FYI and in defense of "snailmail"
As a former member of the USPS (on hiatus), I must mention that for people that live in rural areas and during holidays...the much maligned USPS is quite often the one who delivers both FED EX AND UPS packages. It is cheaper and more efficient for them to send it that day with the rural carrier, than send a driver deep in hard to navigate
(no street signs or visible addresses, driveways with multiple homes )territory and pay the mileage and fuel for it. I handled at least 8 packages that were from a private mail service every day. And it was already a day late half the time. So they are not all that good.
Automation has made exact and clear addressing more important. Your rural carrier may "know" you, but it needs to reach his station first.
"Priority" mail hasn't been guaranteed for over 3 years. 4 now. And it is states it clearly on the slip. It was raising expenses for carriers to treat EVERY package like a secure package or insured items. As well as slowing the processing of these same costly services.
Certain zip code locations are "off-route" and take an extra day. These are usually small towns that are quite removed from a city nexus or Interstate. Like Payson Arizona. 100 miles form Flagstaff/Tuscon/Phx equally and on a mtn hwy. While living there, Fed Ex delivered an envelope to me on Monday that was supposed to be overnight by Friday! Refunds can't get the ticket paid/the fish revived/ the birthday gift on time. That is one advantage of private companies, the xtra cost covers their offered automatic insurance and you have better recourse. The average letter or package takes two days to go from one state to another. But small post offices sometimes do not get the packages to the 5:30 truck and the package gets delayed. Most delays are at the local level. Distribution centers are big complex machines and all mail flows through quickly.
And most definitely, the box need to be marked PERISHABLE or LIVE in order to get special handling. And
marked by the post office as a paid service. EVERYBODY marks their package as "special" in hopes of getting it faster or safer through. Therefore such marks are ignored. And the machines don't see them at all.
Because the 2lbs/$2 was so nice people were flooding our special services dept. And often the packages were not just 2lbs. So alas, it is gone except in name.
Another important to know:
Packages that do not go to the safe cage for hand sorting or Express delivery tracking, gets sorted and Tossed in bins. Packages of varying sizes (read: WEIGHT) then go flying into these 6x5x3 rolling cages before being rolled into a truck. Rough way to go! And if a leak shows it is put into the quarantine to be x-rayed and checked. And any packages that get tainted/leaked on. It is stricter since 911! This can add another day or even 2! And then if it is "safe" it is bagged and marked on why it looks like it does. And the other packages are sent along at that time too
I have had to use my air conditioner on lovely days to comfort baby rabbits or a box full of poultry. They stay in the station and are usually special delivered unless marked permissable. Every agency has off years or bad employes. None are really that much better. They are parity products. UPS left an insured, signature required 10K painting on my uncovered front porch in the rain just last year. I will still use them when shipping oversize or odd items. But they no longer inspire any faith on my part. Don't put faith in any of them, take EVERY precaution!
However I will say...DON"T USE PRIORITY MAIL! You are better served sending it first class. It is handled the same and usually will arrive at the
same time. If it is really time sensitive, Express and insured is the only way to go. Animal shipping is a risky venture no matter how you look at it. To bad there are no companies specializing in that.
So be nice about your poor USPS. It was the only self- sustaining govt agency for decades. It has been working with overload for years, got unionized (meaning some non-reliable people sitting pretty with tenure and it has 4 distinct unions which all have different payscales) and has had to compete with private markets that don't have to follow the same bureucratic nonsense.
