No, that rule is only for international shipping.So when the UPS Guy rings on my Doorbell, its my shiny new 3G Pyra???
It's not. I can also use DHL Express or FedEx, but they're not cheaper.Why does that strike me as something UPS would have lobbied for...?
Only normal shipping doesn't work.
Every employee involved in the transportation needs to be trained to be able to do that.
That training costs money which most of the normal postal services don't want to pay for (I know Deutsche Post (the german postal service) doesn't, as I told me that when I asked).
UPS, DHL Express, etc. have trained their employees, so they can transport the goods.
It wouldn't make things cheaper, as the battery would still have to be shipped as a package, not as a letter.I suppose this means you can't ship individual batteries either? Would there be anything gained by shipping just the battery through UPS and the rest of the system through someone sane?
Here is some nice information in case you want to read about it further:
http://www.rosebatteries.com/lithium_regulations.asp