Postal Service Snake Shipping Poll

[PYMOM]

Ok I have to stand up for our USPS....If you work in a job environment that does that much volume there are going to be mistakes. I had a slight altercation with our local office. My house is the center of our street. The postman (sometimes woman) pulls over at my house and parks in our yard. This infuriates my Boxer Abbey, who will sit there and pound on the window. She has broken that window 5 times. Sent one Postwoman running down the street screaming help..hehehe. We tried thicker glass, and still she did it...We finally wised up and pulled the couch somewhat away from the window so she couldnt get leverage. They thought she was a "vicious" pit bull. (their words). They had Animal control at my house and the city called me at work. They wanted to shoot her. She never even came out of the house, it scared her more than the mailman. After talking to our normal mailman, he was very understanding, knowing she wasnt dangerous to anybody but herself, and now he will stop and talk to her if she is in the yard.

HATS OFF TO USPS IMHO

[joepythons]

Sorry but its against USPS rules to ship any snakes .Its not up to your local post masters and if they allow it to happen then they will lose there jobs when caught.If you decide to try it then like Robin said you will be on ALOT of do not buy from peoples lists .So thier is no debate on its possible outcome point blank.

[ballbreeder]

Just a note. Both UPS and Fed Ex claim not to ship snakes. The USPS is the only one that, most of the time, puts their foot down on the subject. They do, however, ship birds and most other reptiles. I suppose I shouldn't have stated that I was going to "try" to ship them via USPS. What I meant by that is that I was going to discuss this with my Post Master and see if it is really illegal, because I don't believe there is any legislation on the matter. If there was, UPS and Fed Ex wouldn't be able to ship, despite the fact that both of their rules state clearly, no snakes.

With that said, the poll isn't about how I'm shipping my snakes. It's about what would happen if the Postal Service decided to openly allow the shipping of snakes through their services.

[joepythons]

Just a note. Both UPS and Fed Ex claim not to ship snakes. The USPS is the only one that, most of the time, puts their foot down on the subject. They do, however, ship birds and most other reptiles. I suppose I shouldn't have stated that I was going to "try" to ship them via USPS. What I meant by that is that I was going to discuss this with my Post Master and see if it is really illegal, because I don't believe there is any legislation on the matter. If there was, UPS and Fed Ex wouldn't be able to ship, despite the fact that both of their rules state clearly, no snakes.

With that said, the poll isn't about how I'm shipping my snakes. It's about what would happen if the Postal Service decided to openly allow the shipping of snakes through their services.

UPS does not take any new reptile shipping accounts.They do ship for those that were grandfathered in when they changed the rule though ..They also ship for ship your reptiles.

[rabernet]

Just a note. Both UPS and Fed Ex claim not to ship snakes. The USPS is the only one that, most of the time, puts their foot down on the subject. They do, however, ship birds and most other reptiles. I suppose I shouldn't have stated that I was going to "try" to ship them via USPS. What I meant by that is that I was going to discuss this with my Post Master and see if it is really illegal, because I don't believe there is any legislation on the matter. If there was, UPS and Fed Ex wouldn't be able to ship, despite the fact that both of their rules state clearly, no snakes.

With that said, the poll isn't about how I'm shipping my snakes. It's about what would happen if the Postal Service decided to openly allow the shipping of snakes through their services.

UPS and FedEx are not Government agencies - it's against their policy, not against the law. And FedEx does allow you to become certified to ship through them. Contact them for your local account rep to find out the process. UPS allows some companies to ship through them, like Ship Your Reptiles.

USPS is government run and government governed. Violating their rules, is violating the law.

[ColinWeaver]

FedEx is cleaning up on the reptile shipping business.

As the Post Office continues to lose more and more revenue each year (on-line bill pay, email, electronic billing statements, flickr, facebook, etc.) they would be wise to reconsider their policy on snakes (and, perhaps, a few other things). But the USPS is a government-run shop with the typical bureaucratic mindsets hindering change.

They may be in an unrecoverable downward spiral. The continue to lose revenue so they raise prices. Higher prices encourage people to use fewer stamps and look for other alternatives (e.g. UPS & FedEx). The decision to ship snakes would have to be part of a larger, more comprehensive plan to save themselves.

Me personally, I've got my eye on the post office building down the street. When it's finally gone I'm going to buy it, gut it, and line the walls with snake racks.

[ballbreeder]

UPS and FedEx are not Government agencies - it's against their policy, not against the law. And FedEx does allow you to become certified to ship through them. Contact them for your local account rep to find out the process. UPS allows some companies to ship through them, like Ship Your Reptiles.

USPS is government run and government governed. Violating their rules, is violating the law.

Again, not sure what the actual law is. I do know that the Postal Service is no longer government run and that no tax money funds it. It's on its own now to raise the money it needs to survive, via postage and services. Regan set it out on its own in the 80's.

With that said, any comments on the actual discussion topic? What would happen if the post office actually started openly shipping snakes? Beneficial or not? Thank you ColinWeaver for answering the topic question.

By the way, I do agree it would be a very very bad idea to just ship a snake via the postal service with their current ban. No one in their right mind would do that. I don't think it's a bad idea to discuss it with your local post master and find out what the laws really are, however.

[Meltdown Morphs]

As another fellow USPS worker, I would say it would benefit the USPS somewhat -IF- they started accecpting the shipment of reptiles. I've personally been on all ends of the mail process from incomming packages to letters sent to the carries for daily delivery.
but it could also be detrimental to both, Shipping reptiles would require more care per package, which means more people to handle them. As of now the post office seems to be in a severe hiring freeze (least where I'm located) and making more work with fewer people isint really a good plan.

Also for those of you who have mail issues ( not directly going at anyone here) but more that 50% of mail issues come from the customers. People who want to try to cram every thing into one letter to not have to pay a tad more postage. People who put pens, candy canes, chocolates. necklaces...socks....in an envelope. The stupid thing is the USPS wil not inform peopple of what not to put in letters just the weights to still pass as a 'letter' and not a parcel, letters have to be able to bend to roughly the shape of a 'C' otherwise it either (1). Rips the letter itself open. (2) damages Whats inside the letter. (3)Jams the machines its processed through and damages others peoples mail who also hit the jam and knocking it out of delivery order. I Hope to be an informant for every person who comes up to rage at the post office for why their mail is screwed, I've heard several stories from my mother whos been with the USPS for 25+ years but the USPS need s to get control of what little they have left before taking on a whole new genre imo. There smore underlying issues than the public knows.

[Wh00h0069]

With how many of my packages that they have lost, I wouldn't ship with them.

[Lucas339]

No offense to you but even if it was legal I would have to say thanks but no thanks, usps is horrible (at least here here ), they can't even deliver letters properly (I get my mail in my neighbor's mailbox and I get other people's mail because they have the same street number not the right street though ) , thay drop packages on your step from waist high when it says fragile, they would rather put a notice in your box than get out of their car to see if your home when you have a package etc.

Interestingly enough I lived in several countries and postal services all have one thing in common they how horrendous.

ill have to disagree with you on that. i use USPS for any other things and have never had a problem with them. UPS is garbage and i hate using them to ship anything.

if USPS changed rules so that it was legal to ship reptiles or inverts (Ts and scorpions) i would use them without question. to me, its USPS, FEDEX, or nothing.