- I have 10 huge shipping secrets
for your holiday shipping,
your everyday shipping and beyond.
Welcome back to the channel.
I'm the YouTube Deal Guy Matt Granite.
If this the type of content that you like,
or you think this is helpful, please feel free
to give this video a thumbs up, share it.
I know you can't actually share it now
'cause you don't know how helpful I'm gonna be,
but assuming I am, and that's what I strive to do,
subscribe and turn your notifications on.
I'm really trying to get to a million subscribers
and I'll be there soon with your help.
The shipping secrets that I'm gonna show you today
is information USPS, FedEx, and UPS do not want you to know,
and more importantly, this video is not sponsored.
This is just to help you save money,
and as we count down the top 10 shipping secrets,
I'm also gonna show you how to unlock
some unpublished rates tied to your favorite carriers.
Let's begin with shipping secret number one.
Go beyond the big four.
That's UPS, USPS, FedEx and potentially DHL, and understand
that there are carriers that will deliver your stuff
and important documents regionally
for significantly lower rates.
In the world of Midwest shipping,
there are companies like Pitt Ohio.
If you are living right now in Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, or California,
you can get significantly cheaper shipping rates
by going through a company like this.
Midwest residents can also benefit
from companies like Spee-Dee Delivery,
and even LaserShip could potentially save you a lot
of money on your everyday shipping.
So please consider going beyond
some of the big large carriers.
You can often get significantly smaller shipping fees.
Shipping secret number two,
don't always assume that USPS is the cheapest.
They're going to be the cheapest
for some of the rate examples that we're going to tackle
in a few moments, but also don't assume
that the person working behind a counter
taking your payment information
is going to unlock the best rates for you.
A lot of the time, they're working very quickly,
and there's a few factors they may not realize,
which is what we're going to discuss more
in shipping secret number four,
but before we get there,
I wanna talk about third-party insurance,
and let's call this shipping secret number three.
Whenever you can, at least get a rate
on third-party shipping rates when it comes to insurance.
If you are shipping things
like jewelry or electronics that have a high value,
I would never in my lifetime, wanna deal with making a claim
on a USPS toll-free number.
I've had to do it actually, now that I think about it,
and it was horrendous.
By the time someone even answers the phone
after hours of being put on hold,
they're not nearly as helpful
as some of the larger shipping companies
like UPS, FedEx, but they charge you an arm and a leg.
Before you contemplate insurance, check out companies
like Shipsurance, where the claims are fulfilled
at a much faster rate.
The benefits are a little bit better.
and more importantly, this will work for USPS,
DHL, Canada Post.
I mean it just, whatever it is that you're shipping,
there is a chance that they will insure it
at a significantly lower rate.
For shipping secret number four,
I'm gonna do a little bit of shipping 101,
just important savings information for you,
and I know that rates are increasing
all over the place at a very rapid pace.
So this is the basic to ensure that you get the lowest rate.
Let's begin with First-Class Mail.
So if your package is under one pound,
the USPS First-Class Mail option is the best way to go,
but as I said, when you go to the counter at USPS,
and you have your package ready
and you've got your First-Class Mail,
they don't always ask you what the contents are in the mail,
and that's what brings me to this bonus tip
for shipping secret number four,
which is Media Mail.
Media Mail is the most cost-effective way to send media,
and while it is designated
for educational materials, prices start
at $2.80 and it is significantly cheaper.
So if you are actually sending things like video games,
I know there's a lotta gamers out there.
A lotta Christmas presents that come in handy with this.
You can send books, film, printed music, and test materials.
There are a lot of people right now
doing e-distance learning, learning from home.
There's a lot of educators out there,
and maybe you're in marketing,
and you're trying to educate people
on what it is you're sending.
So this is sort of open to interpretation
on some of that, but printed music, test materials, video
and sound recordings, playscripts, manuscripts,
printed educational reference charts,
medical loose-leaf pages and binders,
and computer reading material,
and while I do realize it says video games
and computer drives and digital drives
do not qualify for Media Mail prices,
nor am I telling you to dupe the system
in any way whatsoever, there's a thin line
between computer-readable media and video games,
and maybe something is educational.
I'm just throwing that out there.
