Hello
I would like to know the requirements that UPS has for shipping cartridges.
I do believe that an ORMD label is necessary.
I recently was told that they have a minimum fee of $11,00
Thanks,
Kragman71

The minimum fee is the charge for a 1 pound package. IOW there price chart starts at 1 pound

Kragman,
Live ammunition has to be shipped by ground service, limiting the delivery to the lower 48 States. The UPS charge is based on weight, value and the dimensions of the package. Distance plays a factor, but there also seems to be a 'remoteness' factor of the place origin or destination. I'm in Tallahassee, Florida. The lowest shipping charge I have encountered for a 1 pound package valued at under $100 recently was $7.95 to Wisconsin; a similar size, weight and value package to Nebraska, about the same distance from me, cost about $11.15.

When filling out the shipping form, you are required to indicate the contents of the package - they will not accept a general description such as 'gift' or 'metal objects'. The best approach is to be honest about it; 'small arms ammunition' is an acceptable description. The package should also be labeled 'ORM-D Cartridges, Small Arms'. You will often find that the small UPS Stores will not accept ammunition shipments, in which case you should take the package to one of the UPS package centers, most often these are located at the warehouse where all the little brown trucks congregate. On occassion, I have encountered a clerk at the warehouse who would not accept a package, but this problem has always been resolved by asking them to call the regional UPS office to talk to a hazardous materials person.

Another option is FedEx. I have used them only a couple of times in the distant past, but if I recall correctly, they didn't seem to be too concerned about the contents, and I don't believe there was even a requirement to describe the contents on their shipping form.

Welcome Kragman! Glad you could come over and visit... from that other place you frequent.

Guy probably ships more stuff than most of us so I bow to his knowledge on the matter but I have never had a problem shipping ammo via UPS. I believe the ORMD label is only required when a single package is over a certain explosive weight but I have never had to fill one out. Most of my packages are very small though.

The best way to get around the "clerks who hate ammo" is to create your shipment online. Pay in advance, print out the shipping label, put on an ORM-D label and you are done. I usually drop my shipments off at "Staples" office supply store because they have better hours than my UPS hub. They are a UPS outlet and all you have to do is say: "It's pre-paid" when you hand them the box. Once they hear that, they could care less about it. You also do not have to declare the contents when you create an online shipment...

Been doing it this way for years and always smooth sailing...

AKMS

In addition to the ORM D label which is required by UPS is the addition of:
"CARTRIDGES FOR SMALL ARMS"
This can be on the same ORM-D label, or just written on the box. I've been shown this in the UPS 'rules' & so mark our UPS ammunition shippments.

Use this to print out a sheet of labels. Make them about half this size. I won't charge for it's use. ;)

Ray

In the Wash DC area the UPS drivers throw small packages on door steps or porches and usually do not bother to ring the bell. I lose at least 1 shipment a year usually at Christmas time. Thieves follow the UPS trucks and grab parcels. To avoid this an "adult signature required" can be purchased but that does not always work either. Sometimes the driver's ignore it.

Years ago the UPS man left a $5,000 parcel from Rob. Buttweiler in the hallway of my apartment building when I was out of town for 10 days. It took a walk. The driver signed my name to the sheet ( good old days) and UPS didn't want to pay. Good news; the driver spelled my name "Schmidt". My lawyer assured UPS that I know how to spell my own name. They paid. I am a 2 T man; no D.

Anyone in a metro area with boxes marked "small arms ammunition" laying near the from door might as well hang a "come steal my guns" sign out as well.

UPS charges are highway robbery. I ship from a local "UPS store" - this is a joke as they are franchises not a part of UPS and they add at least a $5 surcharge on shipments plus more fees hidden in the "rate".

There is no UPS outlet any place near me any longer since they started the "store" hustle.

Consequently I have to charge a minimum fee when I ship any live ammo. I shipped ONE cartridge to Idaho last week. The parcel weighed in at less than 1/10th OZ. It cost $17+change to ship.

Robbery, but the only game in town.

Business gets better rates.

The IRS says I am a hobbiest .

I am.

I try to get collectors to buy more per shipment to ease the bite but they do not always do so.

Thanks;a bunch,everyone
I learned everything that I need.
I'm a retread.I was quite active a couple of years ago.
I got that ORMD label here,that is offered again.
I was a "no show" for awhile and dropped from the roll.Now, I'm back.
AKMS,do you have to place a weight on the label that you make at home?
Frank
Kragman71

OK, I thought about this a lot and so I'm going to chime in even thou Kragman71 said that he learned everything that he needed.

