Lori Boyer 00:00
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics, everybody. It’s me, your host, Lori Boyer here as always. We are getting to the end of 2025, and I am excited. It has been a crazy rocky year, but we have an amazing announcement that I want to share with everyone. That is something that I think is really cool and gonna be able to help you a ton with your shipping through the rest of this peak season.
So, we are doing an EasyPost Insider episode. That’s right. And I have brought on one of the coolest guys at EasyPost, Tyler Diestel, to walk us through the entire thing. It’s gonna be our USPS Claims product. Tyler, over to you. Tell us a little bit about who you are before you tell us about EasyPost USPS Claims.
Tyler Diestel 00:52
So I’m Tyler Diestel. I’m a senior product manager here at EasyPost. I’ve been here for going on six years. Initially was focused only on data, but now I’ve actually expanded. I’ve spread my wings and I’ve started to lead our Forge product as well as our EP Guard product, which USPS Claims sits in.
Lori Boyer 01:20
Okay, first of all, six years at this company, in this industry, it’s like six decades in some other, other industries. So Tyler knows it all. He’s seen it all. He really gets to help shape our product and what we do here at EasyPost. So EasyPost customers. You got Tyler’s ear today. It is really, really exciting.
I love the USPS Claims product. So I want us to dive into what it is. So first, what Tyler is USPS Claims? Why did EasyPost decide to launch it?
Tyler Diestel 01:58
USPS Claims is an amazing product that makes it easy for shippers to get money back that is owed to them from the carriers. Now, a lot of times when a shipper purchases a label let’s say for USPS Ground Advantage, they don’t know that that label in and of itself comes with a hundred dollars worth of insurance.
And so what we thought of back in 2021, I had one of our all star employees, Katrina Luthi come up to me when I was working on the data side of things, saying, hey, how can we help our shippers identify all the packages that they can actually file a claim for against these carriers to receive back this inherent insurance.
Because we have a treasure trove of data and from our data, we can tell when a package is lost or damaged. So because we can tell that we’re able to then file these claims against the carrier to help our shippers recoup that 100 dollars worth of inherent insurance that’s part of these carriers’ postage.
Lori Boyer 03:14
Yeah, and I think I’d read a stat somewhere that said like, 60% of shippers don’t ever file these claims and, and so I’m sure some of it, like you said, people just don’t even know it’s there. That’s super common is to not know of benefits. I was just telling my team that, you know, I got an email from Amazon recently that saying, did you know with Amazon Prime, you give one free audible book every month and you’re not using this benefit.
And I was like, what? But I think it’s one of those cases, a lot of times people don’t know they have it. So you took our data, you decided to use it. So, so how does that work? Like our data can then identify like, oh, this was a claim that was lost and it’s under a hundred dollars and it was shipped via USPS Ground or whatever.
And so it’s eligible.
Tyler Diestel 03:59
Yeah. So the first place we start is we will look at the carriers that are part of this program. So in this case it’s only USPS. Then we will look for the specific service levels that that are eligible. So for USPS, it’s Ground Advantage, Priority, or Priority Express, and then we will see if any of the shipments ended up being lost or damaged.
We find that criteria and then we do one more thing, which is we look for what was the product that was being shipped? And what was the value of that product because only then can we actually say, hey, there was a $75 product being shipped, so please USPS pay this shipper back that $75. If it’s over that hundred dollar threshold, then the shipper can only recoup a hundred dollars.
Lori Boyer 05:00
Okay. So, but if it is $120 item, they can still get a hundred. It’s not like they’re out cold.
Tyler Diestel 05:05
Yep. Exactly. But we do need to know exactly what was that specific dollar amount. And so shippers can provide that dollar amount to us, one of two ways. One, they can provide it to us when they’re purchasing the label. Or the other way is, in this process, let’s say we get to a point where we identify there’s 20 shipments that you created, Lori, and those 20 shipments we can file because they were all lost, but you never told us what the product value of those shipments were. So what you can do is log into your EasyPost dashboard.
You can download a report that tells you everything about those 20 shipments except the product value. So then you would go in, fill out the product value, and then upload it to the EasyPost dashboard. And right when you do that, we automatically file those claims for you.