There are ways to work Media Mail work to your advantage.
For shipping secret number five,
keep in mind that size does matter.
I've been told that my whole life
and not necessarily in a complimentary way.
I've seen this actually a lot with Christmas gifts.
A lot of people will send a bunch of multiple
small USPS Priority Mail shipping boxes
to the individual members of a family,
but what you might not realize is this is the small,
and that's the medium.
You can fit a lot of smalls into a medium,
so consider packing a lot
of the Christmas gifts individually into a medium box.
It is significantly cheaper
by the time you've sent four medium small boxes,
and there is a big size advantage, but that's not all.
Let's actually look at the rates.
For parcels between one and 10 pounds,
USPS Priority Mail is the way to go.
After you exceed that, your best choice
is going to be FedEx or UPS.
They're actually cheaper.
While USPS Priority Mail is great
for packages weighing under 10 pounds,
what happens if you want it in two days versus three,
which brings me to shipping secret number six,
and this is really important to know
because USPS does not have anything
with a two-day guarantee,
and in fact, although they are saying fast delivery times
between one and three business days,
you see that little asterisk over here.
USPS is merely telling you they're going to do
their absolute best to try and get it there
in under four or five days, I do a lot of shipping tests
and I will tell you right now,
if you need anything in a rush, do not even deal with USPS.
Even their next day service
doesn't always have the same handling
that you would get with UPS or FedEx,
and let's actually talk
about that as we continue shipping secret number six.
I wanna remind you guys that for UPS and FedEx
two-day services, which you can't get with USPS
if they have that three-day window minimum,
you are looking at almost identical prices
between FedEx and UPS.
I want you guys to know that FedEx and UPS two-day
both have some of the higher rates associated with them,
but you will get that guarantee
if you have that 48 hour requirement.
Now, while all of that information is great
for some of the smaller packages,
what do you do if you have a really heavy package?
And that's where FedEx Ground comes in,
and that's also where shipping secret number seven
comes in, FedEx Ground is always going to be your best bet,
even cheaper than UPS Ground, and faster
for the very large package.
We're talking packages up to 150 pounds.
The great thing about this service
is you can actually ship things
like luggage and duffle bags.
I remember when I was moving
from Chicago to North Dakota, it was cheaper
for me to use FedEx Ground than it was to actually put these
onto a moving truck that charged this weird cubic rate thing
for long distance moves.
I'll do a whole other video
on how to save during your move and subscribe
if you wanna learn how to save
for your upcoming household moves,
but when it comes to packages,
FedEx Ground would be the go-to for that type of weight.
For shipping secret number eight,
and this is actually tied into a test that I ran
and I think the results are gonna be very surprising
to a lot of you.
Always use the carrier's shipping boxes when possible.
I know that we're tempted to just take everything
in our Amazon return box
and just send it to whatever carrier we can
for our own personal deliveries
when Amazon or another company is not paying for an RMA.
For example, if you use a FedEx box,
and try to deliver that with DHL,
they'll process it, but things can happen.
I'm gonna get to that in a moment.
The FedEx rates and the UPS rates
tied to when you use your packaging
versus their packaging, will almost always be cheaper
if you can fit whatever it is that you have
into one of their specific sizes.
That applies as well, of course,
with what you can get into a small flat-rate, one-rate box
with USPS and how those advantages can pile up,
but do not use your own packaging
unless you really, really need to.
There's some rates and savings based into the carrier
knowing specifically what package they're going to get,
and for that example that I mentioned,
I, just as a test, sent some competing carrier's packaging
with carriers and well, it worked for the most part.
DHL actually lost one of my FedEx
logo-ed boxes with a DHL label.
That might've just been a coincidence,
but what I will follow up by saying is DHL,
after they recovered the package during that time
that it was missing and off the grid,
they actually gave me a $25 gift card to apologize
for the convenience,
and with that being said, as part this shipping secret,
I will tell you that between FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL,
DHL has, hands down, the best customer service.
if something happens.
That doesn't mean they're the least expensive,
but I will tell you
that if you're sending some really expensive goods,
DHL might be the best way to go specifically
for global shipments as well.
For shipping secret number nine,
before we get to number 10,
which has a great way to unlock some unpublished rates,
which are gonna rock your world
for all of your personal shipping.
