What Are Usps Shipping Zones
What Are Usps Shipping Zones In 2022? (Your Full Guide)
One of the greatest things about United States Postal Service coverage is its ability to reach every corner of the country. If you have a residential address, they will get your mail to you.
But, the shipping cost to ship to the next city or state is not necessarily the same. This is because of USPS shipping zones.
How Will the USPS Ship Zones Change in 2022?
United States Postal Service’s Shipping Zone System is an extremely individual method for determining postage costs and shipping times. Based on customer zip codes, there are 9 zones. The closest zone is 1 and the furthest destination is 9.
What does USPS Zones do?
Your maps might look completely different if you looked at the United States postal areas map with your friend from another city.
This is because while USPS shipping zones are always broken up into nine different regions, those regions are individualized based on the zip code of origin.
ShippingSchool.com gives a detailed breakdown of which zones are relevant:
Zone 9: Freely Associated States, U.S. Territories, Guam, Puerto Rico and others
As a general rule, it is more costly to ship from faraway zones than you do within the same zone.
As you can see, shipping to California for somebody in Arizona would be less expensive than for someone living in Georgia.
Once you’ve identified the area in which you live and determined where your mailpiece will arrive, you’ll be able access USPS.com to check its price page.
Postage costs do not always depend on where the mail is sent. Mail can be shipped for the same prices regardless of its destination.
Priority Mail, Priority Express and USPS Retail Ground are some of the zoned services.
We will take as an example the Priority Mail Price Breakdown.
Local shipping will be charged at $7.95 for a one-pound parcel.
Consider someone who lived in Pittsburgh. They would be in zip code 15213. The largest portion of that area is Oakland’s University of Pittsburgh.
A 1-lb. parcel could be sent. You can send your parcel anywhere within the zip code of 15213 as well to most of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and as far as Ohio, for just $7.95
They also offer the fastest shipping times. If you send Priority, approximately half your area will receive delivery in less than 24 hours.
Any recipient in other areas of Zone 1 (or 2) would receive the parcel within two business days.
None of the Local area or Zone 1 or 2 would conceivably have to wait three days for Priority Mail (provided there were no outside delays).
PirateShip.com provided me with a Zone Map that was very helpful. I also used it in combination with the Priority Mail Delivery Map by USPS.com.
Also, you can use the USPS.com Domestic Zone Map.
How do USPS Shipping Zones are Calculated?
It is not clear how USPS determined the distances to each zone. However, these are calculated as radiuses relative to each specific zip code.
You can clearly see that the areas are not drawn in perfect circles. They’re close approximates, following the distance rules.
This page shows the distance breakdown for each zone.
A unique aspect of the shipping system that interests me is that there are some zip codes located at the center of the country.
They are located in a central area, so they only have a handful of Zone 7 areas.
These residents are very fortunate because the majority of their shipping costs fall within Zone 6.
How Do USPS Zones Affect Your Shipping Costs?
The distance that a mailpiece must travel from California, D.C. to Washington, D.C. is much greater than that of a letter from California, Texas. Therefore, USPS has increased the cost for some services.
Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail Express, USPS Retail Ground and Bound printed Matter are examples of zoned services.
Also included: First-Class Package, for parcels 13 ounces and fewer.
Basically, the further a mailpiece has to go, the more it will cost with these zoned services.
Some services are more expensive than others. This is because your parcel moves further.
For example, a 1-oz. Parcels start at $4.30, Zones 1 & 2, while Zone 9 is $4.75.
However, the cost for a half-pound bag starts at $23 (for Zone 1 or 2 shipping), and goes up to $46.90 for zone 9.
See the Pricing for Priority Mail packages at 70 Pounds. (The maximum weight). Shipping to local + Zones 1 and 2 starts at $166.15
Perhaps you are wondering why the Postal Service is charging so high for certain services. Instead, it uses this zoned approach.
USPS operates independently of taxpayer funding. The Postal Service is reliant on sales alone.
Yes. It is an U.S. government agency but it’s still an independent agency with greater self-regulatory powers than any fully funded agencies.
If they have to ship further it is to make sure that the item remains functional. This becomes more and more challenging each quarter.
How do you know your USPS Postal Zone Number?
You can find your local zone, as well as all the other zones relative to your specific location by using the USPS.com Domestic Zone Calculator.
For all you visual learners, this PirateShip.com map is even better, giving you a color-coded guide to each zone, from whatever zip code you input.
Remember: Each zip code has its own zone. Just like there are different time zones, zones can be dynamically calculated according to each zip code.
What are USPS International Zones, and how do they work?
Send mail internationally using USPS international Zones to get an estimate of the shipping cost.
Although they are called Price Groups by the USPS, you could think of them as domestic zones.
However, there is one major difference: the shipping service can affect the international price range a country falls in.
Croatia, for example is included in Price Group 4 when you mail via Global Express Guaranteed. Group 3 if your mailing Priority Express International.
This is Group 8 for Priority Flat Rate International.
Most of the nations in the world can be described as such, they all fall into the same groupings and have different pricing points depending on how the shipping company is handled.
To return to Croatia as an example, if you wanted to ship a 5-lb. Global Express Guaranteed costs $243.40.
Priority Express International costs $97.50.
Priority Flat-Rate International places Croatia in Group 8. You can order items from 4.1 to 20 pounds using the medium Flat Rate box. This box would run $85.
Unlike domestic zones, USPS’s International Groups are consistent no matter where you are in the U.S. No matter your zip code, Croatia’s Groups are going to be the same.
For more information on shipping, please visit our other posts: Whether or not USPS ships Puerto Rico to Canada to find out, and if USPS delivers directly to your door.
The USPS shipping zones correspond to each zip code within the United States, and each represents a distance from the beginning point.
The greater the area number, the farther the distance and the higher the cost of shipping using Priority Mail/Priority Express.
.What Are Usps Shipping Zones In 2022? (Your Full Guide)