Speedy Holiday Mail: It Pays to Shop Around

Well aware that one should mail early, Arline Pappas, who lives in Los Angeles, doesn’t send off gifts to her Massachusetts family until four or five days before Christmas. Then it costs her about $40 to rush them there via Federal Express. “What can I say?” she laughs. “I work well under pressure.”

So do many people, turning to Federal Express, United Parcel Service, the Postal Service’s Express Mail or a number of other fast cargo carriers--including DHL, Emery Air Freight, Airborne Freight, Purolator Courier, Burlington Air Express--although such carriers exist more to serve business. Indeed, it was business customers that the whole express market grew in the 1970s to serve, carrying overnight letters and contracts between offices, or moving industrial goods--everything from parts to finished consumer products.

Tardy consumers are really just a seasonal windfall to most of these carriers. They help increase the volume of both Federal Express and Express Mail 20% in December and boost United Parcel’s normal air service load of 400,000 packages a day to three-quarters of a million in the Christmas rush. (“We don’t like to use the term ‘crush’ ,” says spokesman Ken Sternad at UPS headquarters in Greenwich, Conn.)

All offer overnight service--anything submitted by 5 p.m. or some other designated cutoff will get there the next day, again by some designated time. “Here Today, There Tomorrow,” say Postal Service ads (an odd choice of slogan, one would think).

They’re not inexpensive, of course. Even Express Mail, generally the cheapest, costs $10.75 for a package under two pounds, mailed anywhere in the United States, $12.85 for a five-pound package mailed anywhere in the country, and a maximum of $23.40 for a 10-pound package going anywhere (packages 10 pounds and over are charged according to both weight and distance). United Parcel prices all packages under its “Next Day Air” Service strictly by weight: A two-pound package, for example, goes anywhere in the United States for $12.50, a five-pounder goes for $15.50 and a 10-pounder for $21.

Costlier Services

The more a carrier serves business--particularly volume business--the more it costs the one-time customer. Federal Express’s next-day “Priority 1” service, for example, costs $23 for a two-pound package to anywhere in the United States, $31.25 for five pounds and $45 for 10. Emery Air Freight is exactly the same, and DHL charges $25 for a two-pound package and $49 for a 10-pounder.

But there’s a great alternative if it’s still a few days until Christmas--second-day service. At Federal Express, it’s called Standard Air and is less than half the cost of Priority 1-- $12.50 for a two-pound package, $15.50 for five pounds and $20.50 for 10. (Emery, the same as Federal Express for overnight, is $18.40, $25 and $35 for second-day service. UPS’ 2nd Day Air (formerly Blue Label) costs $4 for a two-pound package, $6.50 for five pounds and $11.50 for 10. The Postal Service’s Priority Mail is similar: Three times as fast as parcel post, it treats packages as first-class mail, moving them coast-to-coast in three days, everywhere in between in two days, and within an area by the next day, priced according to weight and zone--two pounds from New York to Los Angeles for $2.40, five pounds for $6.37 and 10 pounds for $11.70.

In some cases, second-day service is what one gets, even for an overnight charge. Most carriers claim to go everywhere--the Postal Service to “every major city or town, reaching 90% of the population,” says spokesman David Mazer in Los Angeles, and UPS to “every single address reachable by road,” says Sternad. But there are some areas so remote (an up-country sheep ranch) or so distant (parts of Hawaii or Alaska) that most com panies promise only second-day delivery, sometimes with a surcharge to boot.

How one mails a package makes a difference, both practical and financial. The Postal Service has 40,000 post offices nationwide, plus 16,500 Express Mail boxes (for people with a stock of special envelopes and postage meters), and carriers accept Express Mail as well. UPS has only 1,200 centers, Federal Express 800 (plus 9,000 drop boxes for people with account numbers), and other carriers even fewer.

But UPS, Federal Express, Emery and others will pick up packages. In fact, Federal Express (and other companies) includes pickup in its fees: there’s a discount of $3 for dropping them off. UPS adds a surcharge of $3.25 for pickup, but that buys a whole week of pickups at a chosen hour.

Other Considerations

As if this weren’t enough to weigh, there are other considerations. The Postal Service will deliver Express Mail on weekends and holidays, which means, says Mazer, “that you can mail a gift on Dec. 24.” Federal Express will pick up or deliver on Saturday, but for a $10 surcharge.

All include some insurance in their express fees--usually $100. Some also offer “guaranteed” delivery, or money back if the package doesn’t get there as promised. People seem to like this, apparently believing that it makes the company try harder: “I feel more secure,” says Pappas, “because if it doesn’t get there, they have to pay.” On the other hand, says Nancy Sands in customer service at United Parcel’s district office in Norwalk, “What good is a guarantee if the package doesn’t get there?”

One might also consider comfort, essentially a combination of the effort required and the efficiency offered. “I used to go to the post office,” says Pappas, the Federal Express devotee, “but I’d wait in line an hour and the people were very rude.” Another man swears by the “incredible efficiency” at his local UPS center. And a third finds his neighborhood post office “the most helpful people I’ve ever met. I love to go in there.”