Postal Letter

If the USPS is so hard up for cash, why do they give away free boxes and usually cheaper rates for using them?

Make people find their own damn boxes! If I use my own box it usually ends up costing me more!

Public Comments

1. Because they are trying to lure customers away from UPS and FedEx.
2. The boxes aren't "free" exactly. The flat-rate postage you pay when you send an item in one of those boxes is rounded up to include the cost of the box itself. The boxes are also of uniform sizes and shapes, which makes processing them faster and more efficient than processing an unknown variety of random box shapes and sizes.
3. Theoretically you pay for the cost of the box gets shifted somewhere else. Probably with the cost of shipping it.
4. Standard size boxes are easier to handle so they save money by giving them away as long as people use them to mail stuff.
5. standard fedex/ups boxes and envelopes are free too. It facilitates automation and makes it easier for a customer to do business with them.
6. The USPS is a good example of why you don't want government running business
7. Because it makes MORE money for them than if they didn't do it. When you ship a box of something, you don't think US Post Office. You think UPS. When you want to ship something overnight, you think FedEx. When you think of sending a Christmas card to Grandma, then you think of US Post Office. They want you to think US Post Office for more things than you do now. Overnight delivery is going to be gone, but parcel shipments are still there, and I haven't heard any places to cut those out.