Shipping hints for USPS

Jay wrote: Pack your stuff to survive a 5 foot drop and have stuff land on top of it and you'll be fine.

----------------------------------------------- Thanks for the helpful info, Jay.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

History of N Scale: Links to over 700 helpful sites:

Hey, if it helps the trains survive the drop over the "waterfall" (that's what they call it), I'll pass it on. It may save somebody a severe disappointment.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

Along the same discussion line, You might consider how UPS loads their trailers and aircraft containers. Boxes are just thrown into a pile loosely from floor to roof. That means your package could be on the bottom of a 10 foot high pile of boxes and a considerable amount of weight.

In addition, if the trailer is full up to the back doors, some packages will come tumbling out and fall to the ground when the doors are opened.

Walt

Big Brother at work. At least they deliver. Ever deal with fedex ground or home delivery??!!

Well, last time I was building a new computer system from scratch, the FedEx lady got to know the names of our cats.

Those times I arrived home to find a sig required package tag on the door, the local distribution center is under two miles away, so no problem, Sounds like your mileage varied.

So, first: find a sturdy carton, preferably double wall fiberboard, or else cut liner pieces to stiffen it up.

As for cushioning, you are packaging a relatively light object, so low density foams are better; remember you need more thickness at the ends where there is less bearing area. The ideal way to protect fine details (railings, pumps, window shades or visors, etc.) is to support the main item at strong load bearing points (cab roof? underframe?). Manufacturer's molded foam or sheet plastic inserts are usually designed to do this. Then the entire load (item plus the bracing material) is cushioned.

"....The maximum size we can machine sort at our location is 10" X 12" X 15". Anything larger than that, or mailing tubes, gets hand sorted...."

Jay,

Does this mean that larger items are hand sorted and therefore get better treatment, or are they subjected to their own exqusite tortures?

EGL

A five foot drop is nothing when compared to;

- The tip up and unload method; that's were 45' trailers loaded with our parcels is parked on and secured to a hydraulic ramp that raises at one end, facilitating the movement of parcels from the front (Now the top) of the trailer to the rear (Now the bottom). Parcels exit the trailer and fall into a funnel shaped bin were its guided into position for a drop to the conveyer belt or;

- the drop kick method I've heard is used to facilitate hand sorting; that's were the parcel is placed on the floor of the sorting facility and drop-kicked by nearly every worker as they guide it to it's respective drop bin.

Fed Ex ground is OK IF (and this is a BIG "IF"), the consignee is in a major metropolitan area. If you get away from town, forget it. I've had packages shipped to a rural location that took a MONTH to be delivered, once I called to trace a shipment to a location in Idaho, and was told, "Oh we don't go there, we got it as close as we could and gave it to the post office."

The problem is, unlike UPS and the USPS, or even Fed-Ex air service, the people who actually pick up and deliver the packages are NOT Fed-Ex employees, but rather outside contractors.

I don't use Fed-Ex ground anymore.

Don

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I dunno. That doesn't happen at my facility. They get boxed and sent downtown on a truck.

The boxes in question are double- or triple-wall corrugated, roughly half the size of a refrigerator box height-wise. There's no internal bracing, so they can't be stacked in any way I can think of.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

USPS is heavily automated. At least at my location stuff comes in huge boxes ("gaylords"), or various carts (APCs, BMCs, etc.). There is no "drop kicking". The stuff is unloaded from bags onto conveyors, or if parcels, tossed. It's then sorted by clerks keying in the zip code. Automation then routes it to the correct bin.

Trailers are unloaded by forklift

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

I thought FedEx Ground was formerly known as RoadWay?

They suck big time.

Paul

You know that might explain why one particular lot I shipped (1 out of

150) didn't make it intact.

Thanks for the info.

Greg

The best way is to wrap the model in 2-3" of foam Bubblewrap in all directions, so that when it falls it will rebound into the foam and the impact shock is lessened. Outside of this you need a cardboard carton that made of dual ply corrugated cardboard, and is taped shut with the tape going around the box twice, so a loose end cannot be unravelled. Usually you can get assorted small cartons from the grocery store. Worst case buy them from mailboxes etc chain store near you. Avoid UPS from the company called "mailboxes etc". Nothing wrong with the service, just costs extra.They charge a fee above the UPS fee. Drive to the UPS drop off spot. A $10 cost from UPS will be about $12.50 from mailboxes etc. Of course, if the closest UPS dropoff is 100 miles away....... use own judegement. Biggest cause of breakage is lack of cushioning. Biggest cause of loss is carton break open due to lack of tape all the way around in both directions. A large cause of loss is bad labelling, it comes off.

Then put the from in small letters FROM: Your name

1235 Your Street Anytown, Anystate USA yourzip Then in large 1 inch letters TO: BUYER NAME 1234 His Street Histown, Histate USA Hiszip

Tape that on with clear 2" packing tape right over the label so nothing sticks up.

I have shipped over 1000 items that way with no losses.

Billybob

And that's why I'm providing this information. Forewarned is forearmed.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

My input there is stop by the store in the early morning, after the night-shift stockers have done their work, and before they compact the cardboard. Best boxes to get are the bottled water and juice boxes. I just finished a stint at a grocery store and we didn't bother to try and break those down. We let the compactor handle them.

Liquor boxes work too, but imagine your customer's disappointment when he finds it's just a train instead of a case of Captain Morgan's or Jim Beam or what have you.

Jay CNS&M North Shore Line - "First and fastest"

Actually liquor store boxes are the best, because they're usually a lot heavier than the grocery store cartons. Plus, the fifth or litre dividers make good dunnage.

Actually, when packing, the temptation is usually to put in TOO MUCH "packing". The light fragile pieces usually fare better with just enough to keep them imobile inside the carton. It's the HEAVY pieces that need a lot to keep them from moving around.

I've always said "Any idiot can ship a lightbulb. Any idiot can ship a hammer. The trick is to ship the light bulb and the hammer in the same box."

Don

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Exactly!

Note the US Postal Service will not accept items packed in liquor boxes. They assume the content of the box is what's printed on the carton and it is illegal to send booze through the mail.