UPS is short for United Parcel Service. They are a separate company from the United Postal Service and for some reason or another _ cannot reach an agreement to deliver mail to a post office box address. This makes it hard for all of us in mail order, but there is a way around that: Provide a UPS shipping address when you place a large order.

What is your UPS shipping address? Your STREET address or anything other than a post office box. Everybody has a UPS shipping address. My mother lives in a town of 300 people and all her mail goes to a post office box. It's required for every citizen in Dante, Virginia to have a post office box and to use it as their address. However, her UPS shipping address is: Third House on Rte 1420. Yes! Bizarre as it seems _ everyone has a UPS shipping address. If you don't know yours, simply call your local United Parcel Service and find out what it is.

Why don't mail order dealers just ship your printing or product orders by Parcel Post or 3rd class through the post office? Several reasons _ and good ones:

1. Most mail order dealers have a UPS account. This means the UPS truck comes right to their door every day and picks up packages. They don't have to haul heavy packages in the car, drive to the post office and stand in line to pay a clerk. Besides _ the cost is only $5 per week for anybody to open up a UPS account and if you are shipping packages several times per week _ the $5 cost is certainly justified!

2. The customer saves a lot of money when a dealer ships their package by UPS. Shipping 1,000 envelopes (13.7 lbs) would cost around $6.00 at the post office but only $2.60 by UPS.

3. The customer will get their order quicker. If a dealer mailed the same package to you through the post office it could take from 2-3 WEEKS for you to receive. UPS only takes 2-3 DAYS in most cases!

4. The customer's order is automatically insured for up to $100 by UPS. If the dealer mailed the same package through the post office, he or she would have to pay an additional charge for insurance.

You should now be able to see "why" providing your printer or mail order company with a UPS shipping address is as important to you as it is to them!

However, some people don't want anything shipped directly to their home because they might not be there or a family member might get the package instead. UPS has a bad reputation for leaving packages inside a screen door if no one is home _ opening up the opportunity for theft.

Therefore, you have 4 choices: (1) You can have the package delivered to your employer's address (or wherever you might be during the day); (2) to a friend or neighbor's address (who is home most of the time); (3) leave a note on your door to NOT leave any UPS packages and pick them up yourself; or, (4) pay an additional postage charge for the dealer to ship your order to your post office box address.

The best rule of thumb for determining additional cost in sending to your post office box address would be about 40% ADDED on to the total amount of your order. Why 40%? Isn't that too much for shipping charges? You must remember: not only does the dealer (or printer) have to pay the additional postage charges but they have to haul it to the post office themselves during office hours, take time away from their daily business, stand in line holding a heavy package and drive back home. For our printer, this is a 18 mile round trip. (Not everybody visits the post office everyday, even though they are in mail order.)

Just recently we received a rude comment from a customer who refused to provide us with his UPS address and demanded we ship to his post office box. He said: "I'm not in the UPS business and I'm not in the phone business _ I'm in the mail order business!" (He didn't want to place a call to our office to talk to us about this so we didn't have a chance to educate him on how this situation is out of our control.)