Lori Boyer 06:03
Okay, so let’s say, so from my standpoint, I’m a shipper. I’ve shipped something out, it got lost.
Do I need to notify you at EasyPost and say, this was lost, I wanna use your USPS Claims? Or do you just automatically contact me and say, hey, we noticed this is, how does that work?
Tyler Diestel 06:22
So first you would have to be enrolled into our USPS Claims program. Okay. Does that cost money?
Does not cost any upfront fees. What we end up doing is we end up splitting some of the money that gets paid out from USPS, and we will keep some of that as an admin fee and we’ll pay you out the rest.
Lori Boyer 06:46
Okay, so why wouldn’t I want to just file my own USPS claims? Why would I wanna do it with EasyPost?
Tyler Diestel 06:51
Great question. So that goes to the point that we were talking about earlier of why don’t people do this? First one we mentioned was they don’t know that this is a benefit they have.
The second thing is, they don’t have time to do this. They don’t have time to figure out which of their shipments are actually eligible. They don’t have time to actually go in and file a claim for each of those shipments.
They don’t have time to follow up on the progress of those claims.
In all of that. So essentially, a lot of shippers are just chalking this up as a cost of doing business. Whereas if they just agree to being part of our USPS Claims program, we’ll handle everything for them. And so that’s where this whole automation piece comes into play is you enroll with us.
The only thing you would have to do in code would be you could provide us the product value whenever you purchase a label from our APIs, or you would just as we go through our claims process and we identify shipments that can be filed, we will send you an email saying, hey, there’s 20 shipments that need additional info and they need that product value, please log into the portal, fill it out, and from there we take it.
And what we do after we file the claims is, let’s say all those claims get approved by the USPS. They will then issue out the funds to us, and we’ll issue those funds right back into your EasyPost wallet.
Lori Boyer 08:32
Okay, so help me understand as well. Does EasyPost, like using this system just once a month, like do an audit and then look for anything, or is it every single time one’s lost, I may get a notification that it, there’s a claim. Like how does that work?
Tyler Diestel 08:48
We go through this process twice a month. And so what we do is we look back through the last 60 days worth of shipments and see if there are any shipments that we haven’t filed claims for.
And we put them in through the process. And so. Like I said, we do that twice a month, once at the beginning, and then once in the second half of the month. After that’s done and we’ve filed all claims, got them approved or denied we then enter in the payouts point. And so the payouts obviously is the last part of the process, and we do that once a month.
So we will end up paying out claims about it turns out to be about three months after a shipment actually occurred. And let’s say that shipment three months ago was lost or damaged, it would flow through the process and you would eventually get paid out for it within that three month period.
Lori Boyer 09:54
Okay? So what I’m getting is, so step one, you go enroll in the program. Step two, you submit your info, make sure you have the data around your, your different shipments to make sure you have the, the value. And then step three, you and your team will be auditing and checking twice a month to look for any potential claims that can be made.
And, and did you say that then you I like, lets, if I’m the shipper, would I receive an email or something notifying me of that?
Tyler Diestel 10:26
Yes. So, we will notify you for any claims that we go through and we identify as being claimable, but need additional info, we would send you an email letting you know, hey, if you just provide us the product value for these 10 shipments, we can then submit these on your behalf to USPS.
Lori Boyer 10:50
Okay, perfect. So then once that’s gone through what kind of visibility do we have into the rest of the process? Sounds like about three months after the shipment went out, we’ll, we’ll get the payout and I, you know, I’m sure we’d be notified at that point, but during those, those months, are there updates?
I guess just what sort of visibility do we have?
Tyler Diestel 11:08
Yeah, absolutely. So, in your EasyPost dashboard, in the Carrier Claims section, you would actually be able to see the status of all of your claims throughout this process.
Lori Boyer 11:21
What about edge cases, you know, it’s partially damaged or what happens, I guess if the claim is rejected, what, what happens then?
Tyler Diestel 11:29
If the claim is rejected, then we do mark it as denied on our website, on our dashboards.
The biggest reason for why something would be denied is generally because the shipper themselves have actually already gone and filed a claim for that specific package, and so they didn’t even wait for our process. And that’s okay.
