Technical Shipping those H.A.M.B. parts

To you H.A.M.B. guys who ship, ship and ship.
Who do you like to use for your shipper ?
I've checked U.S.P.S., U.P.S., Greyhound and Fed Ex.
Giving all 4 shippers the same info, Greyhound was the most expensive, U.S.P.S. was the slowest delivery, while Fed Ex was reasonable in price with the FASTEST delivery.

 

Bet it depends on weight, and size as to who is the cheapest.

 

usps small. fed ex big Fastenal real big.If it gets damaged you wrapped it wrong.

 

As I said above, I gave all 4 the same info, size, weight, destination, etc.
My question though, is who you guys like .... who do you drift towards, when it's time to ship ?
Better experiences with one shipper over another ?

 

Thanks.

 

i like to use the U.S.P.S...............i am part owner.

 

Anything under 70 lbs and under 108" length plus girth, goes to the post office. Anything between 108" and 130" length plus girth goes to Fedex.

I have never shipped anything through Greyhound, I've heard it works but I don't have a bus station close by. Haven't tried Fastenal yet either but I've also heard good things and we do have one in town. Typically, stuff that is over the 130" threshold goes on Craigslist and waits for a local buyer.

Palletising and crating large items can take hours, especially if you don't have the materials on hand. The big stuff needs to really have a big price on it to make it worth the hours packing and shipping it.

 

Overall, I have had the best experience with FedEx. UPS is sky high on shipping, with USPS, you risk either getting it lost or destroyed, but they are the cheapest on small items (which are less likely to get damaged). Greyhound was good on large sheetmetal stuff I sent albeit rather slow so I try to use FedEx whenever I can, they are fast, reasonable and so far haven't damaged anything for me.

 

X2!

 

USPS is normally 2 to 6 days with their priority flat rate boxes. "If it fits it ships". I use it for most of my shipping. I only use UPS for huge shippng that USPS won't ship. I stay away from FedEx.

I find that USPS is cheaper most of the time and have never had anything ruined.

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WHY do you stay away from FedEx ? A bad experience ?

 

FedEx works for me down here.........

 

I have always used USPS Priority Mail. FREE large flat-rate envelopes or boxes. I have never had anything damaged or lost. I could use Bulk Rate or 1st Class Postage to save a few $$ but a Priority Mail package gets there much quicker and you are sending your customer a unspoken message that you care that the item has a safe and quick transit to their home.

 

fedex here doesn't take cash. Really strange.

I use ups or usps for most stuff, as said the usps flat rate boxes are reasonable for smaller stuff. UPS has 10x better customer service than the post office, but if you sell stuff on ebay, and use them to buy USPS postage, you don't really have to deal with the jerks and lines at the post office, so it works out ok.

I expect your local experiences may be different.

 

USPS for most items, love the Flat Rate Boxes. FedEx Ground for large or heavy items. I've got to pick up a large box with two '38 ford fenders and a hood shipped Michigan to Fishkill NY for $165. that is a deal IMO, just an hours drive to the store. I've used Greyhound in the past for large sheet metal parts, worked well. UPS depot is another 20 minutes up the road and they are not as friendly as FedEx people. Bob

 

Fed Ex here tries to upcharge to their box. For instance: Shipping a pair of headers back east and used my own box. FedEx tried to tell me that I had to use their box (a cost of $26 for their box) I told the "KID" that I didn't want to use their box and the "KID" told me that it was their policy to use their box. I laughed and told the "KID" to shove it and went to UPS.
FedEx has tried to do this to others in my area and we all told them to shove it. UPS is next door. Another time my package never made it to it's destination. Another time, I received a package and it was broken open.
Another time the idiot delivered it to the wrong address down the street from me and they were very trusting that I had received it. **I keep tracking numbers handy**. Well, they had the driver come back out and guess what? He drove right past me to get to the house that he had delivered to and my neighbor handed it back to him and pointed to me, as I was waving at the idiot, and told him that I was the receiver of the package. I told him to check the address. Yup. FedEx with the arrow....

 

WOW, thanks for your insight.

 

shipped a shitload of HAMB friendly packages over a 5 year period. 98% USPS, big parts went via FED EX, and used Greyhound a couple times for giant parts. in probably 3,000 packages I had one get broken since I should have put it in a mailing tube but shipped it in a long box, and another got "lost" on its way to the UK.

do USPS online and they will pick it up from your house. it doesn't get much easier than that.

 

The last medium size package I received (last week) had been shipped UPS and then transferred to USPS for delivery by my mail carrier-3, maybe 4 days from Illinois to central PA-arricved in good condition-the time in travel was ok for me.

