View Full Version : UPS to General Delivery?
Icky_Didge
06-23-2011, 15:29
So after scouring the internet, calling UPS, calling USPS and searching this site for answers I am still left wondering:
Can I ship something UPS to general delivery at the post office?
These are the speculations and opinions that I have got:
UPS... "General Delivery? Whats that?"
"Can I speak with your supervisor?"
"Hello my name is Barelyspeakenglish.... no we don't ship to PO boxes... oh to the actual post office?.. um yeah sure i think so I guess it depends but probably.
USPS... "What is the zip code?"
"Of what?"
"The post office you want to ship to."
"All of them?"
"No just one, I will give you their number."
"And they can speak for the entire postal service????"
"Yes."
So the woman in Monson was very nice and also very surprised that she could now speak for the entire postal service LOL. She would accept the package if UPS brought it there and said it has happened before but it is not that common. She didn't know about other post offices though.
Amazon told me that I should call ahead to see if each PO would accept a UPS package before I placed the order.
The reason that I am going to all of this trouble is because I have my dog on a specific type of food and one 6lb bag will last 9 days. I also have the Prime shipping which offers free two day shipping. This will make it super convenient to arrange to always have dog food and will make my resupplies a lot easier.
What I am looking for are real life experiences of someone who has done this.. maybe more than once. I really don't need any Google surfers to throw out random opinions if you catch my drift.
Looking forward to some knowledge!!!
Thanks
Icky Didge
SOBO (in a week)
You are just asking for trouble trying to get the USPS and UPS to work together !!! If you are really needing UPS deliveries, there are many outfitters, hostels and motels that will accept packages from Big Brown.
fiddlehead
06-23-2011, 15:48
No, UPS doesn't do it as a rule.
There may be exceptions to that rule, but, you are asking for trouble.
Either have someone at home mail you the package, have it sent to hostels, or, let your dog make some sacrifices and eat whatever he or she can.
I imagine a dog will eat most things if they are hungry enough. Just like you and me.
Icky_Didge
06-23-2011, 16:05
Yeah it kind of seemed that way. They both acted as if the other didn't exist. I can probably find a smaller distributer that will use USPS but it will cost me more.... and believe it or not dogs really need the right amount of fat, protein and carbs to sustain something like a thru-hike.
You may find yourself carrying more than 6 lbs of food at any one time but there's no place on the AT that you go 9 miles without being able to pickup a package from UPS at a place UPS routinely delivers to.
Don't sweat it, just get a guidebook and plan accordingly.
royalusa
06-23-2011, 17:34
We had a replacement pack sent to us by the manufacturer to General Delivery. They made a mistake and sent it via UPS to the Post Office General Delivery. The PO refused to give it to us unless we paid a $40 fee! It took many phone calls to get the manufacturer to refund our monies as the error was on their side. I'd highly recommend only sending things via USPS to the Post Office General Delivery.
Monkeywrench
06-23-2011, 19:18
You cannot ship UPS to General Delivery. Only the USPS can deliver mail to a post office.
You can ship UPS to a UPS facility hold for pick up. I don't know how long they will hold it for but they will do it and thier hours are a little different than USPS. Most of the time you can pick up after 12:00 until 19:00 but if you ask real nice sometimes they will let you pick up before 12:00 and I have picked up as late as 23:30. Fedex has the same type of service but they tend to allow pick ups a little earlier in the day. Both Fedex and UPS have great websites for looking for places that will hold shipments for you.
You are just asking for trouble trying to get the USPS and UPS to work together !!! If you are really needing UPS deliveries, there are many outfitters, hostels and motels that will accept packages from Big Brown.
And, the bonus is, many of those folks are open when the post office is closed.
peakbagger
06-24-2011, 07:48
Be careful if you do elect to ship to a UPS distirbution center. The one that services the Whites is in Twin Mtn NH and the front desk is only open for a 1 hour a day. It would be a long hitch from the AT.
Icky_Didge
06-24-2011, 11:22
From all the responses that I have gotten from this forum and everyone else I talked to it seems like it is too risky to send a package by UPS to General Delivery.
I think that I will you Amazon to deliver the things I need to everywhere besides the outfitters and I at least have a backup with the other distributer to send to the USPS.
Thanks everyone for their advice!
-Icky Didge
Great White
06-24-2011, 22:16
When I worked as a UPS Driver Helper in 2004, I did in fact deliver packages to a USPS post office. I don't remeber if the packages where General Delivery or not but they were not addressed to the USPS. I had to go into the office and have someone sign for them. I am not sure if that policy has changed in recent years.
This 'might' help a little. It's not technically "General Delivery" but it might be close enough: http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/sri/ship_box.html
Can I ship something UPS to general delivery at the post office?
