UPS and Shpping Snakes (a chance at legitimacy)

But the counter people are freaky when you when you mention shipping reptiles and flat refuse to ship any snakes , even dead ones but they'll ship a human head. Go figure.

Bryon Adzic


The letter looks good to me.

I saw a few typos. Here is the ammended, second draft:

Dear Sir,

This introductory note is written on behalf of the many responsible and business-oriented members of the overall herpetological society in our nation. We are a group of people who are committed to standards of excellence, not only in our production of a quality product (greater care and understanding toward all reptiles and amphibians), but also terrific customer service, with a strong desire to comply with all rules and regulations governing our efforts. With those ideas in mind, we bring to your attention an offer for using your compnay in a manner to the benefit of all involved.

Those of us in the herpetogical industry have many different areas of interest to be certain, but we all want to be able to practice our business pursuits with the greatest of efficiency, while remaining within the guidelines set for us. However, some of us, the breeders, selllers, and potential shippers of snakes, are not able to fulfill our obligations to our customers as we wish, because of the banning of snakes from all UPS shipping. We would therefore like you to consider the possibility of modifying that ban somewhat in an effort to “test the waters” concerning this potential area of business for you.

What we are proposing is an allowance of non-venomous, non-hazzardous snakes to be shipped through your organization. The animals would be properly packaged, labeled, and handled by the shippers in question so as to provide a safe shipment for both the animals and the handlers of the boxes. We know that there are fears concerning this area of shipments, but given that we are speaking specifically of harmless animals four feet long, or less, we believe that those fears can be assuaged.

While the vast majority of us in this industry offer a “live arrival” guarantee to our customers, we are willing to fully accept the cost of such; we would not be seeking insurance coverages on the values of the animals. Our goal is merely to be able to ship in a confident manner, knowing that our animals will be arriving on time. We take the necessary steps to insure the health and safety of our charges.

We are an industry of several thousand breeders, wholesalers, pet shops, and individual pet owners, wherein tens of thousands of animals are shipped every year. As such, if UPS were to step up as the first openly accepting shipper of snakes, we believe you would recognize a significant increase of shipments from our industry. Even those of our number that ship lizards, turtles, and amphians without any sort of restriction through other shippers, we believe, would be willing to change their shipping company of choice so as to support your efforts in accomodating their comrades in herpetology.

We are open to any level of discussion that might further this request we make of UPS, and we would be happy to explain any aspect of our needs in detail. There are also a number of us who are more than willing to have representatives from UPS come and inspect our operational practices, so as to determine for themselves what it is that we are doing in our businesses. Whatever biases there may be toward our industry, we want nothing more than to lay them aside so that we too can be avid and loyal customers of UPS for years to come.

Thank you for your time and kind consideration.

Sincerely,

The draft looks good to me...

I don't know if this has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but it may be helpful. This is the document that is supposed to be THE guideline UPS goes by for shipping regulations:

UPS Final Tariff

Bear in mind this is a PDF document.

But of particular interest in Tariff #463:

Tariff #463

LIVE ANIMALS
UPS does not regularly provide service for packages containing live animals. (The term “animal” as used here refers to anything living, except plants). UPS will only accept packages containing live animals for shipment within the United States on an exception basis. Transportation for packages containing live animals is limited, must be prearranged, and will only be provided under the following conditions: the shipper has received written authorization from UPS for the specific package tendered; and the shipper requests service in accordance with the conditions set forth in the written authorization from UPS for the package tendered. Any package containing a live animal shall be considered a perishable commodity and will be accepted for transportation solely at the shipper’s risk for any damage arising from the transportation. UPS shall not be liable for any package containing a live animal in the event of loss, damage, delay, or misdelivery, nor shall UPS be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages.

There is nothing specifically mentioning "snakes" nor is there any sort of absolute requirement for them to refuse such packages.

Very interesting Rich. So in reality they have no specific policy against snakes, they just claim to. Maybe we should linclude that particuclar bit of into in the letter itself.

Mickey Hinkle
The Lizard King Reptiles

Do you have an attorney available? I believe there have been court cases filed against UPS for this sort of thing. Get some groundwork in place to use as leverage. If there are cases on the books where they have lost such cases or had to settle, then that could be used as a pressure point.

What laws govern the manner in which they do business? Can they legally discriminate against an entire industry?

quote "There is nothing specifically mentioning "snakes" nor is there any sort of absolute requirement for them to refuse such packages."

Exactly Rich, and I copied that entire section from their website and emailed it to my local UPS manager when I was trying to get approval to ship UPS. That didn't work one bit, he said NO Snakes.

I also emailed it to their customer service during communication with them and this is the reply I got.

Dear Traci Engle: Thank you for your inquiry. Some live animals may be accepted for shipment to U.S. domestic destinations with prior approval by UPS. The following kinds of live animals are not handled in UPS domestic ground or air services: Live birds (including poultry) Live warm-blooded animals, including, but not limited to, mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, cats, hamsters, or guinea pigs. All snakes, poisonous and non-poisonous Poisonous reptiles Poisonous insects All spiders Please note, One Time shipment of live animals is not a service UPS is able to offer. If you have a UPS account and you are interested in shipping a live animal that is not on the above list, please provide us with your address and UPS shipper number so that we may forward your request to our Customer Assistance Department. Thank you for using UPS Internet Services

It's funny, I didn't find any of that mentioned on their website!

What if someone created a poll that would ask a few questions geared towards shipping. Just a few questions like: Would you use a major ground shipping company for overnight delivery of reptiles including non venomous snakes under 4’ in length, packaged and labeled properly if that company was willing to do so? How many packages fitting the description above would you ship a year?
Just a few questions that no one would feel uncomfortable answering. Something that real numbers could be created from. Some sort of ID would be needed to make the numbers more accurate. Something like an e-mail address or login so people do not answer the questions multiple times to raise the numbers.
If that poll or questionnaire was open for a few months during the peak of shipping and some attention was drawn to it, the numbers could be convincing. The compiled info with a letter (final draft) may be enough to persuade one or more of them to change their policies to make that extra buck.

I guess the first question should ask major shipping instead of ground shipping sompany.

I think the enthusiasm for this project is awesome ... I had another thought that might be helpful.

As I still believe the key to getting a large corp like UPS to change their policy is a large monetary impact there is another avenue to persue. What about non-snake shipments. How many reptile related dry goods vendors ship from web site purchases via an overnight carrier? If the herp community could get these guys on board as saying that they would only use a "herp friendly" carrier (one that allows snakes) that could be substantial.

As an example, I wonder how many packages a company like Big Apple Herp sends out in a day? There are many others as well.

Organization will probably be the key to changing things on the national level. Something like "The National Association of Reptile Shippers" looking for a carrier to move x amount of packages per year. That will get someones attention.

The alternative is to fight the battle at the local office level and have wins and losses all over the country.

Just some random thoughts ... Hope they help.

-adam