That’s totally fine. Having a denied thing is not a bad thing. It’s just more information for you to just know. Oh, yep. That’s denied because when we saw that package actually get damaged, we immediately filed a claim with USPS and they paid us out already for this.
Lori Boyer 12:12
So when we get the denied notification, it includes the reason for the denial.
Tyler Diestel 12:16
Yep, exactly.
Lori Boyer 12:17
Okay, perfect. And then we get paid, and then throughout the process it’s just continuing. You mentioned getting paid through the EasyPost wallet. Can you explain what the EasyPost wallet is in case somebody isn’t aware?
Tyler Diestel 12:31
Yeah, absolutely. So when you sign up for an EasyPost account, the way that you pay for postage isn’t us charging your credit card every single postage that you buy, because then you’d start incurring a ton of credit card fees.
So, to get around that, what we do is we have this concept of an EasyPost wallet where you can fund your wallet let’s say a hundred dollars, and then we’ll use that hundred dollars at a tab to pay for your postage going forward. So what we would do is essentially give you more money into that EasyPost wallet so you can use it for future postage.
Lori Boyer 13:17
I love that. That brings up the question for me. While this is an EasyPost insider and it’s focused towards our EasyPost customers, there are occasionally, well, not occasionally, there are always those who are listening and watching who are not EasyPost customers. If you have not, if you did not purchase your shipping through EasyPost, can you still use this USPS claim system?
Tyler Diestel 13:38
Unfortunately not yet. Right now, this is only for users that are using USPS, and that is not just the EasyPost’s rates on USPS, but also if you’re using USPS Ship we also support that as well.
Lori Boyer 13:59
I just had to say, I talk to shippers. Every day I’m at shows constantly, I’m speaking on webinars, and if you ship USPS, you’ve gotta ship through EasyPost.
This is so, so easy to do and is a massive amount of money that is getting lost. When you think 60% of those claims, I mean we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars that really is owed to you. It’s just a pain to do. There’s no reason, you know, at least move, look at moving some of your USPS volume over to EasyPost because it really is huge.
If you’re an EasyPost customer and you’re shipping USPS, holy cow, please make sure you’ve signed up for Claims. It’s not hard, it’s free, it’s easy, and, and we’re gonna be keeping an eye on that. And even if you wanted to file it yourself, that’s great. You know, as, as Tyler mentioned, you’ll just simply get that notification.
You’d already done it. So you’re not gonna let money slip through the cracks. I, I was just speaking yesterday actually at a show and somebody in the audience said, you know, I just struggle with, it’s so busy. And he was talking about returns specifically, but talking about hundreds of thousands of items and, and problem, and he’s like, everything’s piling up.
I don’t really know what to do with things. And it’s, and that kind of a similar, I feel like Tyler with claims, that we’re so busy just trying to run a business that it’s really, really easy to let those claims kind of just slip through the cracks because of that challenge. So I love this. Anything else?
So, sounds like the process is pretty straightforward. Again, enroll in the program, submit, make sure you’ve submitted the, the value amount. You, you’ll be notified by EasyPost, so you don’t have to reach out and tell EasyPost anything. And then probably about three months after is when you’ll get paid out and the cycle just continues. Really easy.
Again, tell us what were the USPS services that are covered?
Tyler Diestel 15:58
The USPS services are covered, are Ground Advantage, Priority, and Priority Express.
Lori Boyer 16:04
Okay, perfect. Some of the most popular programs, so I love that. I do get a lot of questions around data. What about data security in this claims process?
Is the data secure?
Tyler Diestel 16:16
Yes, the data is extremely secure. We’re doing this all through a secure connection that we have with the USPS, and so there’s no middleman that we’re sending this data to, that then connects to USPS. It’s us doing it directly and it’s already through the data that we already have on file to support our shippers.
Lori Boyer 16:41
It’s, that’s fantastic. And I, I always encourage everyone, whether it’s a vendor like EasyPost, whether it’s you know, at some other partners, you know, suppliers that you’re using. It really is partnerships and the more you’re able to feel comfortable sharing data and having that transparency, the more, you know, revenue you’re gonna build the, the better environment you have.