NOPE! Just made that mistake with a warranty issue replacement for a piece of hiking gear. The gear manufacturer unbeknownst to me chose to ship my replaced gear via UPS sent General Delivery to a US Post Office. It was undeliverable to the US Post Office. When I called the gear manufacturer we had the replacement gear shipped to a relatives home use via UPS truck instead. The gear was sitting in a UPS distribution warehouse about 70 miles away for 7-10 days. When the General Delivery c/o Dogwood etc address was changed to my relative's address I received the package within 24 hrs from UPS.
lilricky
07-17-2011, 19:01
Unfortunately, it is up to the postmaster in charge of the post office that you are sending to. Apparently some postmasters see UPS and Fedex as companies that are threatening their jobs. If you have no other choice than general delivery by one of these companies, then contact the postmaster at the post office before you have it sent, and plead with him/her.
The US POst Office system is losing money every year thanks mostly to competition from USP and Fedex. It's silly to expect the post office to hold and deliver USP packages for free. Some small town post masters may do so. They tend to be friendly people, who go out of their way to help their customers. But I'd be mightedly surprised if it was post office policy that they do so.
Sierra Echo
07-23-2011, 12:16
The US POst Office system is losing money every year thanks mostly to competition from USP and Fedex. It's silly to expect the post office to hold and deliver USP packages for free. Some small town post masters may do so. They tend to be friendly people, who go out of their way to help their customers. But I'd be mightedly surprised if it was post office policy that they do so.
WRONG!
The USPS has lost billions of dollars due to the decline of first class mail as well as people paying their bills on the internet. UPS and Fedex do not pose any real competition parcel-wise.
The amount of parcels that UPS delivers in a year, the USPS delivers in a week.
The amount of parcels that Fedex delivers in a year, the USPS delivers in a day. Fedex also drops some of their parcels off at the PO for the USPS to deliver.
Blissful
07-23-2011, 19:45
I thought they were losing money on account of e-mail, etc
And I must say, I get better delivery with the other carriers. The USPS has lost two of my packages that went surface mail.
Jack Tarlin
07-29-2011, 08:08
I work in a place that deals with parcel delivery all the time, including hiker mail. As others have stated, Private Carriers (UPS, FedEx, etc.) will NOT deliver to a U.S. Post Office, so don't expect this to happen. On the rare occasions this does happen, i.e. a UPS hiker parcel addressed to Post Office actually does get delivered or is received there, this is an exception, don't expect it. (And as others have pointed out, regardless of what carrier you end up using, try whenver possible to sent it to a non Post Offfice address, like a hiker hostel, an Outfitter, a motel, etc.) You won't have to worry about holidays; you'll have 7 day a week access to your mail; you won't have to worry about arriving in town too late in the day and finding the P.O. closed.
While I suppose some Post Office employees may do this for a hiker, I think it would be pretty bold of you to ask them to. If you choose to do your paying business with their competition, why, one earth, would you expect them to hold and dispense your package for you?
Talk about an entitled attitude.
Snowleopard
01-19-2012, 16:03
Some of the things I order online get delivered by services that use the USPS for the last leg of the route. I'm pretty sure Fedex does this -- Fedex [SmartPost] uses their system to deliver the package to your local USPS main center then USPS takes it to your door. This doesn't help you with Amazon. I'm surprised that I can't find an option at amazon to choose who delivers your package (i.e., can't choose USPS).
From the UPS website (http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/guidelines/how_to4.html):
"You must make every effort to obtain a street address. If a shipper should use a P.O. Box address, the recipientīs telephone number must be included on the label. Your package that is addressed to a P.O. Box may be delayed, will not be covered by any UPS Service Guarantee, and will require an address correction charge. Army Post Office (APO) and Fleet Post Office (FPO) addresses are not accepted."
In short, the answer is no (what they call "an address correction")
bamboo bob
01-19-2012, 16:26
Is it any wonder the USPS is going out of business? The rules are different at each one. You never know how you'll be treated. The excellence of Damascus is weighed against the pettiness of Manchester Vt. Every thru-hiker has a PO story. My advice is only use them to send things home. They are simply not reliable to get a box when it really should be there. Mostly some, not all, of the employees wont bother to check thoroughly for your box. The bigger the town the less likely they are to be helpful. I've had great service and been jerked around. Use UPS and send to outfitters, hostels, etc. You get what you pay for describes the PO very well. No other organization has the screwy rules of the PO. Some of them will help tape your box others will require you to buy a roll of tape. Some will say no fuel without exception and others will tell you how to do it. I has one woman offer to "pray on my box" so it would get there in time. It did.
Others take two hour breaks mid day. What a business. Doomed and good riddance. I hope UPS hires the good ones.
bamboo bob
01-19-2012, 16:29
I worked for the PO two summers in a row. Many of the guys worked other jobs in the afternoon while on the PO clock. What a joke. I delivered the mail in the morning and read magazines all afternoon. Its like a library reading room in the back.
Feral Bill
01-19-2012, 16:37
The people at my local post office are invariably helpful, polite, and efficient. I doubt they are that exceptional.
All I can tell you is that you do not want to use next day delivery with Amazon to a General Delivery address. You don't get to select the shipper, and in my case they used UPS, and I ended up having to take a day off of trail work and spending a couple hours driving to pick up my package.
