How long does ground shipping take?
Ground Shipping Versus Air Transport
In most cases, transporting items by ground or freight will be your most cost-effective method. Ground shipping simply means the carrier transports your package by ground rather than air or sea. This usually means truck transportation, but it could include trains in some cases. Ground shipping tends to be more cost-effective for numerous large and heavy packages because such items take up a lot of room in airplane cargo holds or push planes to their weight limits. This limits carriers to how many such items they can transport on any given plane, and costs of each flight are then passed on to the customer. So although air transport is usually faster, ground shipping has the advantage of more often being cheaper.
The Main Ground Shipping Carriers
FedEx, United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service are the three major ground shipping carriers.
FedEx
FedEx commits to delivering ground packages weighing up to 150 pounds within one to five business days inside the 48 contiguous United States. That "commitment" is not an iron-clad guarantee. FedEx acknowledges that ground shipping may take longer depending on the distance the package is shipped. In addition, FedEx Ground to and from Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and Puerto Rico will take three to seven business days. FedEx offers weekend delivery in most cities. It cannot deliver to post office boxes and APO addresses.
United Parcel Service
UPS commits to deliver packages by its ground shipping service within one to seven days. As with FedEx, the precise amount of transit time depends on the distance the package is shipped. Packages to Hawaii and Alaska will take longer, and UPS will not deliver to post office boxes and APO addresses. UPS ground shipping is not available on Saturdays.
U.S. Postal Service
The third major player in this market is the Postal Service. The Postal Service's ground shipping services are Parcel Post, Parcel Select, Media Mail and Library Mail for packages weighing up to 70 pounds, as well as a service called Bound Printed Matter for certain packages weighing up to 15 pounds. The Postal Service promises delivery of Parcel Post and Library and Media Mail packages within two to eight days. Media Mail, Library Mail and Bound Printed Matter ground services are only available for packages carrying media material, such as books, newspapers, magazines, CDs, DVDs and other media. Specifically, Library Mail offers its service only to libraries and academic organizations. Bound Printed Matter is a service for bulk advertising and promotional materials, including phone books. The Postal Service delivers on Saturdays and to post office boxes and military addresses, as well as to Guam and the Virgin Islands.
Other Carriers
There are other smaller ground and freight shipping options available. An Internet search for "freight+ground+shipping" should successfully return several more companies. Most of these companies also guarantee delivery within one to 10 days, depending on the transit distance of the package. At least one company works to provide you with freight quotes for many different companies.
Tags: Postal Service, ground shipping, Bound Printed, Bound Printed Matter, distance package, ground shipping, Library Mail