 

I get a of parts by the USPS, big items too. Never lost a thing coming or going. I've easily had 1000 items in the mail since around 1997. I find Fed Ex to be competitive on bigger items like transmissions, although they are a bug about how things are boxed up.

 

Electronic transfer is faster and no one has to make a trip to the bank.

Plus with no cash on hand one less thing to have stolen.

 

I like FedEx but the only place to ship from is 27 miles away. Not a single FedEx store in Monroe, MI. UPS is handy, close, but always more $$$. Even if you calculate online and add to make sure you can quote, nope. Get to the store and it's more, sometimes as much as $12-15. The attendant says, "...yeah it's never right." "Why?" I asked. "I dunno, never is." USPS, not for shop business. For some reason, starting in the spring, I can walk to where i ordered stuff from faster. I sent something priority and was told, "...but it doesn't mean it will be only 2 days." "So what am I paying for?" "Well sometimes it'll get there quicker but not always." If something is coming by mail I have it sent to my house. Usually pretty quick. Bottom line, IMO, the pandemic of stupid is now running delivery. Best I can do is give a receiver a tracking #, get one for myself if I'm getting something. Ordered a Rebel harness from a dealer in Grand Rapids, want to keep dealers busy, happy, etc. It took 9 FUCKING DAYS. Grand Rapids is a 2 1/2 hr drive. Took 14 days to get a MO from Dallas TX, took 17 days to send one to Iowa. I asked my local PO manager why, and especially lately. "Sorry sir, I don't know what to tell you." "Well dear, I know what to tell you, I'll be using FedEx or UPS for a while." Her response was awesome. "Yeah, I don't blame you." I couldn't make this shit up if I tried. I think Forrest Gump is the new Postmaster General...?

 

I've had that happen several times lately. A package will get within 30 miles of here, and they give it to the fricking Post Office. It's not like the brown truck doesn't run by here every day.

When I was parting out some OT stuff that I sold on eBay, I always used USPS. I mailed a bumper for a 72 Mercury Comet to PA! I wrapped it in bubble wrap, then heavy brown paper and taped the heck out of it. It just barely made it under the oversize limits.

 

Agreed- I tried to use UPS, but they were expensive and told me they wouldn't insure the package unless they boxed it (for another $30 bucks.)
Fastenal is great, there's one 10 minutes away; Greyhound's OK but their closest terminal is an hour away.
Shipping has gotten really expensive no matter who you go with- don't offer "free shipping " till you find out actual cost. ( I screwed myself last year sending a dual quad scoop to California- it was $50. bucks, and I had figured $20. would cover it.)(Duh)

 

I agree on this also. And for what its worth, you can open a fedex account for free, and the pricing seems to be better

 

All of my parts I've had shipped to the house as well to my engine guy, super fast shipping from everyone. Even a set of Dart heads and intake was 5 days, from Michigan (IIRC) to NY by Fed Ex.

 

If you are in the upper Midwest check out SpeeDee. Very inexpensive....Speedway even uses them

 

Even though USPS, FedEx, DHL, & UPS are supposed to be in competition, they often work together. The Brown Truck, White truck, & Yellow truck deliver to the Post Office every day. Rather than having their drivers go to every address, they can drop several packages @ the P.O. & have the mail carriers deliver on their regular routes. It saves them time, & you money. So, when you complain about a particular service, you may not be blaming the correct business. Trust me, your local P.O. would rarely be to blame for damages. The carriers are not happy delivering goods that are damaged, as they know that they will usually get the blame from the public, even though it arrived at the P.O. already damaged. Damaged & missing items are occasionally from automated sorting equipment, but usually because of improper packaging by the sender. Shipping a heavy part (starter, etc) or a sharp object in a thin cardboard box, is an example. The part can easily tear through the box. It's a good idea to put the destination address on the part as well, in case the box gets damaged. The P.O. will still deliver it. As for why it now takes longer than it used to at the P.O., several shipping hubs have had to close due to trying to cut costs. Mail gets routed in what would seem redundant travel to the uninformed. And, if you ship as cheaply as possible (and why wouldn't you?), your package doesn't get priority when it comes time to load it on the truck/plane/whatever. So, it may end up sitting somewhere for a few extra days. There are a lot less career employees & more temps & under-trained people (less wages) having to do the jobs that you were accustomed to being automatic. It's no surprise that some of them don't understand the hows & whys of the business now. I'm not making excuses, just trying to inform.

 

I ship a lot of small stuff, and USPS Priority mail with the "free" boxes works well for me. Last year, I bought a cowl section. The seller shipped it via Spee Dee (http://www.speedeedelivery.com). It arrived quickly and in good shape.


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