Carrier Delivery Service

What types of Carriers are there?

Common Carrier: Transports goods between companies or people and has a license from a regulatory authority, allowing them to work for multiple shippers in one day.

Contract Carrier: Provides transport services for only one shipper long term. This can include a single person with their own minivan or a large-scale company with trucks, boats, trains, and planes.

What they ship:

Carriers primarily only ship larger packages or quantities of packages as a whole. This means a typical delivery weight of over 100 pounds to one ton. Carriers can also ship some types of hazardous materials to special locations requiring specific clearances, such as USCIS or immigration.

How do they ship it?

Shipping is done by having multiple stops for pick up for deliveries from multiple locations of individuals and residences and multiple stops for drop off for different businesses and individuals. Shipping is usually completed using large trucks and box trucks.

Cost

The cost of shipping with a carrier is the cheapest option as the delivery drivers are not required to have any training or certifications for their deliveries. They are also able to plan routes for all pickups and deliveries, saving on mileage and gas.

Speed/ efficiency

Having multiple stops for pick up and delivery hinders those who are on a time crunch for a package. Having to send a package through a warehouse, sorting, and going between multiple locations and trucks can also add to the time delay of a pickup and delivery of a package.

Safety

Multiple packages being placed on a truck and transferred between multiple locations and delivery vehicles increases the risk of the package being lost or damaged during transport.

Post Delivery Service

What they ship:

Post delivery primarily only ships letters, documents, and small parcels. The weight is typically under 10 pounds or under specific size restrictions. There are also many restrictions on what can be shipped, such as amounts of fluid, type of substance, etc.

How do they ship it:

Typically, a post-delivery service will deliver in a small sedan, van, or postal truck. These vehicles are not typically equipped with GPS systems and rely on the driver’s personal device for route changes.

Cost:

The shipping cost varies depending on when you are shipping an item, how large the item is, how much it weighs, and how fast you want it to arrive. The costs are all typically high since they are monopolized nationwide.

Speed/ efficiency

If you are looking for speed, the fastest a postal service offers is overnight, which has proven to be a one to two day service over time. The post-delivery service also offers 2-3 day shipping and is typically delivered later than promised. The growing trend of late deliveries has only persisted and gotten worse over the years.

Safety

Packages transported by postal services are typically handled by regular people with no prior experience or training and do not go through training or certification courses. During transportation, packages are also typically set in the vehicle and not secured and are prone to sliding around and having other deliveries damage them or get lost being jumbled together.