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With the rollout of USPS Ground Advantage service in 2023, many shippers jumped (and keep jumping!) at the opportunity to save even more money with a new USPS service that can be used for hazardous and non-hazardous shipments alike. Ground Advantage is the slowest service that the Postal Service offers, with delivery timeframes between 2-8 business days…but it’s also often the cheapest! Since it’s such an affordable service, shippers often ask us if they can take advantage of Ground Advantage for shipments traveling to Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories outside of their shipments traveling within the United States.
Table of Contents
- USPS Ground Advantage Goes to Puerto Rico & Other U.S. Territories
- Some Shipping Software Companies Offer Even Deeper Discounts for Shipments Going to the Lower 48 U.S. States
- How Do I Find the Right Shipping Software Provider?
USPS Ground Advantage Goes to Puerto Rico & Other U.S. Territories
Like the case with all USPS shipments, USPS Ground Advantage doesn’t just travel to the 50 U.S. states. Since USPS considers Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories as part of the United States, shippers can use this service to ship to Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, such as Guam, Palau, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As Puerto Rico and other Territories are technically part of the U.S., shippers enjoy domestic rates to these destinations when shipping with the U.S. Postal Service. Instead of treating these destinations as international locations and charging higher rates to reflect that (like other carriers do), USPS designates Puerto Rico and other U.S. Territories as “Zone 9” and only charges slightly more than it would for a Ground Advantage shipment traveling within the lower 48 United States.
Learn more about the different USPS zones and what they mean.
Ground Advantage Also Goes to U.S. Military Addresses
On top of being available to send items to Puerto Rico, Ground Advantage shipments can also travel to U.S. military addresses. Even though military addresses are located throughout the world, the delivery timeframe for Ground Advantage shipments is the same for these addresses as it is for shipments traveling within the United States: 2 to 8 business days.
Learn more about shipping to U.S. military addresses anywhere in the world.
Some Shipping Software Companies Offer Even Deeper Discounts for Shipments Going to the Lower 48 U.S. States
If you’ve never heard of using shipping software to buy discounted postage, now is the time to learn!
When you buy postage online through shipping software instead of going to the Post Office to ship your package, you gain access to special discounts that USPS typically reserves for huge shippers who send more than 50,000 packages per year. USPS designates this special pricing tier as “Commercial Pricing”…and one well-kept secret about Ground Advantage is that shippers can access discounted rates even more affordable than Commercial Pricing when they buy postage from certain shipping software companies.
Unfortunately, this “secret” tier of discounts for Ground Advantage only applies to shipments traveling to the lower 48 U.S. states. So, you can’t access those below-Commercial Pricing rates for Ground Advantage shipments going to Puerto Rico. Even so, shipping at regular Commercial Pricing rates can still save you huge amounts off of what you’d pay to ship the same package at your local Post Office.
How Do I Find the Right Shipping Software Provider?
There are a ton of shipping software companies that sell discounted USPS postage…and not each one offers these below-Commercial Pricing rates we’re talking about. So, when you’re hunting for the best shipping software, make sure to view their rate tables and see if they offer deeper discounts on Ground Advantage shipments traveling to the lower 48 U.S. states!
Looking for the right shipping software for you?
To get the deepest discounts on USPS Ground Advantage labels, check out our guide:
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