You can now apply Live Animal designations and surcharges directly to your USPS shipments within ShipStation. This feature ensures that your live shipments receive the correct "Special Handling" designation from the USPS, ensuring they are placed in room-temperature facilities rather than standard cargo areas during transit.
A new Restricted Content drop-down list is now under Shipment Options. Supported services are USPS Priority Mail and USPS Priority Mail Express.
There are three important reasons why it is important to properly enable the shipping and handling of Live Animals.
- Animal Safety: Selecting the correct designation ensures your shipment is identified for temperature-controlled holding and proper operational safety.
- Rate Accuracy: Avoid post-shipment adjustments by including mandatory USPS surcharges at the time of label creation.
- Compliance: These selections are passed directly to the USPS API to ensure your shipping label includes the necessary Special Handling-Transportation (STC) codes
To ensure the safety of your shipment and receive an accurate carrier rating, follow these steps:
- Configure your USPS Shipment: Select a USPS service for your order in the shipping sidebar or Order Details screen.
- Access Delivery Options: Locate the Other Shipping Options section and find the Delivery Options menu.
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Select the Handling Type: Use the new dropdown menu to choose between:
- Live Animal (Day-old poultry): Applies a specific Live Animal Transportation fee (typically $0.20/lb) to your total rate.
- Live Animal (Other): Triggers the standard USPS special handling fee.
- Review Dynamic Rating: ShipStation will automatically update the shipping rate to include the appropriate USPS surcharge once a selection is made.
To streamline your workflow, you can create an Automation Rule that automatically applies the correct USPS Live Animal designation based on the products in your orders.
- Go to the Automation Rule settings.
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Click the +Create a Rule button to get started.
- Name your rule (e.g., "Apply Live Poultry Handling").
- Set the Criteria to identify your live animal products:
- SKU :: Equals... :: [Your Poultry SKU].
- OR Item Name :: Contains... :: [Live Animal Name].
- Set the Action to apply the specific designation:
- Action Type: Select Set Delivery Options from the dropdown menu.
- Live Animal Designation: Choose Live Animal (Day-old poultry) or Live Animal (Other).
- Click Save Rule.
Once active, ShipStation will automatically apply these settings to all incoming orders that match the criteria. This match process updates the shipping rate to include the mandatory USPS surcharges and ensures proper handling by the carrier.
You can create a secondary Automation Rule that automatically applies the correct USPS Live Animal designation based on the products in your orders.
- Go to the Automation Rule settings.
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Click the +Create a Rule button to get started.
- Name your rule (e.g., "Apply USPS Live Animal - Other").
- Set the Criteria to target your non-poultry live inventory:
- SKU :: Equals... :: [Your Specific SKU].
- OR Item Name :: Contains... :: [Live Animal Type].
- Click Save Rule.
- Rate Calculation: This selection will trigger a rate request to the USPS that includes the mandatory special handling fee for miscellaneous live animals.
- Conflict Prevention: ShipStation's selection logic ensures that if an order matches this rule, it will not conflict with "Day-old poultry" designations, as only one live animal option can be active at a time.
- Existing Orders: To apply this new rule to orders already in your Awaiting Shipment grid, click the Reprocess Automation Rules button on the Automation Rules screen. See Step 6 in Create a New Automation Rule.
The USPS allows the shipment of certain live animals under strict guidelines to ensure the safety of the animals, postal workers, and other mail.
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Use Accurate Weight Dimensions: Please enter the accurate weight and dimensions of all packages containing live animals to prevent delays and ensure the well-being of the animals being shipped.
- Why is this important? The USPS flags shipments with incorrect or insufficient postage. A flagged package may be delayed, possibly causing the recipient to be presented with a bill that must be paid to receive the shipment.
- Follow Packaging Requirements: USPS Publication 52 contains packaging requirements for when you ship live animals.
These animals can be shipped through USPS under specific conditions. For detailed guidelines, please refer to Section 526: Mailable Live Animals.
- Live bees
- Live, day-old poultry
- Live adult birds
- Live scorpions (only under limited circumstances)
- Other small, harmless, cold-blooded animals
Starting January 19, 2025, the USPS will introduce a "Live Animal and Perishable Handling Fee" for shipments that include live animals or perishable goods. This additional fee will cover costs associated with handling and transporting these items.
The following services are available for shipping live animals and include the fees mentioned:
- Priority Mail Express®: $7.50 per label
- Priority Mail®: $15.00 per label
- USPS Ground Advantage™: $7.50 per label
Surcharges for Day-Old Poultry: A Live Animal Transportation fee of $0.20 per pound is charged when Day Old Poultry (newly hatched chicks) with Priority Mail Express and Priority Mail when shipping to Zones 5–9.