As the title says, I need to overnight a package. It absolutely has to get there the next day, and it absolutely has to arrive intact and unbroken.
Have any experience overnighting packages with any of the major carriers to recommend one?
Fed Ex.
Yes, definitely FedEx. You can pick a speed from “by the end of the day” to before 8:30 AM. And, if the shipment is utterly critical to your world, they have a service called Custom Critical, where it’s pretty much hand-carried from end to end, bypassing the sort facilities.
Well since I live in Atlanta I’m going to have to go with UPS. And buy your shipping material from Home Depot. Enjoy Coca-Cola.
I agree with the recommendation of Fedex Express service. And as for the “unbroken” requirement, that’s heavily dependent on how well packed the item is. If you’re not comfortable with packing it yourself, go to The UPS Store (formerly Mailboxes Etc) or Fedex Office (formerly Kinko’s) and let them pack it for you. It will cost you but they have the supplies and equipment to pack stuff properly.
I will recommend Fedex Express as well. I have used both UPS and Fedex. While neither one of them is perfect, and neither one is horrible, I have in general found Fedex to be easier to work with, more convenient, more reliable, more professional, and more responsive.
Regarding your package arriving intact: just pack it properly. All the major carriers say that you must pack it to withstand a 3-foot drop (essentially, it may fall off a shelf or off the back of a truck, or get banged around in an airplane during turbulence, landing, etc.)
If it were OK for the package to take a little longer getting here, I could consider USPS express mail. How does that stack up?
Actuallly, it’s because the sorting facilities themselves are designed to cause falls and bangs.
The conveyor belts are at different levels,and when sorting ,the packages are just bumped off one belt, to fall down onto the next one. A friend who once worked for UPS told me that the falls are much higher than 3 feet, too.
I’ve never had any damage issues with USPS, UPS or FedEX. But USPS and UPS are not as reliable as FedEx in terms of being on time and when expected/promised.
FedEx is also very convenient since most Kinko’s are now FedEx locations.
What sort of item are you shipping?
UPS overnight is very expensive, even a 1-pound package is $50 or so. FedEx is that more more IIRC.
USPS Express Mail is only about $20 and is overnight. It’s basically like Priority Mail, but faster. USPS - Priority Mail Express™
Except IME it’s practically never actually delivered overnight.
UPS has lied to me too many times about delivery attempts.
Fedex all the way, unless it’s international, in which case DHL to most places.
I’ve never had a problem with USPS Express, but I’ve shipped, like, eight things overnight for personal reasons with them. 100% but only a very small sample.
My business uses FedEx, as do most others in my industry. I haven’t heard of any major issues, and the takeaway is really that when the cost of overnight shipping is a drop in the bucket and you just care about getting it there on time, the choice seems to be FedEx.
FedEx - it will be there when they say it will.
UPS - it will likely be there when they say it will, but, you know, shit happens…
USPS - it will be there. Sometime. You may have to come to the PO to get it. Oh, and when you have time to come to the PO? Yeah, we’re closed then, so no, that won’t work.
As for arriving unbroken: Once upon a time, my father got a contract from a UPS-type shipping company (long since out of business). He designed and had produced a ceramic ash tray (this was a LONG time ago) with the company logo. Each employee of the company received two of them, shipped a weeks apart.
The gimick was that, before shipping out the first ashtray, each one was broken in a specially designed vice. The second was shipped out intact, with a note enclosed, advising the employees about how much nicer it is for customers to receive their shipments in one piece.
A cute bit of employee motivation.
FedEx has the best record in my experience.
I am going to disagree with everyone here and say FedEx 
I deal with them all day long shipping stuff that is a literal life or death matter to thousands of doctors all across the U.S. It is exceptionally rare for them to have a problem getting things where they need to go.
As noted earlier, you can pay for higher levels of service if you really need it. If next day delivery by early afternoon is good enough, just go with that because they will get it there by then. However, you can pay for early morning delivery to just about any place in the U.S. and they will do that too. Say exactly what you need when you ship it but you don’t need to pay for any more than you really need.
‘P1’ is their highest cost normal service and that will get almost anything door to door almost anywhere in the U.S. from late evening today for delivery by early tomorrow morning. I think they have custom services that are even higher priority than that but you the price goes up sharply. ‘P2’ or guaranteed next day delivery is usually good enough for most purposes. Those usually arrive mid business day at the latest.
FedEx.