Shipping alcohol with USPS, UPS, and FedEx

In this article, you will learn how to ship alcohol or send alcohol with the EasyPost API, and ensure compliance with USPS, UPS, and FedEx requirements and restrictions for alcohol packages.

Not all carriers support shipments with alcoholic beverages and different carriers have different rules. We will discuss how to send alcohol in this article, and cover three of the major carriers that you’re most likely to use: USPS, UPS, and FedEx.

USPS

The USPS does not allow you to send alcohol with a USPS shipping label. This means no domestic or international alcohol packages can be sent with USPS as a carrier ever for any reason.

If you try to send alcohol packages, or even use packaging that was once used to carry alcohol, any USPS shipping label or branding associated with sending alcohol must be completely obscured, removed, or covered in order for the USPS to process the package. If you try to use a USPS shipping label with even the possibility of being an alcohol package, the USPS will assume there's alcohol in it and your package will be rejected by the carrier.

EasyPost will not allow users to generate a USPS shipping label if the Shipment options alcohol boolean is set to true.

UPS

UPS does allow you to send alcohol for US domestic shipments only, but also requires that you set up your account and have it enabled to ship alcohol. Here are the requirements:

• You must have an account number with UPS.
• You must obtain an alcohol shipping agreement with UPS. This is given on a per-contract basis; please reach out to your UPS representative to enable your account to send alcohol.
• You must have a license to ship alcohol according to federal and state laws.
• You must abide by the alcohol packages regulations of the origin state AND the destination state. UPS will only ship alcohol to-and-from certain US domestic states because of this.
• Proper packaging includes inner packaging of EPS foam, folded corrugated tray, or molded fiber tray.
• Each packaging component must completely secure the bottle in the center of the container, away from the sidewalls of the container.
• Clearly label the package according to UPS and origin/destination state guidelines.
• Document the shipment as an alcohol package by setting the Shipment.options alcohol boolean value to true.
• Require an adult signature at delivery. An alcohol package can not be dropped off or delivered to anyone under the age of 21. Within EasyPost, you need to set your Shipment.options delivery_confirmation string to ADULT_SIGNATURE.

FedEx

FedEx also allows you to send alcohol to US domestic locations only, and like UPS also requires you to contact FedEx and have your account enabled to ship alcohol. Here are the requirements:

• You must have an account number with FedEx.
• You must have an alcohol shipping agreement with FedEx. Please reach out to your FedEx representative to enable your account to send alcohol.
• Proper inner packaging of EPS foam, folded corrugated tray, or molded fiber tray.
• Each packaging component must secure the bottle to the center of the container, away from the sidewalls of the container.
• Clearly label the package according to FedEx and origin/state guidelines.
• Document the shipment as an alcohol package by setting the Shipment.options alcohol boolean value to true.
• Require an adult signature at delivery. An alcohol package can not be dropped off or delivered to anyone under the age of 21. Within EasyPost, you need to set your Shipment.options delivery_confirmation string to ADULT_SIGNATURE.

Example JSON Shipment.options to send alcohol within EasyPost:

Note that the alcohol boolean should only be set for alcoholic beverages and does not apply to sanitization items, such as hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes. Alcohol for sanitizing purposes would require different shipment options on a per carrier basis and is not discussed in this article.

You can read more about Shipping Alcohol with FedEx in this carrier-specific article.