Best shipping company for small items

[21willys]

In your guys experience what's the cheapest/best shipping company. I have been doing a lot of eBay stuff with a employee and the post office is pricey on some things. For example they want a minimum of $110 to ship a vintage army style gerny. Anybody deal with FedEx very much?

 

[dmw56]

UPS is cheaper than FedEx

 

[sgtpontiac]

Yep in most cases UPS is cheaper....

Not a whole lot out there......

 

[Sam_Fear]

Make sure it is well packaged, with a packing list on the box, and the shipping address on the item.

I've worked for UPS a long time - no matter who you ship with, expect it to get handled poorly by many indifferent or disgruntled individuals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=749iU2Zv1kw

 

[Bamamav]

Make sure it is well packaged, with a packing list on the box, and the shipping address on the item.

I've worked for UPS a long time - no matter who you ship with, expect it to get handled poorly by many indifferent or disgruntled individuals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=749iU2Zv1kw

Yep, good packaging is the key. I've sent stuff USPS and UPS, only had one claim and that was with USPS, a box busted open and lost some parts out. Since then, I always use a lot of the clear packaging tape, making sure to criss cross or wrap in different directions. That way, if one section gets loose, the other should hold it.

I bought a house stereo amp on eBay, it came via USPS. The guy had packed it pretty good in foam, bubble wrap, and paper, but the ham hocks at USPS still managed to get the outer box wet and dropped it on one of the corners! I was ****ed! At least the bent corner was on the back side, so it doesn't show in the rack. And the plastic the guy had wrapped it in kept it from getting wet, so it works fine.

 

[RPM]

We ship over 100 items each month. Anything that will go in a USPS flat rate box and it worth less than $100 that is what we us. We don't even bother with insurance on the USPS, because if it gets lost, you are not going to collect. Bigger more expensive stuff goes on UPS. They are pretty good with collecting when stuff goes astray.

Real big heavy stuff we use Freight Quote. You can book it yourself online and save a few $$$$ that way. We ship our frames and bodies with them.

 

[21willys]

In my recent experiences the flat rate boxes cost more then boxing it up myself unless it's a real heavy piece. I shipped 11 boxes out today and most of them would of fit in flat rate boxes but most of them only cost about $8. I did have a Heavy cast iron turbo elbow that I shipped flat rate. It weighed almost 30 pounds.

 

[Torch]

You have to wonder...


A congresswoman said that accounting for the increase in productivity minimum wage should be 22 an hour not 7 something and asked...who is getting the other $14/hour the worker created?
she was corrected in that if you actually account for productivity back to the creation of the minimum wage that the minimum wage should actually be a little over $30 an hour.
Britain has a minimum wage over $20 an hour and less unemployment than we currently have
When I was earning $4.25 an hour a new pickup truck was $5,000
I suspect we are getting about 400% less for our work than we were getting 30 years ago

These businesses say "we cant stay in business if we have to pay union wages".
A ups driver makes about $50 an hour (wages plus health care and retirement)
A union carpenter in the Midwest makes $20 an hour with $10 health and pension ($30 total)

Yet Fed ex costs more to ship than UPS... and fed ex drivers are independent contractors so fed ex does not pay for health insurance, occupational injury(workman's comp) social security and medicare, unemployment insurance... yadda yadda yadda...

How is that the company hiring union employees and paying them a living wage is a better deal for the consumer and the worker than the "capitalist" company using contractors?

 

[RPM]

In my recent experiences the flat rate boxes cost more then boxing it up myself unless it's a real heavy piece. I shipped 11 boxes out today and most of them would of fit in flat rate boxes but most of them only cost about $8. I did have a Heavy cast iron turbo elbow that I shipped flat rate. It weighed almost 30 pounds.

Are you using the Regional Flat Rate boxes? They are a lot less than the regular flat rates. The boxes are free also.

 

[21willys]

I make my own boxes so that they are as small as possible.

 

[Willowbilly3]

I use USPS on small stuff, FedEx on bigger stuff and Grayhound on the stuff that's too big for FedEx. I do not use UPS because they lose stuff and beat the heck out of the boxes. Last time I used UPS, I sent a 34 Ford bumper and it didn't show up at the very first transfer point. How do you lose a 34 Ford Bumper? Then I have to do all the claim filing and the customer is on my butt.
If you get an account with FedEx you can get a lot better rate and they will pick the stuff up.
I've shipped hundreds of items with USPS and never had a lost item or a damage claim, same with FedEx. Not so with UPS. In addition to loosing the bumper, I once shipped a whole set of NOS tim for a Ford pickup. I sealed it in PVC sewer and drain pipe with end caps glued on. The buyer got a pipe that was all beat to hell and empty.

