USPS now says you have to pay for Premium Service if you want to track where your package is by stages.

USPS is the very poorest choice of package shippers right now.   Amazon is having to build regional hubs in cities all over the USA, apparently now intending to do the job themselves both better and cheaper than the US Postal Service.

My city, Fayetteville NC is building a 1.3 million square foot facility to distribute AMAZON products.

Bigger cities get drone coverage and robotic delivery pods.

Things, they are a changing ........

I wonder if the beaver trappers,the buffalo hunters and Cowboys saw the end for their way of life coming? And did they feel obsolete, too? I'm old enough to remember women walking around the community building in Odessa during the Oil Show they put on on every other year, walking around the lot,hauling their credit card imprinting machine. Ohh,yeah, they were selling Flowers.. Coff,Coff..

Today, A card and a reader and you are absolutely in bidniss.
Times they are a changing..
And the Timex commercials I enjoyed are no more.
Everyone has a watch. It's always right, and it's part of the tracking,, err,telephone you carry.

While having standard USPS boxes may be convenient - it is likely costing them a lot of money.

You can walk into any lobby and pick up boxes and padded envelopes for free.  I have bought things on eBay that get shipped in USPS boxes that are stuffed full with the USPS padded envelopes wadded up inside padding.

I saw a garage that had lots of USPS boxes on shelves being used for organizing their supplies.  I have about 10 boxes if various sizes in my garage that will someday be used for shipping parts or Deb will use for shipping things to her family - but the USPS has already paid for them and it may be a long time before I use them for shipping.  It is about a 10 miles round trip for me to get to the nearest USPS to get boxes so I have stocked up on a few......I am sure there are many thousands of people who have done the same.

While the cost of the boxes/envelopes being shipped is likely built into the shipping cost - it doesn't pay for all the boxes/envelopes that are not being mailed.

I think the USPS should charge a small fee for the boxes and envelopes.....it would help to eliminate the hoarding and excess use of the boxes that USPS is currently paying for.

Last month I ordered engine seals/gaskets from Partszilla.  The order was mailed with a weird system - likely for their bulk mailing it is cheaper.  They sent the parts in an envelope using UPS for the initial shipping, and then on 1/26 the UPS tracking showed the part was delivered to a local USPS processing center.  Each day when I checked the tracking it showed the package would be delivered the next day - this went on for several days and the USPS was not processing the package.......it likely was in a big pile with other packages.  It took them 5 days to get it processed and on a truck to be delivered!
 

Dave wrote on 02/05/22 at 03:56:26:

I have done that but I use old used packaging, not new.
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Again, used boxes
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I guess it would be time to plan ahead before they do.
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This has been reported on the news just before the 2020 election, huge stashes of packages that the centers have no time for.  Sorting machines sit idle or dismantled.  And now train thefts.

I think it's UPS using the USPS to deliver packages locally in partnership.  I think this has eased off lately as I don't see it as much.

Every time I go to the PO, they talk of closing.

My package was running 4 days late since USPS said it shipped on a two day delivery, so I contacted the shipper.   The shipper apparently gets much better tracking service than the receiving person gets, so his tracer was accepted and he showed my package stuck at my local NC distribution center.

Calling the center's local phone number put a new piece into the puzzle, they have apparently let a lot of their local mail carriers go (or else the drivers simply quit on them) and USPS only run the routes in my area every 2-3 days.   This gives them the spare trucks to try to do zone delivery.  They are loading the spare trucks up with "alternating zones" and running them in rotation until they have enough drivers to go back to full daily runs.

Running zones on alternating days save them money, so guess what they will most likely keep on doing .......

Best Estimated time to my house is TUESDAY of next week according to the truck my package was put on.