Surf & Post Shipping Center in Pacific Beach was recently recognized as one of the top five international shippers among FedEx-authorized ship centers in the nation at a Retail Shippers Expo & Trade Show in Las Vegas.
It was a big feather in the cap of Steve Holl, owner/operator of Surf & Post, at 4629 Cass St., across the street from the PB post office.
“We’re a retail shipping center and we primarily do FedEx,” said Holl. “We don’t do too much U.S. mail other than commercial accounts. We will do postal, though we don’t really handle walk-in U.S. mail.”
Surf & Post offers a variety of services, including worldwide shipping, private mailbox rentals, notary services, livescan fingerprinting, faxing and copying and document shredding.
Holl said much of his clientele comprises PB residents.
“We just had our seven-year anniversary Aug. 1 of this year,” said Holl, noting the existing business when he took it over in 2008 had “gone dormant somewhat.
“I came in and worked a lot of hours over the next year or two to build up a good customer base and began getting a lot of referrals,” Holl said, noting “neighbors and students began shipping here.”
Holl said he’s always leveled with prospective customers about whether it makes more sense, given their individual circumstances, to ship FedEx or U.S. mail.
“We (Surf & Post) began getting the bigger, heavier items; that’s where FedEx’s pricing came in,” he said.
Surf & Post’s owner pointed out FedEx began getting more business once the U.S. Postal Service’s rates on priority shipping increased. Holl said he’ll actually crunch the numbers for prospective clients, telling them how much FedEx will charge them for shipping versus the rates the U.S. Postal Service will charge.
Holl and Surf & Post were recognized for exceptional performance at the Vegas trade show in June.
“It was a meeting of small, retail shipping centers like mine,” said Holl of the summer industry trade show. “I was nominated for an award and ended up being recognized as one of the top five international shippers among all FedEx-authorized shipping centers in the United States.”
Holl was extremely proud to have received the award, especially given that his business is basically a “two-person operation.” Holl noted his business has grown and expanded over the years.
“We’ve ended up cranking out a lot of international stuff, primarily due to my eBay sellers, which is another major part of my business, not just the people walking in and sending a box here and there,” he said.
Discussing how the shipping industry has changed, Holl pointed out that the biggest change of late has been big shippers like FedEx and UPS reckoning the price of any article to be shipped, no matter how large or small, using a formula that calculates both its weight and dimensions (configuration).
“It used to be only the bigger stuff was calculated that way,” Holl said. “But now dimensions are taken, even for the small packages, which has had an effect on price. Price has now become a combination of weight, height, length and width. That’s been done so customers don’t end up paying for shipping an empty box or air in the box.”