This is my second post on this site. I was hoping to hike this year, but surgery on the feet had to come first. Good thing I saved all my Sick time to get this done. I have been doing the planning while setting in the recliner for twelve + weeks. I have read a lot of threads in this time also. Hopefully I will be ready for 2013. I have started this thread several times as I usually do when something is said about something dear to me. I usually start off in a rant and then delete and start over. Sometimes I get all finished and just turn the computer off without even posting. However I fell the need to enlighten some.
1. I have done a little research (not hard to do) on what it would cost to mail 10 lb package UPS vs FedEx vs USPS
Shipper From To 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day
Ups 92055 (CA) 2,330 mi 37658 ( Tn ) 124.20 79.82 58.28 25.26
49329 (MI) 709 mi same 99.51 39.54 31.44 19.67
37072 (TN) 318 mi same 62.44 18.21 18.21 18.21
FedEx 92055 (CA) 2,330 mi same 123.10 79.11 57.76 22.90
49329 (MI) 709 mi same 98.62 39.19 31.16 17.93
37072 (TN) 318 mi same 61.88 32.67 28.32 16.66
USPS 92055 (CA) 2,330 mi same 76.95 33.20 33.20 17.29 PP
49329 (MI) 709 mi same 61.25 16.85 16.85 11.80 PP
37072 (TN) 318 mi same 44.55 14.15 14.15 11.17 PP
These are prices with you providing packaging. UPS and FedEx must be sent to a residential address (no P.O. Box) where a nominal fee may be required. USPS can be sent to any Post Office addressed to yourself as the recipient C/O General Delivery (they will hold for up to 30 days) USPS also has what they say " if it fits it ships " this box is 12 x 12 x 5 1/2 ID which the price is 15.45, no weight limit, from anywhere in the U.S.. It is small for a large re-supply though may be useful for other things. The box is free.
I wouldn't recommend Parcel Post unless you plan on shipping well in advance especially long distances. Cannot ship butane fuel canisters unless you use Parcel Post. I believe UPS will only ship this as Ground also.
You do the math.
Try again since I cannot seem to delete it.
Shipper From To 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day
Ups 92055 (CA) 2,330 mi 37658 ( Tn ) 124.20 79.82 58.28 25.26
49329 (MI) 709 mi same 99.51 39.54 31.44 19.67
37072 (TN) 318 mi same 62.44 18.21 18.21 18.21
FedEx 92055 (CA) 2,330 mi same 123.10 79.11 57.76 22.90
49329 (MI) 709 mi same 98.62 39.19 31.16 17.93
37072 (TN) 318 mi same 61.88 32.67 28.32 16.66
USPS 92055 (CA) 2,330 mi same 76.95 33.20 33.20 17.29 PP
49329 (MI) 709 mi same 61.25 16.85 16.85 11.80 PP
37072 (TN) 318 mi same 44.55 14.15 14.15 11.17 PP
USPS also has what they say " if it fits it ships " this box is 12 x 12 x 5 1/2 ID which the price is 15.45, no weight limit, from anywhere in the U.S.. It is small for a large re-supply though may be useful for other things. The box is free.
That box is plenty big for 10 pounds. They also have a similar plan for regional rate shipping that is also priority mail with a free box, except you have to figure out the rates and print the label at home, and it's cheaper for shorter distances. I found that I can ship from near the Mexican border to nearly the Canadian border for less than the flat rate priority option.
Rain Man
02-06-2012, 11:40
The people at my local post office are invariably helpful, polite, and efficient. I doubt they are that exceptional.
You are correct, Sir! I've had two sisters and two uncles work for the Post Office. Plus, I know my own mail carrier by name, as she does me, my wife, and all our daughters, and I know the regular Monday carrier by name.
All kind, hard-working folks, who go out of their way to help. Unlike some of the "I've got my rights and you're-just-a-government-employee" haters/customers who go into the PO for service with chips on their shoulders and give them undue grief.
But some go in with love for their fellow man in their hearts! My little sister was postmistress at a small "country" Post Office. A patron came in day after day to buy one or two stamps. She offered him the helpful advice that he could buy stamps by the roll or sheet or any quantity he wanted, and save all the trips.
He confessed he was coming in to see her! I now have two nephews as a result of their marriage! One of those nephews hiked the GSMNP with Uncle Raymond on his high school Spring Break back in '05!
The Post Office is a great national service, just as Ben Franklin envisioned, if you treat it as a great service. It has helped make America great. And if you ship anywhere in the world (as I have, having hosted TWELVE foreign exchange students), you'll quickly learn the US Post Office is exceptional in delivery time and honesty.
Rain Man
.
Thank You Rain Man, I could not have said it better.. It is good to hear that once in awhile.
As a child I used to follow my carrier down the street telling him that I was going join the P.O. like him, and when I was hired 18 to 20 years later I tried to find Buzz. I found that he had died of Cancer just 3 months before. I have now worked at the Post Office 32 years and am ready to retire and take up the trail. I hate those that bring a bad name to the P.O., but there is always going to be those few.