Overnight shipping and expedited freight haulage might seem luxurious due to the extra expense. However, there are times in life when they become crucial.
In the world of online shopping, shipping has become a real issue. The expense falls on the company in question, which needs to either incorporate shipping costs into the item sold or deal with the fallout. However, there are times when overnight shipping is imperative. In fact, sometimes the need for speed is not about shopping at all. Instead, it is life or death.
Individuals and businesses alike send important things through the mail. From life-saving medications to important paperwork that can change lives – the west has a huge reliance on postal systems. Although the standard postal services work well enough, when it comes to faster shipping you really want a courier.
Faster Shipping By Courier
A courier service is the best way to ensure a sent items will arrive on time. All the customers must do is pack up their items. They can then buy a courier service online or visit their local depot to send it. The courier will usually come to your home to pick up the package, and then take it on to its next destination.
It is wise to book a local courier service if you can. They know the area and the shortcuts! For example, if you were delivering a parcel in Orlando, you need local Florida couriers to deliver it.
Faster Shipping by Freight
Expedited freight haulage is what you might use if you require faster shipping on a large product. You might order new assets for your factory, for example, and have them hauled by truck to your building for installation. If those assets are replacement parts for essential production line machinery, then you might need that part as soon as possible to return to business as usual. In this case, couriers may not manage the package – but trucks can.
Priority/Overnight/Expedited Shipping
These are the types of faster shipping you can get from most providers. Ask your courier about options for overnight shipping. Priority mail is treated differently, going faster because it is always taken first over all else. Expedited shipping basically means that the shipping will take priority over other items, too.
As you may have guessed, all the above three phrases simply mean that your shipped items will arrive faster. Remember, though, that a courier is usually the fastest of all.
The 8 Reasons for Faster Shipping
Not all parcels are retail-related. There are occasions when using a speedy courier service can save lives. These 5 reasons for expedited shipping are eye-opening regarding the work postal services carry out.
1 – Organ Transportation
Organs are transported between hospitals after an organ donor dies. They are removed from the body, stored in conditions that keep them alive and are sent to the next hospital where the recipient waits. The problem with organ transportation lies in both the extreme care in handling and the length of time before the organ dies. This means you must hire experienced, skilled couriers to transport it.
2 – Animals
There are plenty of reports out there about couriers shipping an animal from one place to another. In extreme cases, the animal is taken from a foreign country and shipped to the US. This type of shipping involves logistics and a tight itinerary. While postal services in the US require the animals to be shipped overnight, a courier service will carry them for longer.
3 – Vaccines
Remember back a few years ago when the delivery of vaccines for COVID-19 had every country in the world fighting one another? The production and delivery of those vaccines meant millions of lives were spared. 6.4 million doses of Pfizer made the headlines back in 2020. Imagine the logistical nightmare it took to get them where they needed to go.
4 – Survival Equipment
Survival equipment must make it to the area it needs to go to within as fast a time as possible. Imagine if survivors from a mountain storm make it back to camp. They are cold to frostbite proportions and at risk of death. Who wants to wait for the USPS to deliver emergency blankets overnight? You need a courier who can do it in hours.
5 – Human Beings
The United States banned the sending of human beings through the postal service in 1920, but it is fun to remember that it used to happen. Mothers would ship their children to grandparents’ houses because postage was less expensive than travel. What a novel way of saving money.
6 – Bees
Neither animal nor human being but just as important for life on this planet, bees are often shipped in portable hives to new locations. Why would your courier deliver a hive full of bees to you? There are certain fruits and vegetables that require fertilization and don’t have enough bees of their own. Shipping full hives means the bees can get to the area to pollinate the produce.
Unfortunately, this process is not so good for the bees. Some of them react badly to transportation and die. This makes any plants (such as avocados) not vegan-friendly.
7 – Diseases
Just as your local courier might take a product you don’t like back to the shop you bought it from, they might also pick up a disease for transport. That’s right, a disease. Small samples of live bacteria must travel from one laboratory to another for further testing. This leads us to our final point…
8 – Bodily Samples
When you go to the doctor for an unknown illness and they require further tests, they will ask you to provide a urine, stool, or blood sample. These are not tested onsite. Rather, they are transported to further locations for testing and diagnosis. The doctor can then determine which illness you have or have not got by examining the results.
It might not be pleasant, but it could be life or death for someone.
Do You Need Faster Shipping?
Remember, although you may not need faster shipping for your retail purchases as a matter of life and death, there is always the option for third-party postal services. These might help your items to arrive quicker, even if the package doesn’t contain life or death-based items.