Shipping News

Everyone has gotten used to low or free shipping for items that they buy on-line, I know I have.

I look at the published shipping rates for an on-line retailer as one of the major decision points as to whether I am going to buy from them or not.

If I can’t easily find the shipping rates or I must add everything into the cart to get an estimated shipping cost, that typically indicates that it is going to be more than I want to pay and I’ll usually look for the item somewhere else.

While expectations for cheap or free shipping keep increasing, shipping companies have continued to raise their prices at about double the rate of inflation since at least 2010. Ostensibly this is to improve their ability to service their customers, though noticeable improvements have thus far managed to escape most people’s notice.

Recently UPS and FedEx have implemented unusually large price increases on deliveries specifically to residential customers.

These are in addition to their standard yearly across the board cost increase of 4.9%. Shipping costs on average are going up by about 10% in 2019 with residential deliveries in some rural areas going up by as much as a whopping 32% by the time extended service area and fuel surcharges are tacked on.

Some in the business are predicting this may be the start of the end for free shipping.

Here at ProtoSupplies.com we are working hard to keep our shipping costs low and transparent despite what is going on in the shipping industry.

By using a combination of UPS and USPS depending on order size and destination, we can continue to keep our low flat-rate shipping at $9.95 with no minimum order requirement.

To help off-set these rate hikes, the main change we are making is that there is no reduced rate shipping and free shipping now kicks in on orders of $75 or more.

The bottom line is that we are confident that our shipping rates are still some of the lowest in the industry and coupled with our low prices, we are continuing to provide the best value for our customers.

— Ken