I wanna remind you guys, if you can,
please don't double ship during the holidays.
I see people do it all the time,
and as a consumer advocate,
this is what I'm referring to.
Most retailers including Amazon will give you free shipping
whether or not you're a Prime member.
As we count down to Christmas and Hanukkah,
whatever your gifting occasion happens to be,
within two weeks of Christmas itself,
almost every major retailer will give you free shipping
with specific cut-off times
regardless of how much money you've spent on your order.
As you get into that last week,
they're even more aggressive with sales and free shipping,
but let's just say it's a regular shipping day
and you wanna send something
like this strange sensory teething bead that was suggested
to me 'cause it knows I'm a parent.
Let's discuss the gift options.
Amazon will gift wrap, gift bag, or gift box your purchase
for under $5, and in most cases,
most retailers will have comparable rates
that are less than 10,
and what I see so much during the holidays,
is people order the gift,
they get it sent to themselves, then they wrap it,
or even just repackage it because that's what they do,
and then they bring it to the post office, UPS or FedEx,
and they send it out, don't do that.
I know this might seem like a no-brainer
to a lot of people, but it's actually not observed based
on a lot of the polls that are run over the holidays.
If you can, just input the address of the recipient
and get the store from what you are shopping to deliver it,
and if you don't wanna pay for gift wrapping,
trust me, people are really happy
to get that free gift card option, it'll show up.
It's great, and the other thing that I wanna mention,
which is good for stores like Kohl's
is if you go into Kohl's and you order from a kiosk,
you can actually score free standard shipping
on any item that you buy
when you go into the store
and order from the kiosk and the reason that's key,
a lotta people think those kiosks are great
if you have an item that isn't in stock,
and you need to then all of a sudden go
to a computer and order it for free,
but there are stores like Kohl's that have kiosks
where as long as you go into the store,
you can do all your holiday shipping from that kiosk,
score that free shipping,
and for stores like Kohl's and Macy's.
and many of the other retailers
where their minimum order requirement is not great.
You need to be like well over $25 to get free shipping,
use the kiosk if you can get to a store
and things are okay in your community
for you to do that as shopping secret number nine.
Now for shopping secret 10, which is probably one
of the most important resources that I can dispense today.
I want you guys to pay very close attention
to your screen and a website called Pirate Ship.
This is a way for you to score
USPS Priority Mail Cubic pricing with no markup fees,
and they call this a secret service
where you won't find it at the post office
but it is in fact, one of the cheapest ways to ship.
Now, there are ways to use services
like ShipStation, and if you're a small business,
there's nothing I'm gonna tell you right now
that's going to change your perspective,
but this is an amazing service for small packages.
So Priority Mail Cubic,
cheapest, fastest way to ship packages
that weigh between one and 20 pounds,
you will get that one to three delivery day process
that I was discussing with you.
You get free package tracking,
you get $100 insurance included for free,
and this is 90% in savings versus
what you would pay in a retail store
if you use a service like Pirate Ship,
and they are highly reputable, they're great to deal
with, and well, they're not sponsoring this video,
and I really wish they would.
This is a service where similar to buying
stamps.com services and avoiding
having to go to a post office.
This is a great way to get those small packages,
and I think you guys are going to find
that this is a great piece of software.
It's free shipping software to access
the least expensive USPS shipping rates.
Now, if you have watched the earlier parts
of this video, which I'm assuming you have,
you'll know that USPS is not always the cheapest,
but for something like these small
cubic shipping package options that are unpublished,
I think you're going to find this truly amazing.
So the link for this unpublished secret service
in the video description box.
If you need anything else, drop me a line.
If you guys do a lot of shipping
or a lot of overpaying for shipping, please leave a comment.
I found one of the best things about being a creator
and having this YouTube channel is the subscribers.
You guys are unbelievable,
and you often have insight that I haven't thought
of and that other people can really benefit from.
So please leave a comment if you can.
Thank you so much for watching, and again,
if you don't mind, if you like this video, that's awesome.
but if you subscribe and turn your notifications on
for when I have my next release
to hopefully save you a lot of money,
I will be there for you.
Thank you for watching.
Bye bye.