whilst it may be assumed that less out put requires less effort and therefore less cost to provide the service, the reality is that other than being able to shed a few retail outlets to save money, logistics demand that they maintain the same infrastructure regardless of whether they handle 1, or 1 billion letters.

What we are now seeing with the rise in international freight charges is a direct result of this conundrum PLUS the effects of the feds GFC triggered cost cutting measures. The US economy is in trouble, the feds have put the acid on USPS to tighten up so they do not have so much impact on the budget. USPS would no doubt have requested a drop in service obligations to cut their operational cost and also a big price rise in the cost of a stamp for standard domestic mail. The feds would have said no way, this will piss the voters off, find another way. USPS would have come back with a suggested up-charge in international freight rates. The feds would have looked at the proposal and said to themselves...none of the negatively affected people can vote in the USA and smiled broadly as they gave it the tick telling them to charge what ever they like.

So here we are outside the USA finding ourselves now subsidizing USPS on behalf of the feds...Clever idea indeed on the surface, but if you consider the rise in global eCommerce and parcels movement, it seems an extremely short sighted solution for a country to make which currently finds itself sinking further and further below the surface of its own trade deficit....If Americans want jobs, then they gotta make stuff and sell it instead of importing everything...you don't encourage that by making the stuff that Americans make so expensive to freight for people outside the USA that those products cease to be a viable option....global economy = compete or die on the vine. In my opinion this current trend is going to see a glut of sultanas in the USA and not very much else.

Cheers

Kim

[Daniel_M]

All the more reason to build with Australian timbers!

[Kim]

Could not agree more Daniel

We have very good local woods, tops are a bit limited and some tools and parts are a struggle to find alternatives for, but in the main we have a lot of it covered here in AU so we should keep our money at home where we can as its good for us as builders and 'our' economy.

Cheers

Kim

[Nick]

All the more reason to build with Australian timbers!

I've still gotta ship them across the ditch Although obviously shipping would be cheaper

[kiwigeo]

All the more reason to build with Australian timbers!

I've still gotta ship them across the ditch Although obviously shipping would be cheaper

For a slab of Steinlagers Im willing to take one of your guitars back across the ditch.......of course it might be the last time you see the guitar

[Lillian]

I can't argue with you Kim. Most of our politicians are myopic in their guidance of the country. They can't see past the impact of their actions on their next campaign season. They are only concerned about their coffers being filled. The Supreme Court's decisions of late have catered to that attitude, declaring that Corporations are people too and will be looked at as such for campaign contributions and influence, totally obliterating the restraints on big business buying votes.

There was rumblings about the Post Office cutting Saturday delivery service. The Post Offices would still be open for picking up packages and mailing things out, just no deliveries. While I'm fond of getting mail on Saturday, especially if I'm expecting a package, I thought it to be a sound idea. Which is probably why the rumblings have ceased and nothing has changed.

While international shipping has taken a larger hit, domestic package shipping has gone up as well.

Sadly we are too old and/or too poor to contemplate emigrating.

[Kerplunk]

USPS would have come back with a suggested up-charge in international freight rates. The feds would have looked at the proposal and said to themselves...none of the negatively affected people can vote in the USA and smiled broadly as they gave it the tick telling them to charge what ever they like.

...Clever idea indeed on the surface, but if you consider the rise in global eCommerce and parcels movement, it seems an extremely short sighted solution for a country to make which currently finds itself sinking further and further below the surface of its own trade deficit....If Americans want jobs, then they gotta make stuff and sell it instead of importing everything...you don't encourage that by making the stuff that Americans make so expensive to freight for people outside the USA that those products cease to be a viable option....

Mmm, if the first paragraph above is true, this may well come back to bite the "Fed's" on the bum; the U.S. small businesses and private citizen's selling their stuff on U.S. eBay to overseas buyers are also negatively affected; not only do these people vote, but I'm guessing there's quite a sizeable number of them - I wonder just how much of the U.S. export market is eCommerce-based?

Don't know if you're aware of this Lillian, but the major retailers here in Australia have all been up in arms about the amount of goods Australian's have been buying from overseas sources via the internet (the U.S. being a major one of them). And it's true; I know someone who, over the last few years has bought a ridiculous number of individual golf clubs off U.S. eBay, because they could do that and ship it here for way less than the price the local golf shop is selling them for. And I must admit, if I need some specialty book or piece of equipment, it's the U.S. websites I've checked out first.

So the pressure the local retailers have been putting on the Australian government to crack down on e'tailing Aussies may well no longer be needed; this USPS price hike may well go a long way to doing the job for them.