The Weird Wacky world of package shipping

[Fusion_power]

I ship literally hundreds of packages of plants each year. Because of the volume and because I carefully track packages that go awry, I have been able to significantly reduce the error rate. Here are the things I have done.

1. I don't use UPS except at customer insistence. They are the most unreliable carrier when it comes to handling perishables. I have not had problems with them handling non-perishables. When I used UPS a few years ago, I regularly had to re-ship packages that had been mis-delivered or had internal damage from rough handling. The performance was unacceptable.

2. I ship via either Fedex or USPS Priority Mail. Either one works about the same except for deliveries to the west coast and to Maine. Fedex is marginally better at delveries to those areas.

3. One of the biggest failures I had last year was from boxes being left out in direct sun at the destination or perhaps on loading docks along the way. I traced this down to the absorption of sunlight by standard cardboard boxes. The heat will turn a box of healthy tomato plants into crispy sticks in about an hour. After a lot of thought, I converted to using white boxes for all shipments this year. The results were dramatic. Last year I had over 30 packages of plants with heat damage. This year there were only 2. Total cost was 25 cents per box additional, or $125 for the year. Total savings was at least 25 packages with average value about $50. That was a good rate of return in my book.

DarJones

[ewmayer]

Most of my relatives are Austrian, so on more than one occasion we've had letters/packages intended for a person there arrive months later, after having taken a side tour, "sightseeing in Australia."

So now we always make sure to have the address read

Austria / EUROPE

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Most of my relatives are Austrian, so on more than one occasion we've had letters/packages intended for a person there arrive months later, after having taken a side tour, "sightseeing in Australia."

Which service was the offender?

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Reason: Not that I have anything against Wombats, Wallabees and Foster's-swilling wankers, mind you.

Do you know why they name their beer XXXX?

They can't spell P-I-S-S

For some reason, you don't seem to be able to spell "Wallabies". Been on the Bud Light again, have you?


Paul

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Which service was the offender?

USPS.

Originally Posted by xilman

For some reason, you don't seem to be able to spell "Wallabies". Been on the Bud Light again, have you?

Godforbid I should ever be found ingesting that kind of - I'll use one of my Dad's pet phrases about mass-market American beers - "Winklepiss".

But regarding the bees/bies mixup, I admit I may have been hitting the pollen and nectar a bit much of late. [I'll spare you the obligatory "pistil-packing cowbee" joke - I wouldn't want to strain anyone's stamen-a via overuse of apiary humor.]

[Uncwilly]

According to DHL's website, they can ship packages at approximately 6000km/h.

Tracking history...
Date and time Status Location Service Area 
7/16/2008 6:04 am Depart Facility    San Francisco Gateway, CA 
          5:01 am Arrived at DHL facility.    Fullerton, CA 
          3:53 am Depart Facility    Riverside County Regional Hub, CA 
          3:47 am Transit through DHL facility    San Francisco Gateway, CA 
          1:58 am Processed at DHL Location.    Riverside County Regional Hub, CA 
7/15/2008 10:30 pm Transit through DHL facility    Riverside County Regional Hub, CA

[Wacky]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

I'll use one of my Dad's pet phrases about mass-market American beers - "Winklepiss"

Now, Belgian Beer :)