

You’ll save way more money than you would if you spring for Priority Mail, and your packages should still arrive between 1-3 days, give or take. However, if it does, here’s a good rule of thumb to follow: if your recipients or customers are located relatively nearby-within 100 miles or so-then Parcel Select Ground is a great option. If shipping speed doesn’t matter to you and your business, then you’ve got nothing to worry about! Use Parcel Select Ground and save all the money on shipping that you can. In general, consumers expect packages to come quickly…and when a shipment can take up to two weeks or longer to arrive, it may not be the best look for your small business. If you’re considering switching over to ground service to save more money, we’d even say to go for it in a lot of cases! However, you should keep in mind that what you might gain in shaving costs, you might lose in customer satisfaction. Saving money helps maximize your margins, and if you’re an eCommerce business owner, we can’t fault you for wanting to do that. Trust us when we tell you: the rate changes to Parcel Select Ground make this service much more attractive than how it used to be. This helps minimize friction by setting accurate expectations right off the bat. So, if you’re sending a ground shipment to one of these locations, we suggest letting your recipients know that their package may take longer to arrive than normal. Since Hawaii, Alaska, and US Territories are so much further than destinations within the contiguous United States, Parcel Select shipments to these areas have been known to take even longer! In some cases, we’ve seen shipments going to these places that take up to a few weeks…which is a far cry from the 2-8 day delivery timeframe that USPS advertises. Shipments to Hawaii, Alaska, and Territories Take Even Longer However, if you use Parcel Select Ground to ship the same package from Los Angeles to New York, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for delivery take up to 14 days…or even longer. For example, if you send a package via Parcel Select Ground from Los Angeles to San Diego, it won’t take long at all, since the package only needs to go about 120 miles. Generally speaking, delivery times for USPS ground shipments grow longer the further distance the package has to travel. In some situations, USPS ground shipments can take a whole lot longer to get delivered, with some deliveries occurring up to 2 weeks after the shipment date!

The majority of USPS ground shipments do fall into this delivery window, but speaking from our own experience, this isn’t always the case. The Postal Service advertises that delivery times for ground shipments range anywhere between 2-8 business days. The Advertised Delivery Timeframes for USPS Ground Service May Not Be Accurate The thing is, while we’re all about saving money, there’s still some things to keep in mind before you go switching all your shipments over to ground service. In some cases, it can even be up to 79% cheaper than Priority Mail! As a result, we’re seeing more and more shippers making the switch to Parcel Select Ground to save as much money as possible. Yes, you read that right-dollars, not cents. Under the new 2022 rates, Parcel Select Ground can shave multiple dollars off your shipping costs per package. However, all of this started to change when the 2022 USPS rate changes became public. Why wouldn’t they? For only several cents more, their package would get delivered faster (1-3 business days), and would get protection from built in-insurance that USPS doesn’t provide for ground shipments.

This insignificant cost difference led a lot of shippers to choose Priority Mail over ground service. For instance, if a package costed $10 to ship with Priority Mail, the Parcel Select Ground rate would often fall around $9.90, or somewhere around there. Historically, USPS never priced Parcel Select Ground rates much differently from Priority Mail. Parcel Select Ground Rates Got Much Cheaper in 2022 The Advertised Delivery Timeframes for USPS Ground Service May Not Be Accurate.Parcel Select Ground Rates Got Much Cheaper in 2022.When USPS announced the 2022 price changes, Parcel Select Ground service became a whole lot more attractive. This time, though, something different happened. Like all shipping carriers, USPS raises prices every year, and generally speaking, each service they offer gets more expensive. Ground service has always been one of the Postal Service’s least-popular shipping options, mostly utilized for shippers sending hazardous materials such as lithium ion batteries, aerosols, and more.