And so, yeah, just feel comfortable. Don’t let data security concerns, we’ve got the programs in place. Don’t let that stop you from doing something that could potentially bring you a lot of revenue. Tyler, one more question. So we talked about, you know, USPS are, are, you said you know yet as well. Are there other things that are coming?
Is it offered through any other carriers? What, what are you seeing in terms of this for the future or whatnot?
Tyler Diestel 17:31
We are expanding to FedEx. And that’s any FedEx account. Okay, great. And so that will be rolled out in the near future. If you are interested in that, definitely reach out to us. And from there we are going to eventually roll out to even more carriers, but at this point we’re really focused on making sure that our FedEx offering is as great as our USPS Claims offering.
Lori Boyer 18:00
Perfect. So if people wanna be, you’re saying kind of in a FedEx beta or something, reach out. And we can get that enrolled. Perfect. We have lots of FedEx shippers out there as well, so I think that pretty much wraps it up. It’s a fantastic program. I love it because it’s free and it’s easy and it just takes one more thing off your plate which is really kind of what EasyPost’s about.
Tyler Diestel 18:21
I do wanna say, one of the biggest enhancements that we just did for this program is it is now so easy to sign up for it and you can do it without even having to contact EasyPost and talk to someone on the phone. All you have to do now to sign up for it is log into the EasyPost dashboard and accept our terms of service.
And you’re enrolled immediately.
Lori Boyer 18:46
There’s like a tab or something that says USPS Claims?
Tyler Diestel 18:49
Yes, exactly. So if you navigate to the Insurance and Claims section, you, you’ll see on the right hand side there’s a nice little sign up section. You just click a few buttons and you’re automatically enrolled. No having a right or go through the whole legal contract process.
It’s just a couple clicks of button.
Lori Boyer 19:11
Okay, that is so easy. Literally no one has an excuse to not go do that. It is a win-win for every EasyPost customer. Go in there, get it done. Take five seconds, click the thing, and you’re good to go. This is super exciting. I’m really thrilled for EasyPost customers.
Hopefully they’re gonna be getting, you know, a little bit more money back in their pocket.
Tyler Diestel 19:33
Yep. Absolutely. And, and it’s probably a lot of bit more money.
Lori Boyer 19:39
A lot of bit. That’s, I love it. I hope you’re getting a lot of bit more money in your pocket. So anything else you wanna tell us about it, Tyler?
Anything we’ve missed? Anything you’re, or even to close out, anything you’re excited about moving forward into 2026?
Tyler Diestel 19:53
I would say moving into 2026, we are going to be having even more information on the EasyPost dashboards to give more insights into the claims that you have filed and the claims that are currently going through the process.
So definitely stay tuned and watch out for that in your EasyPost dashboards. Other than that, again, extremely excited about expanding this feature over to FedEx because just like USPS, FedEx is an amazing carrier, and they also offer this amazing insurance that just so many people don’t even know is included in the price of your label purchase.
So being able to again, help out shippers is the main thing why we’re here. So I think once we roll out FedEx Claims we will be making even more people happy.
Lori Boyer 20:54
I love it. That’s perfect. In terms of general product updates, Tyler, is there a place people can go to, you know, receive updates on the product?
EasyPost in general?
Tyler Diestel 21:05
Yeah, absolutely. I, I would say the number one spot is on our blog. Our blog is one of the best spots where we have updates on several of our brand new product releases. We also not only provide new product releases, but when there are smaller updates, we will also issue out blog posts there.
So even if something’s not touted all over social media you can at least check our blog and there’ll be updates listed out there.
Lori Boyer 21:37
I love that the blog has the ability to just hop in and subscribe, so it’ll just shoot you an email. You don’t have to remember to go there, and it comes as a catalog, so it’s not like you’re receiving an email every second.
So go to the blog. I’ll include that little link to the blog here in our, our show notes, description and everything so that you can just click over there, subscribe, stay up to date with all the latest happenings at EasyPost. But thank you again, Tyler, for being here. Really exciting. It’s been wonderful having you.
Tyler Diestel 22:05
Thank you very much, Lori.
Lori Boyer 22:07
Okay, we’ll see you all on the next EasyPost Insider. Bye-bye.
