SHIPPING AND EXPRESS MAIL
Procurement & Supplier Diversity Services has signed contracts for Mail, Bulk, and Express Services with Federal Express and UPS. The contracts save the University $200,000 annually.
While that’s cause enough to celebrate, there are a few things your department can do to save even more on shipping costs.
1. Make sure that your shipping account is up to date and on the contract.
Accounts that were on the previous contracts have automatically been transferred to the new contract pricing, but some account contact information is old or incorrect, and some accounts have been established outside of the contract. For information on recommended payment methods, please see the Goods and Services Procurement Guide - Express Mail Services.
Federal Express
- To confirm that your department has a FedEx account on the UVA contract, send an email to Govtsupport@fedex.com to inquire.
- To update contact information for your account, send an email to Govtsupport@fedex.com with:
- New contact name
- Any other contact updates that need to be made
- Do not email T&E Card information
- To create a new account if needed, please complete the Federal Express new account setup form and email to Govtsupport@fedex.com.
- To update T&E Card information for your account, do not email card information. Please call (800) 506-7580 with your account number and new T&E Card number.
UPS
- To confirm that your department has a UPS account on the UVA contract, send an email to grea@ups.com including the following:
- Physical (pick-up) address of the department (including suite/room #)
- Physical address of person seeking confirmation (if different from department’s address)
- Full name of person making request – include phone # & email
- To update contact information for your account, send an email to grea@ups.com including the following:
- Existing UPS package account # (6 digits in length)
- Details of change request – i.e. – address needs to be updated, new point-of-contact, etc.
- Please let us know if access to CampusShip (UPS secure, web-based shipping portal) will be required
- Full name of person making request – include phone # & email
- Do not email T&E Card information
- To create a new account if needed, send an email to grea@ups.com including the following:
- Physical (pick-up) address (including suite/room #)
- Billing address if different from the physical address
- Full name of person making request – include phone # & email
- Average weekly # of packages
- To update T&E Card information for your account, do not email card information. Please call (855) 350-2447 with your six digit account number and new T&E Card number. Only one card can be associated with each account.
2. When sending a package, consider Ground Shipping.
Currently University accounts are shipping 65% of packages by Air, and 35% by Ground. Shipping goods by air is more costly to the University, and also to the environment.
3. When ordering goods, choose a less urgent “Need By Date” on Purchase Orders.
Despite those efforts, the #1 zone we receive expedited shipments from is our own zone. That’s like overnighting a package from Richmond to Charlottesville, when Ground Shipping would get it here almost as quickly and for much less money.
To make sure that you’re maximizing your department’s savings on inbound freight, we recommend using the “Need By Date” field on your POs. This date defaults to two days after your purchase order is created, which can communicate a false sense of urgency to your supplier.
Note: these contracts are only for official University business purposes; use of either contract for personal shipping costs is not permitted.