Non-traditional residential address : The customer lives on a military base or wants shipping to go to a post office box. That customer cannot use FedEx Home Delivery.
Cost is the greatest factor : SmartPost packages are usually the less expensive shipping costs option, but package size or other factors could affect pricing. Time-sensitive : FedEx Home Delivery promises business day delivery time within the contiguous United States, or business days to and from Alaska and Hawaii, and guarantees the final delivery date. Delivery outside the contiguous United States can take longer.
Some shippers like to run internal studies tracking the transit time for various services to different locations. SmartPost does offer Saturday pick-up. Both services offer Saturday delivery. Additional services : FedEx Home Delivery allows additional services, such as FedEx Delivery Signature Options, Return Solutions, FedEx Delivery Manager, a money-back guarantee, collection on delivery, declared value, signature proof of delivery collection, and evening or appointment delivery times.
These features are not available for SmartPost. The customer can also request delivery to a FedEx location instead of the residence. Size matters : Both services max out at 70 pounds per package.
However, the dimensional weight is different. The transit time for that category is 5 to 7 days from purchase. Package pick-up works the same way.
SmartPost even offers a couple of advantages: Shippers now have access to all addresses served by USPS, some of which may not have been served by FedEx; and there are no residential surcharges.
There are some sacrifices, however. SmartPost delivery time is slower than standard ground shipping by at least one day. And once you get outside a zip code in the lower 48 states, fees are high. FedEx SmartPost rates include :. That may not seem like much on a single parcel. But multiplied over hundreds and hundreds of packages, a 20 percent savings can really add up.
Most standard surcharges, including additional handling fees and peak season surcharges , still apply. As of , FedEx applied dimensional pricing to SmartPost shipments as well as ground shipments. Package minimums apply , although they differ from other FedEx services. Residential surcharges do not apply, however. Traditionally, base rates have risen by about 4.
Shippers may save money the year they switch some parcels from ground to SmartPost, but soon enough, costs will start rising again. The more volume a retailer ships, the more that business can benefit from the savings offered by FedEx SmartPost. First, delivery times are slower. Shippers should plan for two to five days more than standard ground shipping, which in some cases could double transit times.
And since SmartPost offers unified tracking with FedEx, customers can track their packages throughout each leg of the journey. FedEx SmartPost is a no-frills service. It does not save time or offer new perks to either shippers or customers. From this hub, the parcels go to USPS, or sometimes to another small delivery company, and continues to the recipient. However, this is not advisable; things could still go wrong, as they handle thousands of parcels per day.
This protects you in the event that something goes wrong, and will allow you to get your money back. You may have heard a number of accusations against FedEx SmartPost, and some are not true, but others are true or at least partially true.
Well, it is in a way, but only relatively. There are so many impressively fast shipping options nowadays that anything slower than two or three days often feels slow to us. If your FedEx SmartPost parcel ends up taking a week to arrive at its destination, you and the buyer might well feel like this is a bit slow. However, remember that you get what you pay for, and to make the shipping cost less, FedEx is using a different mailing service to get it to its destination, rather than sending out a dedicated driver.
This, inevitably, will take longer. The SmartPost option does average four days transport time, so in theory at least, it is not slow compared to some shipping options. However, if your buyers need items more quickly, it might be wise to offer an alternative, more expensive shipping option so that they can get things they need in a rush.
This makes people more likely to buy your items for birthdays and Christmas, when they need something at the last minute. Since they pay the extra, there is no additional cost for you, and your buyers can still have low-cost shipping if they are prepared to wait. So, is SmartPost slow? They may mean that it is almost always late and does not reach its destination when it should even accounting for the longer shipping times. This is a bit of a falsehood. Changes had to be made to the system and new hubs had to be opened up to ensure mail could travel efficiently, and some tweaks had to be made to the system.
Early experiences of SmartPost may not have been great, but the system has massively improved in the years it has been running.
This is not really true. FedEx takes the orders and is responsible for picking up and handling the items. It is a hybrid service that involves work from both parties. There are major advantages to this system, namely that you have full tracking , the coverage is extremely extensive, and you have access to Saturday deliveries. The service can also reach other parts of the US, such as Hawaii and Alaska, but be aware that the shipping time for these areas can be much slower.
You have to be contracted with FedEx in order to use this service; it is not available to most people. You cannot just book it via their online site. If you are interested in using the SmartPost service, you will need to contact FedEx by phone and discuss it. Remember, it is now called the FedEx Ground Economy service, so ask about this while on the phone.
Their workers should then be able to guide you through the process of getting into a contract and getting access to this service so you can reduce your shipping costs and offer a cheap and reasonably swift service to customers of your company. Yes, these two services are two names for the same thing. The old name is SmartPost and the new one is Ground Economy, but they result in an identical service and there is no difference between them.
The transition is still taking place, but Ground Economy is the new name. FedEx SmartPost is a great, hybrid service that gets shipments to the right places as cheaply as possible. If you are struggling while waiting for deliveries or having problems with being in at the right time, you might want to consider a virtual mailbox.
This takes all the stress out of waiting for a delivery! Why pickup your mail in person, when you can get it on your phone? Try it free.
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