USPS now has international delivery confirmation at a reasonable price
I received a package from the U.S. this week which did track straight through to delivery here in Canada. The state of international tracking (for basic First Class envelopes and packages) has improved somewhat over the past 12 -18 months, but it was very inconsistent. After some poking around today, I found some USPS changes:
The Good:
- The USPS site now states that delivery confirmation is available for First Class International Packages to some countries. It is only available online, but it comes at no extra charge.* I checked Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands, and D.C. was available for all of them.
The Bad:
- The USPS now seems to have figured out that it should be cheaper to mail to Canada than overseas but, rather than reducing their prices for shipping to Canada, they appear to have increased their prices for shipping packages** to the rest of the world.
*The 'Large Envelope" option is still a far less expensive way to ship internationally, but it does not officially offer delivery confirmation at all. I suspect that, at least on Canada Post's end, everything will track the same, whether online, offline, "package", "large envelope", etc. ...simply because Canada Post has no reason to scan or not scan based on how it was shipped in the U.S. For example, the one I received this week was sent as a package, but on Canada Post's website it's identified as "Lettermail". Shipping online as a "Package", however, officially offers D.C., which means more certainty that your item will be tracked until delivery (at least until we see how postal services in other countries deal with other forms of shipping).
**"Large Envelope" prices have stayed the same.
The Good:
- The USPS site now states that delivery confirmation is available for First Class International Packages to some countries. It is only available online, but it comes at no extra charge.* I checked Canada, the U.K. and the Netherlands, and D.C. was available for all of them.
The Bad:
- The USPS now seems to have figured out that it should be cheaper to mail to Canada than overseas but, rather than reducing their prices for shipping to Canada, they appear to have increased their prices for shipping packages** to the rest of the world.
*The 'Large Envelope" option is still a far less expensive way to ship internationally, but it does not officially offer delivery confirmation at all. I suspect that, at least on Canada Post's end, everything will track the same, whether online, offline, "package", "large envelope", etc. ...simply because Canada Post has no reason to scan or not scan based on how it was shipped in the U.S. For example, the one I received this week was sent as a package, but on Canada Post's website it's identified as "Lettermail". Shipping online as a "Package", however, officially offers D.C., which means more certainty that your item will be tracked until delivery (at least until we see how postal services in other countries deal with other forms of shipping).
**"Large Envelope" prices have stayed the same.
