# Surface Mail Route **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 17, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212 "2013-06-17T20:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cdenman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@cdenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdenman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212/1 "2013-06-17T20:55:32Z")
So today I sent something by (!!) “Surface Mail” from the UK to the USA. Apparently it’ll take up to a month to arrive. This filled me with curiosity… how the heck can something take a MONTH? So I then started looking at what route surface mail from the UK to the USA takes and I couldn’t find any information about it. Crucially… does it go west and get on a boat to the US, or does it go east and rumble its way across Eastern Europe and through Russia? What’s the main reason surface mail takes so long and also why is it so variable? I’m guessing it’s undeveloped countries in the ‘middle’ handling mail slowing things up but then I guess it could just as easily be our own ‘modern’ western bureaucracy 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212/2 "2013-06-17T22:07:56Z")
Regarding mail from the US to elsewhere, [Yahoo Answers](http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100523134950AAW5qgQ) says: > [@](#): > > Unfortunately, for First Class International, there is no guaranteed delivery time. The USPS handles the delivery from the US to the country where the delivery address is located and then that country’s postal system delivers the package to the buyer. > > So you have two postal services as well as International Customs, which can add extra delivery days for the package. > > In general, First Class Mail International will take between 10 and 20 days to arrive (10 days for larger cities, 20 days for smaller cities). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212/3 "2013-06-17T22:23:02Z")
They have to drive slowly to dodge all those icebergs in the Atlantic ocean. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212/4 "2013-06-17T22:28:57Z")
To the OP: You paid for surface mail, which is the lowest rate at the post office. But the dirty little secret is that all mail rides on airplanes and your letter will probably reach its destination at the same time as a higher rate. Thirty days is the leftover delivery time from when mail did travel by boat. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212/5 "2013-06-17T23:28:26Z")
When it did travel by boat, it probably went by freighter that might have stopped at several ports of call in Europe, then taken two weeks on the ocean and then handled by the local PO. In 1964 I sent several boxes from France to the US. They trickled in over one month to three. In 1980, mail between Montreal and Cleveland took two weeks. Even special delivery was at least a week. Now it can be two days and I hardly ever use it. Shows what can happen when a monopoly gets competition. The PO is now fast and reliable and hardly anyone uses it. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212/6 "2013-06-18T00:41:17Z")
FYI, the [US eliminated \*outgoing \*international surface mail](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mail#United_States) in 2007. (Or rather, that was when they stopped offering a lower price for the possibility of slower delivery.) ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surface-mail-route/661212/7 "2013-06-18T01:33:19Z")
> [@Space\_Vegetable](#): > > FYI, the [US eliminated \*outgoing \*international surface mail](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mail#United_States) in 2007. (Or rather, that was when they stopped offering a lower price for the possibility of slower delivery.) Granted that they don’t call it “surface”, but what they call “first class” is clearly cheaper and slower than “express” or “priority”.