ups
Order early – UPS and FedEx are slowing down during record breaking holiday season
This year UPS has forecast to ship more than 30 million packages daily for Christmas rush. FedEx predicts it will move a record-breaking 317 million shipments between Black Friday (November 27) and Christmas Eve.
That means things will slow down a bit. FedEx has not given us any notification that they will slow down, but based on what we are seeing from UPS, it would be safe to assume your packages might take an extra day (or two) for shipments this week. Our advice – Order early!
Despite our “Give the Gift of Toner” Christmas promotion, we are not experiencing a mad Christmas rush for MICR toner and blank check paper, so our shipments are shipping the same day ordered as always.
This is what we received from UPS…
All UPS 2nd Day Air® and UPS 3 Day Select® packages shipped on December 18 and 19 will require an additional day in transit. UPS 3 Day Select packages shipped on December 19 will be scheduled for delivery on December 26.
UPS 3 Day Select: Monday, December 18 (delivery on Friday, December 22)
UPS 2nd Day Air: Wednesday, December 20 (delivery on Friday, December 22)
UPS Next Day Air®: Thursday, December 21 (delivery on Friday, December 22)
Order online at www.advlaser.com and all orders placed before 4:00pm will ship the same day – as per usual.
And the survey says…
We recently polled our customers on a couple of questions and the results are below. Note only about 2.8% of all emails sent to customers resulted in a completed survey. I’m not surprised, we’re all bombarded with unnecessary email and completing a survey isn’t exactly a top priority. Still even if only a few people complete the survey, it’s helpful to keep a tab on the pulse of our customers. We had 37 Brother P-Touch printers to give away for people that filled out the survey, and 450 people filled out the survey. Sorry we didn’t have a printer for everyone, for those of you that didn’t get one – better luck next time! On to the survey…
UPS vs. FedEx – We’ve just switched to FedEx from UPS and while half of our customers seem indifferent between the two services, those that did have a preference prefered FedEx. I guess we made the right move.
Recycling with “the box” – this one surprised me. To date, we’ve had very little participation with recycling with the box. We’ve tried fliers with each “box”, but not much success. We recycle so many common items, but most people hopefully are recycling locally. Yet 61% plan to recycle with the box. Hopefully the survey also worked as a reminder that we offer this service and will recycle more and more with the box. Check out our box recycle flier and see all that can be recycled with “the box”.
Buying from environmentally conscious green companies – The survey we split 50/50 between those that prefer to buy green and those that buy based upon superior product and service. Luckily with Advantage, you don’t have to compromise. We are green and we provide the best products and service!
Higher Gas Prices = Fuel Surcharges, but not from us!
We only ship via UPS, and effective June 1, our fuel surcharge from UPS will be 8.5% for ground and 28% (ouch) for air shipments.
We realize times are tight. We will not pass along the increased fuel surcharges on our toner cartridges. Our toner cartridges ship with free UPS ground shipping and we we won’t increase our prices or take away the free shipping. Check paper is a different story, check paper is heavy and and it’s expensive to ship, so we charge actual UPS charges for check paper.
I’m no economist, but… it’s easy to see that virtually every business in the world will be affected by higher transport costs. The “trickle down” effect certainly has the potential to cause significant inflation. We’re doing what we can to stop the increased fuel costs from trickling down to the next level.
On the positive side… higher fuel prices seem to be motivating Americans to make smarter choices with their transportation. The US has enjoyed relatively low fuel prices compared to the rest of the world for some time now. If you ever travel to Europe or Australia, you’ll notice our cars are huge compared to theirs. Higher fuel prices are driving people to bike to work and take mass transit, and relocate closer to their jobs. Here in Atlanta, where the average commute is 32 miles (the highest in the country), people that work downtown are flocking to new intown developments. Urban re-development is booming. If the the time wasted sitting in traffic doesn’t convince them, maybe the gas prices will!
Did you know… on average it takes a pint of oil to make a toner cartridge? So just by buying 8 remanufactured cartridges, you’ll save a gallon of gas and save 40%. Our Advantage brand toner cartridges are remanufactured right here in Atlanta, Georgia and they work great.