I’ve been looking at options for shipping to locations outside the United States. Wow, the choices are terrible! For comparison purposes, I’m assuming an 8 x 4 x 3 package that weighs 4.5 ounces (about 125 grams). I calculated hypothetical shipping charges to Canada, the UK, Norway, and Australia using the US Post Office, UPS, or Fed Ex. The results were not encouraging.
UPS and Fed Ex provide detailed tracking info for packages, but the costs are through the roof. The cheapest option through UPS is $104, and with Fed Ex it’s $84. These are both for 5 business day delivery – they don’t seem to offer anything slower. Hello? $100 for a four ounce package the size of my hand? Forget it.
US Postal Service Priority Mail Express International (I love these names) looks a little better, but it’s still bad. It provides package tracking information, with a cost of $33 for Canada and $48 for the other countries. Delivery is promised to be 3-5 business days. That’s a lot better than UPS and Fed Ex, but it still seems like too much money to ship a little lightweight box.
US Postal Service Priority Mail International (non-express version) is cheaper still, with a cost of $20 for Canada and $24 for the other countries if you use their small-sized flat rate box. It promises delivery in 6-10 business days. But for reasons unknown, the small-sized box is ineligible for package tracking. You have to step up to the medium-sized flat rate box for that, which then costs more than Priority Mail Express International. Thanks, but no thanks.
That finally brings us to lowly First Class Mail. This is just plain old mail, with no fancy features, and no promise of delivery speed – though anecdotally the speed is essentially identical to Priority Mail International (6-10 business days). It’s just $8.55 for Canada and $12.75 for the other countries, but there’s no package tracking or insurance. If your package disappears into a black hole in some foreign mail sorting facility, too bad.
I’m thinking that the best option may be to self-insure, charging something like $20 flat rate for international delivery and shipping via US Postal Service First Class Mail. Then I could make good on any lost deliveries out of my own pocket. Of course there’s the risk that some unscrupulous person could order 20 units delivered to Burkina Faso, then claim they never arrived, and I’d be out a lot of money.
Or I think it’s possible to get delivery confirmation with Priority Mail International, but only for some countries. And delivery confirmation isn’t the same as package tracking – if the package gets lost, it’s still lost. But at least it would protect against the guy in Burkina Faso claiming he never received his delivery.
This stuff is hard. Now I understand why real businesses use shipping logistics services!