USPS Unveils Ground Advantage: A Powerful New Ground Shipping Product

The United States Postal Service is set to revolutionize its ground shipping operations with the launch of USPS Ground Advantage, promising faster, more affordable, and more efficient service.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has announced a significant upgrade to its ground shipping operations with the introduction of USPS Ground Advantage. This new product promises to deliver faster, more affordable, and more efficient service, leveraging the USPS's extensive ground transportation network, which is the most comprehensive of any civilian organization globally.

According to the USPS, everything that matters to customers — reliability, on-time performance, speed, and transit time — depends on the efficiency of ground transportation. As the USPS builds a modern, world-class, high-performing logistics and transportation operation, it sees opportunities to create new, highly competitive shipping products and offerings.

The USPS gained approval to change its service standards for First-Class Mail and First-Class Packages in 2021. This was the first step in creating a logistics model that would allow mail and packages to travel together across the country on the same trucks to the same processing facilities instead of separate transportation and workflows.

The USPS launched Ground Advantage at the beginning of July 2023, with a 2- to 5-day service standard for the continental United States. The most compelling feature of Ground Advantage is its 2- and 3-day reach. Shippers will find that the USPS can deliver their products to customers two and three states away within two days and deliver to customers four to six states away within three days.

The USPS Ground Advantage name and marketing — and the retirement of Retail Ground and Parcel Select Ground — are intended to provide the shipping customer with a simple comparison with competitors’ ground products — supported by compelling features.

Benefits like upfront pricing, $100 of baked-in insurance, and free forwarding to recipients who have moved all enhance reliable 2- to 5-day shipping on packages up to 70 pounds. The straightforward, upfront pricing structure — at rates significantly lower than the published rates of USPS competitors — should also attract shipping customers and steadily grow the Postal Service package business for years to come.

The USPS Ground Advantage is designed to win customers. With upfront pricing up to 30 percent lower than competitors' published rates — and with no surcharges, invoicing fees, or add-ons like compounding fuel charges — customers can readily identify the comparative value of shipping with the Postal Service.

The USPS Ground Advantage is poised to make the Postal Service much more competitive in winning shipping business away from rivals and to serve the needs of America’s businesses better — and is only possible because of the network transformation now underway.

Source: THE EAGLE VOLUME 2 · ISSUE 4