Comments on DHL's New ShipReady Box

Back in February, expert parcel consultant, Jerry Hempstead, contributed a great article on prepaid parcel shipping options.  His article covered everything from DHL ShipReady products to USPS products and FedEx prepaid stamps. Now DHL has introduced a flat rate, prepaid box.  I asked Jerry what that meant relative to his previous article.   Never one to mince words, Dr. Hempstead weighs in below. I don't always agree with Jerry, but his opinions are almost always "spot on".

Jerry M. Hempstead is a 32 year air express industry veteran and consultant.  He is President of Hempstead Consulting based in Orlando, FL.  Jerry is a contributing author to freightdawg.com and may be contacted by email at gmhempstead@aol.com

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This week DHL announced a pre-purchased 2 day flat rate box. These cost $19.50 each if you purchase a minimum of 10. The rate can go down to $16.50 if you purchase a quantity of over 500 at one time. The great thing about this product is that you know exactly what its going to cost to ship something. There are no hidden charges. No delivery area surcharge, no residential fee, no fuel surcharge, no address correction fee. Whatever you fit in the box it what you already paid for.

There are some limitations. First, its only good for the contiguous 48 states. Second is that you can't ask for any special services like COD, Saturday delivery and so on.

Although DHL claims to be first to market with this product, for those that read my previous article here at Freightdawg.com,  you already know that the USPS offers the same sized box (11 x 8 1/2 x 5 1/2) for all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and the USVI for $8.95 regardless of weight. 

The USPS flies priority mail on the FedEx daylight system so the service has a two day footprint as large as that of DHL. The number of drop off points for the USPS  are at least 5 times greater vs DHL.

The USPS also offers another size flat rate box for the same price with dimensions of 13.625" x 11.875" x 3.375" which is like a briefcase and a box size that you may already be familiar with from the integrated carriers.

The USPS  allows you to ship these flat rate boxes to Canada and Mexico for $23 and $37 to other countries but they do have a 20 pound limit on the flat rate box internationally.

For more information on DHL ship ready go to:

http://www.dhl-usa.com/USSvcs/detail/shipready.asp?nav=USServices/DDeliveryServices/FltReady

For more information on the USPS offerings go to:

http://www.usps.com/shipping/flatrate.htm

For more information on the FedEx prepaid stamp program go to:

http://www.fedex.com/us/services/options/returns/returnstamps.html

I’m here to serve.

Jerry

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Comments

[Cheyenne]

I sent this to a friend in Birmingham who spends a fortune on small package shipments w/Fedex. I'm sure he'll find this of interest.

thanks