Which Shipping Carrier is Best for Your Small Business Order Fulfillment?

This is a blog post I have avoided for a while. It’s also probably the most common question we get…which shipping carrier should my 3PL fulfillment provider use for my small business order fulfillment?

So today I am finally going to tackle it, but the fact is that I don’t have a revolutionary answer for you. I don’t have a favorite and over the years, my answer has changed, changed and then changed again.

USPS

Let’s start with the Post Office. In most cases, this is the cheapest option with sufficient reliability. However, it is by no means perfect. You have to be willing to accept some loss and the rates of loss go up and down. Oftentimes, we’ll see no losses for a few months and then have 3 or 4 in a week.

You may assume that the loss is no big deal since they insure their packages. Don’t count on that for any carrier. When it comes to the Post Office specifically, we see that packages are marked as delivered as soon as we report the package as missing. To be clear, the package isn’t suddenly delivered. Instead, the Post Office says they delivered the package even though they haven't, so they can deny the claim. One way our customers are dealing with this challenge is by using a shipping protection company. I wrote a recent blog on that and you can check it out here if you are interested!

FedEx & UPS

The Post Office is not always the cheapest or best option. In fact, we are starting to regularly see FedEx and UPS beat the Post Office on cost, even for small packages.

FedEx and UPS have some big advantages. They are more likely to help you if something gets lost and are more likely to be able to reroute a package. Having said that, there are disadvantages, including added fees and unpredictable rates.

Looking for overnight service? Well, in one week, we sent 8 packages overnight. Some went with FedEx and some went with UPS. None of them got there overnight and neither carrier refunded anything. We are finding that both carriers are increasingly missing delivery dates and blaming things like weather even if there was no inclement weather.

Is one better than the other? Over the years, we have had great service from both and problems with both. We elect to go with the one that gives us the best price.

DHL

 If you are willing to pay for it, DHL is the best option for international shipping. They are fast and have a high delivery rate. However, when something goes wrong with a package, they are very very slooooow and require you to jump through lots of hoops.

So there you have it...an answer (sort of). Were you hoping for something more specific? Give us a call or send us an email and tell us more about what you are shipping and where it is going. We would love to help you find the best shipping option specific to your small business order fulfillment needs.