Can You Ship Soda and Carbonated Drinks with USPS?

You can ship soda and carbonated beverages with USPS, but it’s not as simple as throwing them in a box and calling it a day. Containers with carbonated drinks (like soda cans or bottles) contain carbon dioxide. Therefore, they build pressure when you shake or move them around, and can potentially explode. It’s inevitable that any package gets moved around a lot during transit…and that’s why properly packaging your soda shipments is critical.

Properly Packaging the Soda For Shipment

USPS has specific guidelines for packaging liquids, but here’s the basic breakdown you’ll need to follow:

• Secure any cans or bottles with a reliable closure (like a screw top, soldering, clips, etc.)
• Use a brand new, corrugated box sturdy enough to protect the contents
• Clearly mark the outside of the packaging with the type of liquid inside
• Appropriately cushion any cans or bottles with a type of packing material that will absorb leakage in case they break

How to Save the Most Money When You Ship Soda with USPS

Carbonated beverages don’t contain any types of hazardous material, so USPS doesn’t restrict soda shipments to only ground based services. That means you can use any USPS service to ship them, including Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express. However, if you’re looking for the cheapest rates, your best bet for shipping soda is to use the specially discounted, dimension-based service USPS Priority Mail Cubic.

Instead of offering rates based on your package weight, USPS prices Priority Mail Cubic rates based on the outer dimensions of your packaging. That means that if your package is small enough, you can load it up with as many soda cans as you want…and the weight won’t affect the price at all! When you use Priority Mail Cubic service, you can actually end up saving 90% off what you’d pay to ship the same package at the Post Office.

Access Priority Mail Cubic Rates through Online Shipping Software

Here’s the thing about Priority Mail Cubic: you’ll never see it at the Post Office. In fact, a lot of USPS workers may not even know what it is! You can only access this special service when you use online shipping software to buy discounted postage.

Shipping software companies allow you to buy and print postage at home, at enormous discounts that USPS typically reserves for huge commercial shippers. You can even schedule free pickups that your letter carrier will do for you, so you don’t need to ever go to the Post Office again! On top of the huge savings you’ll get, the convenience alone is worth it.

Pro Tip: There are tons of different shipping software options out there. To find the right one for you, check out our Reviews page.