UPS Shipping Price Increase

[shortgrass]

E-Mail from UPS says, on average, a 4.9% increase in shipping costs beginning December 24th. I am sure that FedEx will follow.

 

[hogpatrol]

IIRC, They're still charging a "fuel surcharge" even though oil has dropped to half of what it was when the surcharge was instituted.

 

[shortgrass]

Every business has to show a profit,'cept a gunsmith, of course!

 

[Taildrag15X]

USPS is doing it also.....

 

[hogpatrol]

Every business has to show a profit,'cept a gunsmith, of course!

I should don a flame suit for this post but I'll say it anyway. Most of the work I see being done by gunsmiths is way too cheap. Go in to any machine shop and see what they charge PER HOUR for a man and a machine then consider the time it takes to do common smith work and figure it out. Building costs, utilities, liability insurance, business insurance, investment in, maintenance and repair of machine tools, quality measuring equipment, materials, consumables, etc., etc., I know the rudimentaries of how to do it but would never be in the business. YMMV. Asbestos suit on.

 

[hoz53]

I should don a flame suit for this post but I'll say it anyway. Most of the work I see being done by gunsmiths is way too cheap. Go in to any machine shop and see what they charge PER HOUR for a man and a machine then consider the time it takes to do common smith work and figure it out. Building costs, utilities, liability insurance, business insurance, investment in, maintenance and repair of machine tools, quality measuring equipment, materials, consumables, etc., etc., I know the rudimentaries of how to do it but would never be in the business. YMMV. Asbestos suit on.

i agree with you on both points Hog. I do my own gun work. Its my hobby but id never get into it as a business. Also the cost of shipping is getting to be rediculous. Im just not going to sell much i have to ship anymore. Amazon seems to have it figured out though.

 

[johnfred1965]

I worked almost 9 years at UPS, Merry F'n Christmas

 

[LarryDScott]

UPS is on the stock exchange. Those shareholders need that raise. Its only money, as long as its out of your pocket, not theirs. LDS

 

[JRS]

Someone has to pay for the expansion (Saturday delivery), and it won't be the shareholders.

 

[spclark]

Its only money, as long as its out of your pocket, not theirs. LDS

Has the Fed stopped printing money recently?

Seems the biggest impact on prices for the past fifteen - fifty years is the real value of each dollar.

49 years ago I was a brakeman on the C&NW railroad, earning $3.635/hr., regular gas was maybe $0.20 / gallon.

Now I work (part-time) in a hardware store.

And I'm not making anywhere near what each hour earned me - in actual purchasing power - back then.

Curiously, price of a gallon of regular doesn't show as much of a difference (here in the midwest); today that gallon of regular @ $1.45 would be $0.20 in 1968 dollars.

Oh, and brakemen were earning pretty much the same per hour in 2012 as they did in 1968.

 

[carlsbad]

I remember the golden age of internet shopping in the late 90s and early 2000s when manufacturers were seeing a place to sell off all that surplus from completed jobs and shippers were moving things at a loss to gain market share. I loaded up on lathe and mill tooling including thousands of inserts.

That went away a decade or more ago. Lately, individual shippers are paying a premium as businesses who do a lot of shipping are getting deep discounts. Cost me $25 to ship a barrel lately and I shopped round to find the best "deal"...

Another thing that bothers me lately is how cheaply foreign sellers can ship things into the country. I can buy things from china (including shipping) for less than it would cost me to ship it to Arizona. I was listing some excess tooling on ebay today and see simialr tools listed from europe and australia for the same discount price I am asking and the same shipping price.

--Jerry

 

[LarryDScott]

I have bought items off eBAY that only cost $4or $5 and they ship it for free. That same item, if I shipped it, would cost more
than they sold the item for. Go figure. LDS

 

[Liven The Dream]

The USPO has been having hard times for us Mailers.
I have gotten more Delayed Tracking than I would think possible.
A forum member sent me a scope from Indiana on the 18tn . It sat in Iowa for 5 Days. Then It passed Oregon and went to Washington. It has been there until this AM at 2:36 . It now states In Transit Delayed.
They also need Raise

 

[nmkid]

Recently I have found the Postal Service cheaper than UPS. Also, last month I ordered an item from NY, (I'm in VA.) it took 7 transit days. Go figure! I can drive to NY state in about 6 hours!

 

[Dans40X]

You guys don't know how well you're served by having the ground shipment option!

Ship Haz Mat to AK. or HI.
USPS,UPS,FedEx, will not ship any Haz Mat on a passenger aircraft....period.

A freight forwarder is the ONLY option at 3X the cost.

 

[hoz53]

You guys don't know how well you're served by having the ground shipment option!

Ship Haz Mat to AK. or HI.
USPS,UPS,FedEx, will not ship any Haz Mat on a passenger aircraft....period.

A freight forwarder is the ONLY option at 3X the cost.

the price you pay to live in paradise. ground shipping conus usps is not to great of an option many times and you never know when youll have a problem, you just know you will.

 

[Dans40X]

UPS & FedEx rates for Haz Mat are adjusted to International regulations which is 1/2 the quantity allowable to ship in USA by DOT regulated ground shipping methods.

 

[long40shot]

Well, they are doubling the size of the Lenexa, KS hub. Guess they have to pay for it.

 

[savagedasher]

With the help at Mc Donald’s getting
$15.00 .
Guess we can expect everything will have a increase. Larry

 

[SealT5]

I work in the freight business. A lot of people do not realize how much paperless billing has effected USPS. I frequent the local hub for work and the post master recently told me that they are considering doing away with Saturday delivery’s. They also signed a contract with Amazon delivering their packages on Sundays. I know in Texas USPS has closed nearly all rural Post Offices.

As far as prices go they will never quit rising. The amount of money it cost to maintain a fleet of modern trucks would make you sick. The DEF systems alone have raised our yearly maintenance cost 19 million I believe. And that’s with over a third of our fleet not having a DEF system.

In the near future you will see LTL carriers offering parcel services.

Joe