Mail Delivery Services
Which Are The Best Mail Delivery Services For Sending Business Mailers?
A few weeks ago, a client came to us asking about the best mail delivery services in the US. The client was hoping for a quick and definitive answer to their question. But, we had to explain that we can find the ideal mail delivery service provider for their business only after assessing their custom mail requirements.
After talking to this client, we understood that many businesses have the same confusion about business mail services. Hence, we have decided to create a guide that methodically explains the benefits of using primary mail services like USPS, FedEx, and UPS for your business.
So, if you are also concerned about which mail service provider is best for your business communication, this article is for you.
What Are The Major Mail Delivery Services In The US?
When it comes to mail delivery services in the US, there are three main options for you to choose from, and they are:
- USPS or Unites States Postal Service
- FedEx
- UPS
It is improbable that you are not already familiar with these three names. But, you are not here to listen to us talk about something you already know. You are here looking for the best business mail services for your company.
We have listed the three mail service providers to give you a heads up on which mail services we will be comparing in this article.
Which Are The Cheapest Business Mail Services In The US?
The mail delivery services in the US can broadly be classified into three categories, and they are
- Ground Delivery
- 3-Day Express Delivery
- Overnight Delivery
Any company with a well-established direct mail process uses all three types of delivery services from time to time. The following tables should give you how the mail delivery prices vary for each postal service provider.
| USPS Mail Delivery Service | Starting Price |
| Ground Delivery | $7.01 |
| 3-Day Express Delivery | $13.01 |
| Overnight Delivery | $22.75 |
| FedEx Mail Delivery Service | Starting Price |
| Ground Delivery | $8.76 |
| 3-Day Express Delivery | $17.82 |
| Overnight Delivery | $29.05 |
| UPS Mail Delivery Service | Starting Price |
| Ground Delivery | $8.76 |
| 3-Day Express Delivery | $12.35 |
| Overnight Delivery | $32.09 |
As you can observe from the tables above, USPS is the obvious choice for business mail services if affordability is your primary concern. Private mail services like FedEx and UPS can never match up with the low delivery charges of USPS mail.
USPS Mail Delivery Services
USPS is often the primary choice for business organizations. It is not just because the mail services offered by USPS are relatively cheap. Despite their lower mail delivery charges, USPS also offers a reliable mail delivery service. The other benefits of using USPS for your mail delivery services are listed below.
Service Options
USPS offers a wide range of business mail services for domestic and international mailers. Listed below are the widely-used mail service options from USPS.
- Priority Mail Express: Next-day delivery or two-day delivery time for most US addresses, including PO Box addresses
- Priority Mail: Delivery in one to three business days
- First Class Mail: Delivery of small packages in one to three business days
- Retail Ground: Delivery of oversized packages in two to eight business days
- Media Mail: Delivery of media and education materials in two to eight business days (With discounted rate)
- Global Express Guaranteed: International delivery in one to three business days
- Priority Mail Express International: International delivery to 180 countries within three to five business days
Scheduled Pickups
One of the most attractive features of using USPS for your business’s mail delivery services is its scheduled pickups. With USPS as your mail delivery service provider, you get free package pickup services.
And the scheduling process itself is pretty convenient as you can do it directly on the USPS website. You even can request specific time slots that are more convenient for your business. However, the pickups only happen based on USPS’s availability.
Free Tracking
Another significant aspect of using USPS mail delivery services is free tracking. Did you know that all USPS shipping services come with door-to-door tracking? While several mail service providers don’t even have provision for door-to-door tracking.
Some mail delivery service providers even require you to pay a fee for accessing tracing information. On the other hand, USPS provides you with real-time updates on every stage of the mailer’s journey. Such accurate tracking is possible for USPS because they scan the package multiple times during its journey.
Free Insurance
With USPS mail delivery services, you also receive free insurance for your postal mail. However, it may not be applicable for all delivery services from the USPS. For Priority and Priority Mail Express services, you get $50 insurance if you purchase the necessary postage at the USPS post office or website.
You get a $100 insurance on individual packages if you use USPS’s shipping software to buy the postage. The free insurance offered by USPS is a valuable add-on that can push companies to use USPS as their business mail services provider.
However, it’s worth noting that other USPS mail services, including First Class Package and Media Mail, do not offer free insurance.
Discounts On Bulk Mail
We saved the best for the last. Perhaps the best reason businesses love using USPS for their marketing and communication needs is volume discounts. Yes, you can get a cheaper rate for USPS mail delivery services for your bulk mail campaigns.
USPS offers commercial pricing rates to businesses that employ shipping software and for partners who run a high volume of shipments through USPS. Hence, industries such as eCommerce companies can significantly benefit from this.
FedEx Mail Delivery Services
FedEx is one of the leading mail delivery services globally, with its presence in almost all major countries. As you can see from the pricing table discussed above, FedEx has similar mail pricing as UPS.
You can also notice that overnight deliveries are much cheaper in FedEx than UPS and only slightly more expensive than USPS. The other benefits of using FedEx for your mail delivery as listed below.
