According to the U.S. Postal Service, ground shipping refers to packages shipped by truck or train and occasionally across water by boat. Ground shipping is generally slower than shipping by air, although sometimes only marginally so, depending on the distance traveled.
The length of time it takes to ship a package depends on the distance it must travel. A package sent from Manhattan to Los Angeles typically would spend four days in transit if sent by ground shipping and two days if sent by air.
Depending on the service you use, ground shipping often is much less expensive than air shipping. In July 2010, a medium-sized box weighing 5 lbs. sent by UPS from Manhattan to Los Angeles cost around $10 by ground shipping. The same package sent by second-day air cost almost four times that much.
