One of the biggest hassles about running an Internet business is shipping. Over the past two years, I have sent out hundreds, perhaps over a thousand packages, via USPS. Only one package was lost in all that time, and it was going overseas. None were damaged. That's an incredible record. But I paid a price for this reliability - the need to run to the Post Office at least twice a week.

But now all that has changed.

I recently came across a posting where users were raving about Endicia.com and decided to give them a try. Since I've started using the service, I have turned my home office into my own personal post office.

Endicia.com is a fee-based service that allows you to print postage directly from your PC. It reduces trips to the post office and it offers FREE delivery confirmation! "Electronic" delivery confirmation (as opposed to the stickers you buy at the Post Office) are free for Priority Mail and only 12 cents for Media Mail (Book Rate). Endicia also lets you create postage for foreign shipments and claim they are the only service to do so.

When you use Endicia, you use their connection to create your confirmation numbers and pass them electronically to the Post Office. The result is that you now have a DC (Delivery Confirmation) number that can be tracked online just as if you paid the 40 cents. Endicia creates a log that tracks every package sent. You can click on any one and see whether or not it has been delivered.

There is one risk in using any electronic postage system. According to statistics I have seen quoted, "only" 93% of delivery confirmation labels are scanned upon delivery. If you are unlucky enough that your package never gets scanned and your customer claims it didn't arrive, then you will have a problem, since you have no postal receipt showing shipment. So, when I ship something expensive, like a digital camera, I take it to the Post Office and pay for at least $100 of insurance coverage. That way, in the rare event that it doesn't get scanned on delivery, I still have proof of shipment. Thus far, 100% of my packages with DC had a status of delivered when I checked the USPS Web site.

Endicia has an excellent label-printing program called Dazzle. Dazzle lets you create custom labels with your own logo. To get addresses into the program, you can type them in, cut and paste them from the clipboard or read them in from different data files. Endicia reads the file, validates the addresses against the Post Office table, fills in the full 9-character zip code, adds the bar code, the postage, the delivery confirmation number and then it prints the labels in a customized format that you create. You then apply the labels to the packages and drop them in the mailbox. It's that simple.

New services such as Endicia are starting to be embraced by the Postal Service. According to a USPS spokesperson, "Because this is another avenue that allows users to put postage on their packages, it makes like lines go faster at the Post Office."

If you have a large package that won't fit in the mailbox, you can bring it to the Post Office and hand it right over the counter without waiting in line. (Do not let the clerk attempt to scan in the package - Endicia has already taken care of this electronically. Each night at ten P.M., Endicia downloads these numbers to the Postal Service.)

Endicia charges $9.95/month, or you can pay $99.95 for the year. But, if you factor in the savings of the free delivery confirmation, you might actually come out ahead if you are a high-volume shipper. You can try Endicia free for 30 days - you only pay for the postage. http://www.endicia.com