[ic] USPS Webtools APIs

Grant interchange-users@icdevgroup.org
Sat Oct 5 16:58:00 2002


>On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, Jon wrote:
>
>J>>    USPS has a web interface as well but that seems pretty laborious to
>J>>me which I was trying to avoid.
>
>We've played with that. It's a real bitch to wade through. We were also
>inserting a credit card number and it would print out a label with postage
>already on it.
>
>The problem here is that if you ship 10 packages a day, you get 10 charges
>on your charge card. Drives the bookkeeper nuts!
>
>They double-charged us on a shipment to Canada. The computer locked up. I
>had a very difficult time getting them to even investigate it. I did
>eventually get the credit.
>
>They do make shipping to Canada and other places very easy.
>
>We buy all of our postage from Stamps.com. All in all, it's a
>great place to
>deal with.
>
>J>>    From what I've investigated and based on our product sizes
>(of course
>J>>that could change) it appears that USPS has the best rates with
>Priority Mail.
>J>>If you've found that not to be true then maybe I need to
>investigate again.
>
>FedEx Ground is cheaper than Priority Mail almost across the board. PM says
>2-3 days delivery time with no guarantee, and sometimes it goes to 4 or 5.
>
>FedEx Ground guarantees their delivery times, and they do very well ay
>meeting those.
>
>We are near Washington, DC and to ship something to San Francisco takes
>approximately 7 days by FedEx Ground and 3-4 days by PM. To ship something
>to Harrisburg, PA is next day by FedEx Ground and about 3 days by PM. But
>FedEx is always cheaper.
>
>To qualify for FedEx Ground Pick-Ups you have to ship at least 3 days a
>week. Pick-ups cost about 11 dollars per week.
>
>To get PM pick ups you have to pay about $12 per DAY. Even when
>you are next
>door to the Post Office!
>
>FedEx has tracking every step of the way - in all services.
>USPS can only tell you whether the package has been delivered or not, and
>when. We use it only as a defense when the customer says that they didn't
>get the package and we have proof that they did.
>
>
>J>>> Within IC, I set up cost and zone tables on the computer and we do our
>J>>> look-ups from there. The rates change only once a year. IC
>never contacts
>J>>> FedEx.
>J>>>
>J>>
>J>>    Yea, I've got that completed for USPS and UPS, but was
>trying to get to
>J>>a more automated state.
>
>This is completely automated. I only have to mess with it once a year when
>they raise the rates, and I generally simply increase the surcharge
>percentage in shipping.asc to compensate for the increase. I call it a
>shipping and handling charge and try to get about a buck over the actual
>cost to compensate for the boxes, the tape, labels, etc. No one has ever
>complained.
>
>-= Jim =-

Have any of you guys used FedEx Ship Manager QuickShip?  It's a good piece
of software, and I like it a lot better than FedEx.com for shipping.  If you
can get them to hook you up with the kit you get a free thermal label
printer, and the labels that come out are really nice.  You can set IC up to
chron job a txt file of pending orders which you can import into QuickShip
so there's pretty much no manual data entry.

- Grant