Pirate Ship offers UPS® and USPS® labels at the deepest discounts on the seven seas, Matey! Shippers and small business owners across the country use ARRrrr platform every day to save the most booty on shipping their packages 💰
Pirate Ship calculates your shipping costs based on three factors
No matter what you're sending and which carrier you choose, your shipping costs are determined by three key factors:
The dimensions and weight of your package 📦
The distance your package needs to travel 🛫
The type of destination you're shipping to (residential vs commercial, remote areas, etc) 🏡
Here's how each of those factors affect your costs:
1. Dimensions and weight of your package
Package dimensions
Enter Outer Dimensions to Get Accurate Quotes: To get an accurate rate quote, you must enter your package's outer dimensions into Pirate Ship, not its inner dimensions.
Using Inner Dimensions May Lead to Carrier Adjustments: Sometimes, boxes list their inner dimensions instead of their outer dimensions. UPS and USPS double-check outer dimensions after they scan packages into their networks. If you input inner dimensions when creating your label, it may result in a carrier adjustment that increases your costs.
Learn more about carrier adjustments and how to prevent them.
Larger Packages May Incur Surcharges: Packages whose dimensions exceed certain thresholds may incur extra fees on top of your label costs 🙈 UPS calls these fees "surcharges," while USPS calls them "Nonstandard fees."
For example, UPS imposes an "Additional Handling - Longest Side" surcharge on your label when the longest side of your package is more than 48 inches.
You can read more about surcharges from UPS and USPS here:
Package weight
Heavier Packages Cost More to Ship: As a general rule of thumb, heavier packages also cost more to send than lightweight packages. USPS allows up to 70 pounds per shipment, while UPS allows up to 150 pounds per shipment (the only exception is UPS® Ground Saver, which has a weight limit of 70 pounds).
Note that when shipping with UPS, you may see an "Additional Handling - Weight" surcharge in your label costs for domestic packages over 50 pounds and international packages over 55 pounds.
USPS doesn't impose any nonstandard fees for weight, only dimensions 👍
2. Distance your package needs to travel
Distance Determines Cost: The further you need to send a package, the more it will cost to ship. Conversely, your shipping costs decrease when sending packages to closer destinations!
For instance, USPS groups shipments into "zones." Instead of referring to any particular point on the map, these zones are defined by the number of miles between the origin and the destination points. The higher the USPS zone of your shipment, the greater your shipping cost will be.
Check out our interactive USPS Zone Map for more details.
Remote vs Urban Destinations: Shipping to destinations like Alaska or Hawaii from any of the contiguous 48 states may incur UPS surcharges, since UPS considers those destinations remote areas.
While UPS imposes surcharges on remote deliveries, USPS does not! USPS charges domestic shipping rates for packages going to/from Alaska and Hawaii, as well as packages going to/from military addresses and all U.S. Territories.
3. Type of destination you're shipping to
Residential vs Commercial Destinations: Similar to remote areas, your label cost may include a delivery surcharge if you're shipping to a commercial address with UPS.
UPS typically also imposes a surcharge for packages going to residential addresses, but the rates you get on Pirate Ship automatically include residential surcharges for all services 💪 This means you won't be subject to that particular surcharge with UPS on Pirate Ship!
Providing full and correct information is the best way to see the true cost of shipping, including any surcharges
Enter a Correct Address to See All Possible Surcharges: When you provide a full and correct recipient address, you'll get an accurate rate quote for your shipment. In that quote, you'll see any necessary address-based surcharges, such as the commercial address surcharge from UPS we listed above.
Double-Check Outer Dimensions and Weight: Lastly, we recommend double-checking that you accurately weighed your package and entered its outer dimensions before buying your label 🔍 This is the best way to avoid any carrier adjustments that get charged to your account after you ship!
You can weigh your packages on any scale that displays weight to the nearest ounce. However, if you're looking for more professional scale options, see our article: Label Printer & Shipping Scale Recommendations.