 

[dmw56]

I've had more problems with Fed Ex than UPS and USPS put together. They messed up customs paper work, double charged me, damaged parts. The worst was they lost 50lbs of Halibut shipped from AK. And they never found the fish. Yeah right! You don't lose 50 lbs of fish and don't find it!

 

[sgtpontiac]

I'm sure they'd find it when the dry ice desolved....

I'm sure it would put out a vicious odor.....unless it was breaded and deep fried already....lol...
Guess I've been fortunate....never lost any shipments via UPS, FedEx or USPS...guess I better knock on wood.....

 

[Sam_Fear]

I've had more problems with Fed Ex than UPS and USPS put together. They messed up customs paper work, double charged me, damaged parts. The worst was they lost 50lbs of Halibut shipped from AK. And they never found the fish. Yeah right! You don't lose 50 lbs of fish and don't find it!

They didn't loose it. Once perishable food gets opened up from damage, it gets disposed of - end of story.

OT - one Monday after an unseasonably warm (80 degree) Thanksgiving weekend, a 70Lb box of (not so) frozen turkeys was found on a trailer from California. Figure 10 days in a trailer in warm weather - they used the SCBA equipment to clean it up. An ungodly stench.

 

[Bamamav]

They didn't loose it. Once perishable food gets opened up from damage, it gets disposed of - end of story.

OT - one Monday after an unseasonably warm (80 degree) Thanksgiving weekend, a 70Lb box of (not so) frozen turkeys was found on a trailer from California. Figure 10 days in a trailer in warm weather - they used the SCBA equipment to clean it up. An ungodly stench.

Question--Why was it left on the trailer to start with? Was it not marked perishable, or was someone not doing their job and failed to unload the trailer? Did they just pack up and go home for the holiday without making sure all freight on the yard, in a trailer or on the dock, was accounted for?

 

[sgtpontiac]

Had a woman pass away in one of our apt houses..

They didn't loose it. Once perishable food gets opened up from damage, it gets disposed of - end of story.

OT - one Monday after an unseasonably warm (80 degree) Thanksgiving weekend, a 70Lb box of (not so) frozen turkeys was found on a trailer from California. Figure 10 days in a trailer in warm weather - they used the SCBA equipment to clean it up. An ungodly stench.

5 days in warm weather...we had the fire department go in with the scba and retrieve the poor woman who had by that time, sort of melted into the mattress....dead bodies are easily found but not so easily retrieved or moved.... part of this job that is not pleasant...you never forget the smell of dead or charred bodies.....thank you Uncle Sam for those memories....

 

[Willowbilly3]

I've had more problems with Fed Ex than UPS and USPS put together. They messed up customs paper work, double charged me, damaged parts. The worst was they lost 50lbs of Halibut shipped from AK. And they never found the fish. Yeah right! You don't lose 50 lbs of fish and don't find it!

I could forgive a lot of things but not losing the Halibut.

 

[dmw56]

I could forgive a lot of things but not losing the Halibut.

Fortunatley I had the shipper insure it and it was replaced. But it was definitely stolen.

 

[Sam_Fear]

Question--Why was it left on the trailer to start with? Was it not marked perishable, or was someone not doing their job and failed to unload the trailer? Did they just pack up and go home for the holiday without making sure all freight on the yard, in a trailer or on the dock, was accounted for?

Ship time was listed as 7 days (work days). It wasn't due to be unloaded until that Monday and delivered on Tuesday. It normally would have been fine since it's normally cold enough to keep dry ice packed turkey. Even the extra 4 days sitting in the yard would have been no big deal. But the surprise hot temps.... DOH!

 

[Sam_Fear]

5 days in warm weather...we had the fire department go in with the scba and retrieve the poor woman who had by that time, sort of melted into the mattress....dead bodies are easily found but not so easily retrieved or moved.... part of this job that is not pleasant...you never forget the smell of dead or charred bodies.....thank you Uncle Sam for those memories....

I also understand why coroners smoke cigars.