Hello!
I'm pretty new to shipping products and I have a question about nonmachinable surcharges. I read somewhere that running packages through machines can damage the items inside, and avoiding it would need either the package to meet nonmachinable requirements or to pay the surcharge. I'm confused about the surcharge part - if I do decide I want it nonmachinable, is there an option to click when creating the label? Or is it automatically included? Or will the charge be added after it is shipped?
Hello Kassie, and thank you for posting to our community.
The USPS non-machinable surcharge is typically applied to letters and envelopes when they can’t be automatically processed.
More information here: What are USPS non-machinable surcharges?
If your shipment is unable to be processed by a machine, it will be bumped up to the next class of letter or package, which often costs more money.
Because non-machinable surchages cannot be determined in advance, when sending an odd shaped package (too large or with variable shapes) you’ll want to use the proper postage so you don’t get charged additional fees.
You can learn more about USPS physical standards for parcels here.
Thank you and happy shipping!