I worked for the Brown Army for 31 years (retired now, thank God) and some that has been said is correct and true and some not correct at all, and bottom line it may not matter anyway but here goes.
All of the "sticker label" rules apply because of the Feds and I don't mean Fed Ex either.
ICC Interstate Commerce Comm., USDOT U.S. Dept. of Trans., FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin., Surface Trans. Board. thats just to name a few that I can remember but all. They put all of the regulations on the common carriers and freight trucking companies that require both the sticker or labels and also regulate the min. and max. on rates, and min. and max on what the weight can be on any given company too.
UPS and Fed Ex have different requirements put on them by the Feds. mainly because Fed Ex started out as a air only shipper years ago and only in the last few years has expanded into ground and freight too.
Fed Ex could and still does take heavier packages because they "were" regulated as a air shipper, so they were not a threat to the freight companies to take thier business.
For years UPS could only take up to 50 lbs. then it went to 70 lbs and then 150 lbs and if we picked up a package over the limit at that time the company was subject to up to a $10,000 fine by the Feds.
Bottom line I guess what I am saying here is one company is not better or worst than the other and that includes USPS, its how "BIG BROTHER" the Feds says how they can run the company.

And the subject was brought up just don't tell them whats inside if you can get away with it. Not smart!! Including the companies that act like they don't care.
A story comes to mind some years back, somebody had shipped I think 50,000 large rifle primers and wanted to avoid the has. mat. fees and just boxed it up real good and shipped it. The workers at theses companies have to put these kind of packages in the truck in a certain way ect and a papers is carried in the pocket of the driver until that package is dropped off. Well this box of unmarked primers was put up off the floor with the other packages, the driver hit a pot hole in the street and that package of primers fell landed on the floor and a lot of problems started. Fire broke out and then the shipper was found and then he was in a lot of heat too.

And to end this NO! and "adult signature required" can not be ignored. Both because of the way it is put into the system electronicly and by the rules makers stated above. Trust me on this I am not going to lose my job and go to prision for a Federal crime because "I thought I could get away with it" everything is trackable any more with a few minor exceptions and even they can be found.

For the most part thank "Big Brother" for most of our problems not just in shipping.

I'm a card-carrying member of the Big Brown Mutual Admiration Society. Here in my dinky little town, the drivers and office people are average folks just like you and me and I've never had occasion to complain about anyone or anything. I can label a package on-line, call the driver, and he will pick it up that same afternoon. I've never had an office person raise his/her eyebrows over a package marked Small Arms Ammunition. They follow all the rules (and I do too).

Are the prices high? You bet they are. But it's called capitalism and private enterprise. If I don't like it I can go elsewhere. But I won't.

JMHO

Ray

Just a little aside. we have Staples stores in the UK as well and they are UPS agents in the same way. I never thought of using them but its an interesting prospect. The UK postal service won't carry " ammunition" any more but doesn't state what constitutes ammunition ie inert rounds or components and by default that implies a total ban.

I can't imagine that primers could be detonated by the shock of the package falling a distance - must have been something else in that package besides standard rifle primers.

Yes Guy on the surface your thinking is correct and I don't know the details of that primer story, but I do think its true, it did'nt happen in my package center but I heard about it from management. It was'nt from the rumor mill with the drivers anyway.

And "I don't think you should try this at home" as they say on TV but back in my younger days I have chucked a single primer at a big boulder several feet away and it went bang, it does'nt take a firing pin I found that out. Don't ask me why I did this stunt but I did.

And Ray you are right its high dollar, all shipping, but sometimes I look at it this way. If there were no shipping company's all of the sudden for what ever reason, "how much would it cost to get that $20 worth of collector cartridges east of the Mason-Dixon line or Mississippi or whatever?" If you had to do it all by your lonesome??.

And I think anyway, that its good to have more than one company doing it too. These government regulations that drive us crazy now days came about back when the railroads were the only game in town, and they could charge any amount they wanted, or you could always ship it by what, pony express and maybe the road bandits would'nt get before it got there 2 months later.
Well I'm rambling on now are'nt I

Steve--Your mention of Railroads reminds me that when I first started cartridge collecting back in the late 1950's & early 1960's, REA (Railroad Express) was the ONLY way you could ship cartridges. UPS did not have much of a network outside of the major cities, and I don't think they would carry ammunition at that time at all. I know that in Northern Michigan where I( grew up, there was no such thing as UPS delivery until about mid-1970. REA was at least twice the cost then, as todays UPS charges, and that was when $10 was worth a lot more than today. I remember the first time I ever ordered from a dealer, Pete Bigler, that I bought about $20.00 worth of cartridges and the REA shipping was about $14.00 and it took 3 weeks and had to be sent COD. I was shocked at the cost as I was only 14 at the time because I had not expected ANY shipping charges. The reason I did not think there would be any shipping charges was because I had ordered ONLY those cartridges that Pete had indicated in his list were Post Paid such as a .45-100 Sharps PP. I had never heard of a Paper Patched cartridge. I wondered why only part of the rounds on his list were Post Paid instead of all of them. I just figured there was something special that made them Post Paid. I had to borrow the $14.00 from my Mom. I only got $1.00 per week allowance, so that took a long time to pay back.