For those who use USPS to ship to Europe

[ypdc_dennis]

USPS has started diverting air mail to ships for delivery to Europe.

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

It's too bad all these delayed transit times did not include reduced postage costs from the various mail services. Like using the genaric term "International Priority" from the USA. Not even close to priority.

-Lotz

[recped]

International Priority Airmail™ (IPA®) isn't a "generic" service, it's a registered trademark owned by USPS. It's actually a pretty good service but it's really only viable for bulk shippers or consolidators like Ascendia.

https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/immc2_038.htm#ep2246889

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@recped 

For the Global Shipping Program they use the blanket term "International Priority to Canada".  Anything shipped within that program never arrives quickly. (Based on the number of complaints that constantly show up on the discussion board.) The service that gets used once an item arrives the PB hub is entirely at their(PB's) discretion.

-Lotz

[ypdc_dennis]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

For the Global Shipping Program they use the blanket term "International Priority to Canada". 

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And what does that have to with the USPS shipping to Europe?

[recped]

When Pitney-Bowes uses uses the term "international priority" it IS a generic service.

Real IPA offered by USPS uses the exact same delivery stream as First Class International the difference is that it has to drop shipped directly to a USPS ISC and presorted by destination country. While it doesn't include eDelCon it's a lot cheaper than regular First Class and has almost identical delivery speed.

Pitney-Bowes service is slow for a few reasons, first it has to go regular mail to Kentucky then processed by Pitney-Bowes, put on a truck to Canada and then handed over to Canada Post for final delivery.  Add to that it's handled by Pitney-Bowes who are a dinosaur in the logistics business relative to other consolidators. GSP was one of the first ventures they made into the logistics business, something they got into because the historical PB business (postage meters and mailing equipment) has taken them to near the brink of bankruptcy. PB's stock price has fallen over 90% since the high in 2007.