How Much Does The United States Produce Of All The Goods And Services In The World

If in that location's a fashion to save a few bucks on everyday expenses, like sending packages and letters, why not accept reward of it? Web-based shipping platforms similar PirateShip.com promise affordability, merely they also cut down on look times and long lines — all the things that make stopping past your local United States Postal Service (USPS) office such a drag. Then, the question remains: Is this kind of shipping service right for you?

What Is Pirate Shipping?

PirateShip.com is a free, web-based shipping software for mail of all types, from messages to packages. It sells USPS postage and provides tools for printing labels and tracking packages through the USPS. (And, no, they don't ship your packages via pirate ships, but the notion does brand for a good mascot, doesn't it?)

Seems like a pretty good deal, right? If avoiding the mail office seems like a dream come truthful, you'll exist happy to know that there are plenty of other services like Pirate Send, such as ShipStation, Easyship, Stamps.com, Shippo and ShippingEasy. Like Pirate Ship, all of these platforms offering services for all your postage, label and package needs.

What Sets Pirate Send Autonomously?

To put it just, Pirate Ship knows all the details you lot don't have the bandwidth to memorize. That is, the USPS offers over a dozen different types of shipping services, and determining which service is nigh appropriate for your needs depends on a lot of different factors, including your package's size, weight and destination. And, of course, your own needs: Do you want insurance? How virtually tracking? Needless to say, the right choice isn't always obvious.

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Additionally, there'southward a lot of overlap between all of those services, though they all come in at drastically different prices. And, allow'south face it, who has time to memorize all of these details? If you're looking for a style to send affordably, while still getting the virtually blindside for your buck, Pirate Ship is the way to go. The platform ensures that y'all'll e'er be sold the cheapest choice — and the option that meets all of your other requirements.

How Can Pirate Ship Proceed Yous Better Informed and Organized?

In addition to offering multiple shipping services — Get-go Form Parcel, Priority Mail Cubic, Priority Mail Flat Rate, Weight-Based Priority Postal service, Priority Post Regional Charge per unit and more — USPS also offers more than than one pricing tier. That is, pricing isn't super straightforward. And things seem to be changing constantly.

Prior to 2019, the USPS had three pricing tiers merely, that year, information technology simplified those tiers, reducing them to just two: Retail Pricing and Commercial Pricing. If you go downwardly to your local post function to send a package, y'all'll exist charged the retail price for whatsoever service you lot choose. If you send high volumes of commercial post, you'll be charged a commercial — and significantly discounted — rate for the same service. Thankfully, Pirate Ship simplifies the cost breakouts even further past issuing an almanac statement with all of the USPS prices for customers' information.

How Does Pirate Ship Operate Without Charging Markups on the USPS' Cheapest Rates?

One of the biggest elements of Pirate Ship'due south business organization model? Charge no fees or markups higher up those of USPS, all while passing forth the everyman-bachelor, discounted commercial aircraft rates offered by the USPS. So, is Pirate Ship more than affordable than the USPS? Sort of. That is, Pirate Ship makes sure that shipping is absolutely no more expensive than the cheapest possible rate available at the USPS — and it helps regular erstwhile retail customers access those more affordable commercial rates.

When it comes to examining Pirate Ship's affordability, it might be better to look toward the platform's other web-based competitors, rather than the USPS. While Pirate Ship isn't the just company providing discounted USPS rates for retail customers, it is avoiding markups. Remember that the USPS only has two rates, retail and commercial. If a shipping and postage platform offers multiple tiers for a particular service — using words like "Base of operations," "Plus," "Green," or "Preferred" — then the divergence betwixt those platforms are markups charged by that shipping vendor. Luckily, you won't discover annihilation like that on Pirate Ship.

Is Pirate Transport Killing the USPS?

Whether or not Pirate Ship is contributing to USPS' financial struggles seems to exist a resounding "no." You might be wondering, If Pirate Ship doesn't accuse markups, how is it staying afloat? The reality is nosotros make our coin just like any other aircraft software company; through our official partnership with USPS," Pirate Ship states on its website. "The big difference between us and our competitors is that we've used mod ideas to build a lean business that's able to operate with our partnership income alone, and then that we don't have to charge our customers nickels and dimes on top like everyone else."

Photograph Courtesy: Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

Since Pirate Ship doesn't undercut the USPS or divert shipping away from it, it's less harmful than other modernistic-day services. For example, email has vastly reduced letter traffic, while entities like FedEx and Amazon, who transport packages to customers direct, often cut out the USPS entirely. Sure, Pirate Ship, an Canonical Postal Provider, is helping customers find the cheapest USPS options, but, at the same time, those prices are ready by the USPS. All of this to say, the relationship between the post and Pirate Ship is all well and adept — and, in all likelihood, won't negatively impact the USPS' ability to weather the changing tides.