USPS International Parcel Post Surface shipping

Post by **MCIera** » Mon May 21, 2007 8:46 pm

This may impact some of you who ship heavier small parcels (like full MRE cases) outside of the U.S. It has come to my attention that the US Postal Service no longer has Surface Rate Parcel Post shipping internationally. Everything will go by air now along with corresponding rates.

Post by **kman** » Mon May 21, 2007 8:58 pm

Tell me about it...

Last week, I calculated postage for a case of MREs to Germany and it came back as $80. I just checked and now it's $90.

Post by **DIRTYDAVE** » Fri May 25, 2007 12:28 pm

olli · Post by **olli** » Sat May 26, 2007 8:36 am

same thing with german postal, they also cannceld surface shipment since beginning of march 2007...

Post by **MCIera** » Sat May 26, 2007 1:01 pm

I'd suspect that they're probably shipping everything either by air, on a space available basis, or by applicable surface transportation for shorter distances (i.e. truck.) The days of carrying parcels and mail by train or ship are probably in the past. Back in the late 70's the USPS abolished the domestic Air Mail rate and reduced it all to the prevailing First Class rate, since almost all letter class mail was being transported by Air. Since the USPS is now being run more like a business in the private sector, it's not entirely surprising that their rates are now comparable to their higher priced private sector counterparts (e.g. UPS, FedEX)