Phil Hobbs wrote:
The logistics companies give you one
tracking number that works anywhere in the world, whereas the post
offices all generate confusion and duplicated numbers that make it very
hard to establish whether something got delivered, and if not, where it
went.


Registered mail uses one tracking number worldwide too. It's R, a letter,
a fixed length string of numbers and the country code. I can track a
letter or package sent registered mail from almost any country on
17track.net, several other similar sites, and once it is here on the
Israel postal site.

The problem with the US is that they send regular international mail
using a tracking number with an L at the begining, and those are
tracked as far as the first post office the sender drops them off at.

Occasionally they are tracked to a sorting center, but not always, and usually
not.

Several years ago the USPS restructured their rates for mail outside of the
US. They dropped surface mail, replacing it with an air mail system that
takes almost as long. I have had packages take 6 weeks to arrive here airmail
from the US.

They did a survey of prices of the courier services, and simply charge 1/2
of what the courier services do. If you want registered mail, they charge
another $12 or so for it.

Compare that to China which charges a few dollars to send a package, and
another dollar or so for registered mail. Or the UK (and the rest of the
EU) that charge about $5 for postage and registered mail.



US postal rates are also quite low, which may make it more difficult for
them to negotiate a revenue sharing agreement with higher cost
organizations.

No, they are rediculously high. Much more than an other postal service
for international mail, they also have a very high theft rate, and will
not insure their packages.

As for rates, everyone pays the same rate by international treaty. So the
eBay vendor in central China that pays a few dollars to send his package
is paying the Israel post office the same amount to deliver my mail as
the vendor from the US that pays $16 for the same size package.

The profit/cost above it goes to their national post offices.

It's like cellular roaming rates. I pay .73 NIS ($.20US) per minue to call
on my cell phone from all over europe back to Israel, or to the US.

Someone with a US company can easily pay $3 for the same call, BUT their
cellular company paid the local company the same amount as mine did for
taking the call and forwarding it over international long distance
lines.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM/KBUH7245/KBUW5379
"Owning a smartphone: Technology's equivalent to learning to play
chopsticks on the piano as a child and thinking you're a musician."
(sent to me by a friend)