📦 Free Shipping
ClinicalPosters currently offers FREE GROUND SHIPPING for single-box orders costing $99 or more delivered within the contiguous United States. Packages must weigh less than 70 pounds. Free First Class shipping is also offered for ClinicalPins.
Every year, carriers evaluate delivery costs. The convenience of online shopping increases carriers’ investment in trucks, planes, warehouses, fuel, and personnel. Online store merchants grapple with the challenges of either passing on to customers or absorbing the rising shipping costs.
This ClinicalPosters e-commerce platform supports a variety of different shipping services. Each carrier’s fulfillment rates are dynamically integrated into checkout. ClinicalPosters primarily uses USPS and FedEx. UPS and other carriers have similar increases.
Carrier Rate Hikes
FedEx – Effective January 6, 2019
- Surcharges for home delivery, address correction, declared value, direct signature, email return labels, special handling, and more increase anywhere from a few cents to a couple dollars.
- There will be changes to the Delivery Area Surcharge ZIP code lists.
- FedEx Freight shipping and surcharge rates increase around 6 percent.
USPS – Effective January 26, 2020
- First-Class stamp postage is unchanged.
- Outbound international letters increase to $1.20.
- Priority Mail Small Flat-Rate Box increases to $8.30.
- Priority Mail Medium Flat-Rate Box increases to $15.05.
- Priority Large Medium Flat-Rate Box increases to $21.10.
- APO/FPO Large Flat-Rate Box increases to $19.60.
- Regular Flat-Rate Envelope increases to $7.75.
- Legal Flat-Rate Envelope increases to $8.05.
- Padded Flat-Rate Envelope increases to $8.40.
UPS – Effective January 29, 2020
- The rates for UPS® Ground, UPS Air and International services will increase an average net 4.9%.
- A Rebill fee will be assessed for each request to change the billing account for a shipment.
- A Prohibited Item fee will apply to packages containing prohibited articles or restricted articles not in compliance with all UPS policies and procedures and applicable laws and regulations if found in the UPS system.
- Value-added services and other charges will apply to undeliverable packages returned to the shipper.
DHL Express – Effective January 1, 2020
- Air and ground express firm DHL Express announced September 27 a 5.9% general rate increase on shipments moving to and from the U.S.
Published shipping rates do not include vendor surcharges for packing and mailing containers.
Incalculable Fees
Supporting dimensional (DIM) weight shipping can be problematic. Most platforms require merchants to store dimensions and weight for each product. Carriers then charge the greater of either the actual package weight or a multiple of package dimensions divided by a value to estimate weight (DIM weight).
Fees for packing materials and carrier price increases make it is difficult to bury shipping costs
Posters have a negible thickness with width and length that exceeds flat envelopes. In small quantities, they are rolled into tubes. Buying two posters does not double the number of tubes. Other times they are shipped within large flat boxes. Dimensions and weight changes accordingly.
Packing Materials
The fees for packing materials and carrier price increases make it is difficult to bury shipping costs within the price of a poster. Did you know that FedEx Express charges shippers over 12 dollars for the triangular packing tubes? Premium engineering of their tubes allow them to withstand several hundred pounds of force. A similar kraft brown FedEx Ground Tube is about 9 dollars.
Though there is no surcharge, Priority Mail Tubes are significantly weaker than FedEx Tubes. ClinicalPosters reinforces Priority Mail Tubes with cardboard to double strength.
ClinicalPosters stocks its own tubes, flat boxes and plastic bags. A 200 pound person can step on our triangular tubes without crushing. However, customs inspectors have been known to open tubes and handle contents. Whether international or not, it is customary to insure shipments.
Have you ever received a poster within our flat box? Posters are protected against water damage within plastic bags. Extra cardboard or bubblewrap padding is included to prevent puncture wounds. Poster corners are secured away from box edges to prevent bends. Multiple frames include cardboard corner protectors. Trackable shipping methods are always recommended. Especially is this so during busy holiday seasons. If you have a choice between free and trackable, choose tracking.
Flat box shipping is provided at no additional charge for orders of one or more frames or 8 or more posters. It is an upgrade option available during checkout for less posters for customers who prefer that posters arrive uncurled.