Service Options
FedEx offers several mail delivery services to help you meet all your postal mail requirements. The primary service options you can access from FedEx are
- FedEx First Overnight
- FedEx Priority Overnight
- FedEx Standard Overnight – Next business day delivery
- FedEx 2 Day – Delivery in two business days (three business days during peak seasons)
- FedEx Economy – Delivery in two to seven business days
- FedEx International – Delivery in two to five business days to 215 countries
Free Tracking
Tracking capability is becoming a standard feature or benefit of business mail services, and FedEx also offers the same. Similar to what we saw in the case of USPS tracking, here also, you get door-to-door tracking.
What makes the free tracking in FedEx better is that the tracking feature is available for all FedEx services. So it doesn’t matter if you use FedEx to send letter-sized mail or oversized packages; you can still track them efficiently.
Free Insurance
FedEx offers free insurance for anything under $100, similar to the free insurance you get from USPS. The free insurance is a plus for FedEx’s mail delivery services and brings it to a level with USPS, at least in terms of insurance.
According to FedEx Packing Pledge, the insurance covers the cost of postage of your mail. However, the insurance covers the content of the package only as long as its value does not exceed $100. You can claim the coverage if FedEx loses your package or a damaged shipment.
High-Volume Discounts
FedEx business mail services do not have any discount programs for bulk or high-volume mail. FedEx never publicly published any such offer or discount package for bulk mail campaigns. But, here is the thing, your business can get a high-volume discount if you are willing to negotiate.
It is a little inside knowledge that could save you a significant amount of money. If you are a high-volume shipper, you can get a discounted price case-by-case basis. But, as we said, you would have to negotiate for it.
UPS Mail Delivery Services
As you know, UPS is one of the prominent mail delivery services in the US. UPS goes hand in hand with FedEx in terms of popularity among the public. From the pricing table we discussed above, it is clear that the pricing for the services offered by UPS is much similar to that of FedEx. Here are some of the other benefits of using UPS for your company’s mail delivery process.
Service Options
UPS also offers several mail delivery services that allow companies to communicate with their customer and business partners actively. Here are the primary postal mail service option available through UPS.
- UPS Next Day Air – Delivery on the next business day
- UPS 2nd Day Air – Delivery on the second business day
- UPS 3 Day Select – Delivery within three business days
- Ground shipping – Delivery within one to five business days
Apart from the service options listed above, UPS also offers a same-day delivery option. UPS Express Critical is one of the few mail delivery services that can make same-day deliveries. It also supports UPS COD service making it ideal for eCommerce businesses.
Free Tracking
As we mentioned before, free tracking has become a standard feature for all mail delivery services in the US. UPS also provides its customers with a complimentary tracking feature like USPS and FedEx. You also get a door-to-door tracking feature that lets you know exactly where your mail is and shows its delivery status.
Free Insurance
The insurance provided by USPS and FedEx is very similar to each other. Here also, you get free insurance for anything with a value less than $100. Like FedEx, the UPS insurance also covers the cost of postage. In case of missing content or damaged shipment, UPS covers the mail delivery services up to $100. As you can see, the UPS Store Pack and Ship Guarantee is very similar to FedEx Packing Pledge.
High-Volume Discounts
The high-volume discounts are another aspect where UPS resembles FedEx or vice versa. The first similarity is that neither FedEx nor UPS have a publicly published bulk mail discount scheme.
In this case, you have to negotiate for a better mail delivery services pricing from UPS. Furthermore, it would be best to carry out these negotiations on a case-by-case basis. Sounds familiar? Because we saw the same process for bulk mail discounts in the case of FedEx deliveries.
Why Should You Use USPS For Business Mail Services?
USPS is the winner when it comes to providing mail delivery service options for sending business mailers most cost-effectively. Apart from offering affordable delivery services, USPS provides excellent flexibility to business communication.
Furthermore, specialized direct mail automation tools like PostGrid work seamlessly with USPS postal delivery. Using tools like PostGrid enables you to fully automate the printing and delivery of your personalized business mailers.
Hence, USPS is the best choice for your business communications in the following situations.
- For shipping domestic letters and parcels within and outside the US
- For easy, cost-effective, and targeted bulk mail campaigns
- For businesses that want budget-friendly pricing for their mail services
Use Direct Mail Automation To Speed Up The Delivery Of Your Business Mailers
USPS often receives flak for not being fast enough in delivering business mailers fast enough. But the truth is that USPS services are not slow, and your mail delivery is most likely delayed because of an error on your side.
Manually printing and delivering your mail often leads to many errors. You might mix up names and addresses, miss a number in the ZIP code, or have typos in the lesson. Such errors can often delay the delivery of your mail.
With an advanced direct mail automation software like PostGrid, you no longer have to worry about such errors. PostGrid automates every aspect of the mailing process, including personalizing, printing, and delivering your business mailers.
It even standardizes your addresses per USPS standards, so its high-speed sorting machine can quickly process your mail. As a result, you can significantly speed up your direct mail delivery using a system like PostGrid.
Conclusion
Choosing the right mail delivery services for your business can be overwhelming. There are so many options available that it is tough to decide. The information in this article helps you navigate through the confusion and pick a service provider that best suits your custom requirements.
However, USPS is the best choice for business mail communications because of its affordable nature and wide range of service options. Furthermore, direct automation systems like PostGrid works with USPS to provide you with the perfect mailing solution for sending mailers.
PostGrid lets you personalize, print, and deliver your business mailers via USPS with its fully automated software. It significantly speeds up your business mail delivery, minimizes error, and optimizes your business’s mail communication.
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