USPS Priority Mail

Commcat-I know tandem dump trucks dump their loads but have never seen a USPS trailer dump a load. Maybe I live in a different part of the country? I used to drive for a USPS contractor & everything was loaded into a cart that was wheeled on/off the trailer.

Tvad-Depending on what time of the year it is & how far away the destination determines whether the package will fly or not via Priority. There is no guarantee for 2-3 day delivery. They will *try* and deliver in 2 or 3 days.

Speaking of flying, that is the best way to ship something. Ground packages get put on the conveyor belt & get handled many more times than air packages.

Regardless, always pack your gear to survive, at minimum, a chest high drop. If you don't feel your package is secure enough to survive a chest high drop, don't ship ground or rethink your packaging.

The USPS scenario I mentioned in my previous post in this thread is actually from a USPS promotional video showing the advantages of shipping by Priority Mail!!! The post offices in California were showing this video on their TV monitors while customers waited in line for service. The video was so revealing, and disturbing, that it became the basis of a number of lawsuits against the USPS for the intentional damage caused to the Priority Mail class of shipping through mishandling. Tends to prove that the people who operate USPS do not care about the conditions your shipment is subjected to, regardless of its value or fragile nature.

UPS managed to DESTROY the junction box on my Aries table shipped from VPI without leaving a mark on the outside. At a guess the delivery man threw it off the truck or it had received similar treatment earlier. VPI's packing is about as secure as I have seen. Earlier they managed to knock a corner off a 3" cutting board that was also well packed. UPS's standards appear to have worsened sharply from the period 74-94 when I was last active as a dealer.