How to Ship Heavy Parcels by UPS for Less
While the United States Postal Service (USPS) generally offers the best overall shipping rates, it does have its drawbacks. For instance, it doesn’t ship packages heavier than 70 lbs so if you need to ship a heavy parcel, you will have to resort to other carriers such as FedEx or UPS. Of course, shipping heavy parcels is not cheap, but there are ways to save some money on it. How to ship heavy parcels by UPS for less?
UPS (United Parcel Service) is an American delivery company that provides domestic and international shipping services. It is considered to be one of the top 3 shipping carriers in the United States, along with the USPS and FedEx. UPS provides time-definite delivery throughout the U.S. and international delivery to more than 220 countries and territories worldwide.
With UPS, you can send parcels weighing up to 150 lbs, which is more than 2 times heavier than the USPS weight limit. Please, keep in mind that USPS calculates the rate based on the so-called billable weight. To determine the billable weight of your package, you need to determine its actual weight and dimensional weight.
Determining actual weight is the easy part. Just put your package on a scale and round up its weight to the next whole pound. To determine dimensional weight of a parcel, you need to take 3 steps. First, determine the parcel dimensions (length, width and height) in inches and round each measurement to the closest whole number. Second, multiply length by width by height. Third, divide the number by 139 for international shipments or by 166 for domestic shipments.
All that’s left to do is compare the package’s actual weight to its dimensional weight. The greater of the two is the billable weight that will be used to calculate the rate. If your package is heavier than 70 lbs, it is considered a heavy package, and you will be charged accordingly.
Of course, shipping heavy parcels is not cheap. While UPS does provide discounts, they are volume-based so if you only need to ship one parcel, you won’t get a discount. To ship heavy parcels by UPS for less, you can use third-party services that get shipping discounts from carriers and share them with their customers. How does it work?
Like most carriers, UPS attaches shipping labels to all shipped parcels. You can prepare UPS labels for domestic and international shipping online using UPS Internet Shipping or services such as PostageMaker. PostageMaker allows to create valid UPS labels and save on shipping thanks to discounts.
At PostageMaker, we have deals with major carriers (UPS, USPS and FedEx) and receive discounts thanks to shipping large volumes. We pass these discounts on to our customers, enabling them to prepare shipping labels for less.
To generate discounted UPS labels using PostageMaker, you need to sign up for our service and add funds to your account. Then fill out a form and print your label. If you cannot or don’t want to print the label right away, you can save it as pdf and print later.
With PostageMaker, you can ship heavy or large parcels by UPS for less, keep track of your transactions in your personal account, and use our tracking service and shipping calculators. We will help you save your time and money!