As the holiday season quickly approaches, many of us have adapted to what our normal holiday season celebrations look like. Many will be spending the holidays in smaller family and friend units, but we still want to spread as much holiday cheer as we can. We are leaning more heavily than ever on loving cards and shipping packages with love and care.
Here are a few tips when shipping gifts to loved ones:
- Ship them now. While many shipping companies {USPS, UPS, FEDEX, DHL, AMAZON, etc.} have recommended ship-by-dates, please don’t wait until those dates to ship. There is no guarantee that your gifts will arrive in time for the holidays if you wait until the recommended dates to ship. As someone who works in the industry, we want your boxes of love to get into the hands of your loved ones. Plus carriers would much rather deliver your packages now when there is no snow on the ground.
- Order items and ship them directly to your loved ones if you can. But if you can’t, you can ship your items from home. Many shipping companies offer free shipping supplies, you can print your shipping labels at home, and have the package picked up. For example with the USPS, you can order your shipping supplies or stamps online. Most shipping Once your package is ready to go, you select the Click-n-Ship feature online, input your information, pay your postage and print your label. Finally, if you don’t have the time {or in my case the energy} to drop your package off at the Post Office, you can have your carrier pick it up for free. Simply complete the Schedule a Pickup form online*, leave clear instructions on where the package will be located, and your carrier will be by to pick it up on the date you selected.
BONUS: The whole process of shipping a package to a loved one can be contactless to help mitigate the risk exposure of COVID-19 to you and your family members.
*NOTE: If you have a Post Office box, USPS will not be able to pick up from your house, but UPS and FEDEX can! - If you are shipping fragile items, make sure you use lots of bubble wrap and a good sturdy box. Unfortunately, some packages can get crushed in the shipping process. I know you are wondering how this can happen, right? Picture a huge machine with over 5 miles of belts. Packages are dumped into a hopper and the sorting begins. Your package with grandma’s cookies is in the same sorting machine as the 50-pound package of weights your neighbor ordered. As we get to the end of the sorting process, your package with grandma’s cookies pops down into a bin designated for your local post office. Then comes the 50-pound package with your neighbor’s weights and BOOM! It lands right on top of grandma’s cookies and they are all crushed. Although we can repurpose grandma’s crushed cookies as an ice cream topper, we can’t repurpose many other items that are broken during shipment. Also, to make sure all of your items get to their final destination, use good, strong tape and lots of it. You won’t believe how many boxes during the holidays arrive open because the quality and quantity of tape used weren’t sufficient.
- Be kind to your carriers. All shipping companies are dealing with a massive volume of packages during the season. If you factor in the uptick of packages that we have as a result of COVID as well, the volume you see is overwhelming. There are days when we go to work and literally want to cry at the amount we see. There are so many packages that we can’t move in our buildings, our trucks are packed with barely a spot for the driver to sit, and we are beyond exhausted. You get bonus points if you leave the light on for us. We can be completing deliveries as early as 6 AM to as late as 10:30 PM. You get double bonus points if you have an extra-large mailbox or put a storage box at the end of your driveways for deliveries. Finally, you get triple bonus points for those extra tips and snack packs you put out. You won’t believe the world of difference these three things can make to your carriers.
