UPS SurePost vs FedEx SmartPost – Ultimate comparison for 2022

If you’re looking to reduce shipping costs, begin by making a phone call for your UPS and FedEx representative. Talk to the representative regarding UPS SurePost or FedEx SmartPost. These are integrated delivery services that utilize the extensive logistical capabilities provided by UPS and FedEx and rely on the U.S. Postal Service to provide final delivery to your client.

SurePost and SmartPost are available to companies that ship at least 50 boxes per week. I found this volume needs to be easily met in my online business by switching from USPS Parcel Post and Priority Mail to UPS SurePost. As I will explain in the section titled “Pros” section below, switching USPS parcels from USPS to UPS or FedEx can increase the amount you expenditure with these companies and reduce the rates you negotiate.

How do UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost Services work?  

Both are fantastic alternatives for delivery to many locations. But what is it that makes them so essential to be in comparison? The last-mile delivery is the answer in which the cost varies considerably when you are moving a few blocks ahead, or even a few hundred dollars more. The majority of the time, you’ll notice that shipping costs are increased for no apparent reason. 

SurePost and SmartPost are specifically designed to meet the requirement of delivering the final mile efficiently and cost-effectively. With both SurePost and SmartPost services, letters are sent to USPS, which is the pioneer in the delivery of mail to rural and remote areas of the U.S., thereby reducing the cost of shipping.

UPS SurePost

UPS SurePost provides the economy, and residential ground service provided by UPS. It is a combination of UPS’s reliability with UPS and the delivery process that is handled via the USPS. SurePost will deliver the package at the nearest USPS local hub, making delivery considerably quick.

Here are some benefits of UPS SurePost

Cost Saving when you look at UPS SurePost, rates are significantly lower than UPS mail class. Additionally, they are charged regardless of the mail class, not only on the dimensions.

Saturday delivery is available With UPS SurePost Even on a Saturday (weekend ), deliveries are available and at no additional cost.

Tracking Shipments- Utilizing the UPS SurePost, You can easily track your orders by using the tracking numbers provided by UPS. Even if USPS handles the last mile, the tracking number stays the same.

UPS SurePost offers shipping Drop Off The drop-off facility offers to drop off your shipments at any UPS office. UPS to manage the shipment.

Delivery is accessible to P.O. Boxes Typically; UPS does not provide delivery to P.O. Boxes. However, with an established relationship with USPS, This becomes simpler when you decide to ship using UPS SurePost.

FedEx Smart Post

FedEx SmartPost is an efficient solution to control the cost of shipping for residential customers. It’s an excellent method of shipping items to retailers. Like UPS SurePost, it also is able to seek USPS help in the final step of the delivery. In this case, the package is taken care of or delivered to FedEx offices to be shipped. The packages are then separated and sent for delivery. When the package is delivered to the location, the FedEx SmartPost packages are then delivered to the USPS office. Then, USPS will then deliver packages to the customer’s destination.

Here are a few benefits of FedEx SmartPost:

Cost Saving Because the delivery of the last leg will be handled through USPS, this means that the additional delivery fees are not charged, and both FedEx, as well as the customer, are not subjected to extra charges. Because it is suitable for bulk delivery, SmartPost is widely chosen by companies to ship at a reasonable cost and, therefore, the overall price of the shipping is lower.

Saturday Delivery FedEx provides delivery for 6 days which makes it simple to have delivery on Saturdays as well.

Smart Tracking Smart Tracking With FedEx, it is simple to track the shipment more efficiently, which eases the customers’ anxiety. You can also connect your store to the FedEx shipping tracking system and label generation using the help of a WooCommerce Shipping plugin. Though, when FedEx sends packages to USPS, the tracking number indicates that the delivery has taken place. Once the USPS delivery is activated, the new tracking number is issued, allowing customers to conveniently track the details.

Easy Drop Off is available. FedEx shipping permits users to drop off parcels at one of FedEx’s offices.

Delivery to P.O. Boxes With USPS delivery tied to FedEx, it’s easy to choose delivery from P.O. boxes.

Estimated Delivery Times –Typically, FedEx SmartPost requires 2-7 days to deliver. With FedEx, you can easily show the estimated delivery date on the checkout and cart page of your shop and decrease the customer’s worry about shipping.

Why would you need to have a single delivery provider? Based on my experience, here are the advantages and disadvantages.

Pros and Cons of UPS SurePost, FedEx SmartPost for Amazon Sellers

Pros

Costs of shipping are reduced.

 Pricing is lower than the conventional ground service. The most costly aspect of delivery is that UPS and FedEx transport their huge, heavy trucks right up to your customer’s door. This is the reason UPS and FedEx will add residential and delivery area charges to your basic ground prices. Consolidated service providers like SurePost and SmartPost remove these costs by delivering packages from different suppliers directly to your nearest USPS office branch, which normally manages mail delivery. 

UPS and FedEx have to make only one stop to deliver various packages. The USPS letter driver who will be passing by every home in a residential neighborhood on his route every day isn’t required to alter his route. The cost savings these efficiency improvements result in is passed onto you, the buyer.

Unfortunately, I’m not able to give precise numbers on FedEx SmartPost because my business (Tastyworms.com, which is an e-commerce website that specializes in the sale of nutritious food items for fish, birds, and reptiles) utilizes UPS. Both services -UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost- are similar, and the savings are similar. UPS SurePost shipping rates, from my personal experience, are comparable to the ground rate for commercial addresses

Saturday delivery is included for free.

