If you are in an off-shore location served by the US Postal Service (ex: Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico...), you may find this information helpful:
Since the USPS last change to a new class of shipping, Ground Advantage, we have been tracking both transit times and postage costs for all our Ground Advantage-shipped USA customers . Since we recently have had situations where Ground Advantage(GA) packages shipped off shore took extremely long to be delivered, we wanted to make folks aware....
So, fwiw, our observations, first reported to our site members:
ABOUT U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (USPS) GROUND ADVANTAGE SHIPPING; especially TO OFF-SHORE USA ZIP CODES (Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii etc.):
A. BACK-STORY:
Early in 2024 the US Postal Service (USPS) made some big changes to their types/rates of shipping for parcels. They eliminated some rates and added what they call “USPS Ground Advantage” (GA). We mentioned in a newsletter a few months ago that we were (and continue to be) VERY surprised that the new GA rate was now cheaper than UPS and FedEx Ground for most continental USA zip codes for our 10lbs (net) packages in boxes measuring 12”x12”x9” – including most West Coast addresses. ! This is a first for us in years (26 actually).
In addition – for us at YokoDana Kimono(yokodana com), 2024 transit times for GA parcels delivery have been very good/excellent to everywhere Continental USA (CONUS); West Coast and Hawaii deliveries were also excellent - until this past week anyway. :}
B. RE: SHIPMENTS TO GUAM, HAWAII, PUERTO RICO AND OTHER OFF-SHORE DESTINATIONS SERVED BY US POSTAL SERVICE:
Our 2024 experience for our many Hawaiian customers is that packages shipped via Ground Advantage arrive (at all the various islands of Hawaii) in 5 to 7 days. Then, all this changed when one of our regular customers had 2 orders ship the same day, with one package routed differently from the other. One was delivered in 5 days , the other was on a ship and still has not been delivered.
Lesson Learned: USPS says that all GROUND ADVANTAGE packages go surface, which means by ship/vessel at some point in the itinerary off-shore. This was news to us.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR HAWAII & GUAM, OTHER OFF-SHORE USA CUSTOMERS:
If you are in an off-shore location receiving your mail within the US Postal Service system, please keep in mind that the cheaper Ground Advantage is said to be put on a ship, delaying delivery substantially, with weekly ships being used (depends on location). We suggest you check with your local postmaster about this. If you are military overseas and have a USA Postal Zip Code(APO etc), you might want to check with your military Postmaster there to find out if the GA comes to you by surface/ship.