It's funny how much money is thrown out the window without
any second look. What am I talking about? Wasted boxes,
labels, tape, wrapping, packaging, etc. Why buy it when you
can get it all for free? Actually it's better than free, you
can even have it delivered to your door for absolutely no
cost! hmmm got your attention now don't I?
How much money do you spend annually on packaging
supplies? I guarantee if you do any kind of mail order it's
a very large chunk of change. Your dumping money down
the drain unless your like the hundreds of thousands of
other people that know how to take advantage of the
US postal service and are saving money daily.
Did you know that you can call the US postal service to
receive an order form for supplies? You can have the same
exact postal supplies that the post office uses themselves
delivered right to your door. All this for absolutely
no cost. They will even pick up your outgoing mail for a
very modest fee.
But wait there's more than meets the eye.
About three years ago I needed to ship a number of books out
to customers rather quickly and I was having problems using
FED EX (one big problem was the price) I called my local post
office and inquired about using their priority mail services.
After a very helpful 15 minutes on the phone I set up a free
meeting with the local VP of marketing. If you ever had a
problem with UPS or Fed Ex, don't walk... RUN to your local
post office! They will bend over backwards to help you.
To my delight the meeting lasted about 3 hours! I hit it off
well with the guy and we started talking about how the post
office is run and the types of materials they use. We were
talking about different business needs and how the post
office creates custom packages for just about anything you
need. He showed me samples of packaging for books, videos,
CD's, cassettes, dual videos, binders, they even have tubes
for shipping drafting sheets, posters, etc. I have seen the
price on similar packaging and believe me it's a far cry
from free! They can even print your labels for you using
your business name, etc. How much do you spend on packing
tape? If you do a large amount of shipping it's definitely
more then you should be spending! Stop right now and get
it free from your uncle..... Uncle Sam that is.
Give the US postal service a call at 1-800-222-1811 and
ask them to send you a supply order form. They will ask
for your business name but you can have it sent under
just your name. Better yet, order everything on-line
with the click of your mouse http://supplies.usps.gov/
If you need to see the different types of supplies in
person call your local office to make an appointment with
the person in charge of mail-order.
Although you will still have to pay postage on anything you
are mailing, you won't feel so bad with all the money you
are now saving on supplies. I don't know about you but
shipping a couple pounds anywhere in the country for just
over 3 bucks sounds good to me. A free package and delivery
in one to three days clearly makes it a winner in my book!
Worried about leaving your current provider because of
delivery confirmation? Good news! Uncle Sam now has
package delivery confirmation services for only 35 cents.
Below is the paragraph clip about this new service.
- Retail customers will have access to the date and time of delivery, and the ZIP Code where their shipment was delivered.
- They will also hear about any attempted deliveries, and forwarded or returned shipments.
- Customers access their information by calling 1-800-222-1811 or by logging onto the Postal Service's Web site at http://www.usps.com/cttgate.
- All delivery information in the Postal Service Delivery Confirmation database will be updated each evening.
I hope you take advantage of everything the USPS has to
offer and drop the money magnets you are now using!