 UPS and FedEx charge a significant delivery fee for packages delivered on the weekend. But, USPS does not charge a delivery fee. Therefore, UPS or FedEx would typically hold a package until Monday to deliver could be delivered sooner than anticipated and on the weekend. USPS plans to stop Saturday delivery on August 2104. However, this will only affect mail delivery, not the delivery of packages. All indications indicate USPS expanding delivery of packages, possibly to Sundays in the major metropolitan areas.

Utilize normal UPS or FedEx pickup

 No trips to the post office are necessary; SurePost and SmartPost are the services offered by UPS and FedEx, respectively. It is possible to combine the boxes into your usual pickup.

Unified tracking of packages is accessible on UPS & FedEx websites. 

Although the shipping labels have two tracking numbers for ground carriers and the other for the USPS, You only need to give either the UPS or FedEx tracking number to the client, this tracking code will allow your customer will be able to track the status of the package regardless of whether the package is with either the carrier that is ground or USPS.

SurePost, as well as SmartPost shipping, can increase your spending per week. 

UPS and FedEx decide your rates negotiated according to your average weekly amount of spending. If you spend more by shifting services to other companies, for example, moving switching from USPS to UPS and FedEx (for example), it can lower the total shipping costs.

It is integrated with various shipping software. 

SurePost and SmartPost services are offered in a variety of popular software programs for shipping like ShipStation, ECC by Webgility, and ShipWorks.

Cons

Delivery times are slower than the ground service. It takes longer to deliver a package. SurePost generally is one day longer than UPS Ground. This is due to the fact that on the day that UPS typically drops the package at the customer’s doorstep, it’s rather dropping the package off in the USPS branch closest to the client. 

FedEx SmartPost works on a consolidation model that involves taking packages from various consolidation locations across the U.S. and delivering them to the USPS only when they meet an unpublished quantity requirement. This may cause FedEx SmartPost delivery times to be more variable as compared to UPS SurePost. It is possible that this could cause delays for UPS SurePost. Editorial note: The above article was revised on the 21st of May, 2014 at 6:18 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time.]

Cannot ship outside of lower 48 U.S. states

 Although you can technically utilize SurePost and SmartPost to deliver into Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, the costs are far too high to justify the cost. In these instances, it is better to use the direct shipping method of USPS.

Must use your boxes. 

Even though you enjoy the benefit of delivery to the destination via USPS however, it won’t allow you to use the boxes it offers. Although UPS is able to deliver any type of box, USPS returns a used Priority Mail box to you in the majority of instances.

Unified tracking can cause confusion for consumers. 

Customers are sometimes confused when UPS or FedEx delivers the package for delivery to USPS. When the report on tracking is generated, it will show that the package was delivered, typically to an address different from the one of the customer’s. My company receives a more frequent number of customer service questions from our SurePost packages due to this. We notify customers that USPS is responsible for the delivery of the final package and that, within 24 hours, their tracking numbers will be displayed in the form of “Out for Delivery” in the correct zip code. As the services are more widely available, the number of inquiries will decrease to levels that are more normal.

Limited support for shopping carts. 

Both UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost are integrated into the respective APIs for shipping provided by UPS as well as FedEx. However, these services aren’t integrated into the majority of shopping carts by default. If you’re an experienced programmer or want to employ an experienced programmer for direct API integration to your cart is possible. They were added by hand.

To work around the issue to help UPS customers, an automatic calculation is possible by including an additional shipping method that utilizes UPS Ground to calculate rates for a business address. However, the address is renamed, and the delivery date range is extended to one full day. This is due to the fact that UPS utilizes UPS Ground Business rates as the price for SurePost. The majority of shopping carts are able to integrate this method.

UPS SurePost vs FedEx SmartPost  

Even though SurePost and SmartPost offer the same services, there are a few aspects they are different in that allow for a more streamlined comparison.

Shipping Costs In comparison to the standard fees charged by UPS and FedEx, it is possible to cut up to 20% off shipping costs when compared to UPS Shipping or FedEx Shipping. UPS shipping costs are higher than FedEx, and the weight of the package is a major factor when determining shipping costs.

Dimensions The two companies FedEx and UPS have their own specific dimensions for packaging for shipping. In general, for FedEx, the maximum weight for a package is around 70lbs and 130 inches of both in length and width. In contrast, UPS has four categories :

• less than 1 lb. It can accept packages between 450.76 grams, with a maximum size that is 130 inches.
• 1 lb. and above, the system can accept packages up to 70 pounds, with the maximum dimension being 130 inches.
• UPS SurePost Bound Printed Matter will accept packages that weigh up to 15 pounds with the maximum dimensions of 108 inches
• UPS SurePost Media accepts a maximum weight of 70 pounds and a maximum size of 108 inches.

Drop off locations in the instance of UPS SurePost, the drop off location is the USPS closest location to the final destination such as postal offices, for instance, making delivery a breeze and much faster. For FedEx drop-off, the delivery is made at the nearest USPS Regional hub.

The Last Mile delivery The two companies, UPS and FedEx, require days to deliver packages, and if it is remote locations, it can take longer than that to finish. FedEx will take between 2 and 7 days to deliver to different areas within the U.S., and UPS is about an hour less time than UPS ground. With UPS dropping the package at the nearest post office to the location of the package makes it easier to ship to remote locations.

FAQ

Conclusion

UPS SurePost and FedEx SmartPost will provide substantial savings over traditional ground shipping through the elimination of large delivery areas’ residential, weekend, and delivery fees. Although these options aren’t the best option for every package, they can be a compelling choice for customers who is price-sensitive but not time-sensitive. When I introduced this service to my own company, I added it as the cheapest shipping option with the cost of a flat fee. Promoting a flat rate for shipping helps avoid sticker shock at the checkout. I find these companies to be an excellent choice in this regard.

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