Shipping stuff

[Slick]

A great HOW TO article on packaging. My official job title is MAIL HANDLER, so I see the results of industrial dumpers, belts and sorting machines. The "lesser" packages do not fare well in the process. INDUSTRIAL is putting it mildly. And considering the contents of the majority of our parcels, the need for secure packaging is increased.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tec...for-shipping-companies?click=pm_news#fbIndex1

If it saves one grenade. . . .

Rick

 

[moondoggy]

This is a very serious issue that really needs attention by everyone. I always ask the seller to add EXTRA padding/packaging and I always offer to pay for everything. A few extra dollars is worth saving a $200+ item. I have seen too many historical artifacts damaged because the seller did not want to take a few extra minutes to wrap it up properly. The seller (who has good intentions) usually just wants to get it out the door asap and will do the quickest boxing job possible unless you (the buyer) give them additional instructions. It is better safe than sorry. Always ship in a box and NOT a bubbled envelope. Heavy items like mortar rounds will usually always stick through the box unless disassembled. How are you going to explain to the post office that your grenade was damaged? If you try you might get your picture in the newspaper.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

Thanks Slick, that's a really interesting test they did. I've always boxed things really well, and now I know exactly why it's good that I have.

I've also always thought that putting a "Fragile label" on a parcel might possibly "increase the abuse" from the parcel handlers, and now I guess what I've thought is true. :tinysmile_cry_t2:

 

[Slick]

No, it doesn't generate any more attention than normal. Picture this: a 124 cu.ft. wheeled, aluminum container, holding 100-300 parcels of asstd. weights and sizes, pushed into a tilting machine. A press of a button tilts the hole thing(think dump truck, eg:industrial), dumping the mass of parcels onto a moving belt. If nothing else, it makes quite a racket. If yours is the little box mixed in with the cartons of copier paper, well, it's all-she-wrote for the little box. FRAGILE stickered parcels are handled with everything else. You would probably be amazed at the attention given to damaged parcels. Some of us actually do give-a-shit.

 

[LCplCombat]

"UPS does not provide special handling for packages with 'Fragile,' package orientation (e.g., 'Up' arrows or 'This End Up' markings), or any other similar such markings.

Well I will never use UPS if that is the case. I've worked for a few parcel companies as a driver and in the warehouse. Our management always insisted on following markings and labels. Our district manager came in one day to see the boss. He came into the warehouse to "help" I had to "adjust" a few of the boxes he had placed into cages to put them the right way up. I pulled him up about it and I got a raise.