Who's The Best

Hello everyone I can see that it seems like the are good things
and bad things about every shipping company out there so
who's the best I know that''s a matter of opinion but any input
you can give would be great I'am just getting started and would like to be a breeder some day but the shipping thing is really
bothering me because if you can't safely ship the animal then
what is the best why to serv you'r customers any input would
help lots thanks for you time

Delmer

my vote is obviously for Delta-Dash, but in all fairness to the other carriers, Dash is by far the ultimate choice. Let's say you were shipping a $2,000 female Pastel BP...I think their own "live arrival guarantee" plus the fact that in some cases the purchaser can pick up the animal(s) within 6-8 hours - depending on time of drop off and destination. So in my opinion they're in a league of their own. Now if I had to choose between the other three...my vote is for UPS first, then Fed-Ex. You couldn't pay me to ship another animal through Airborne Express - my experiences with their customer service, staff, delivery personel, and billing dept. all left a very, very bad taste in my mouth.

The weakest link on all the door to door services is that final driver. I have the drivers on my end trained by now but who knows who your getting on the last leg of the trip. He can be some semi-intelligent college kid working his way through school who happens to pay attention to what is going on or he can be someone on the edge of being fired for poor work performance.

On another note, we also get supplies shipped to us via trucking companies. Sometime they are just as much of a nightmare. Really it's just a choice of lesser evils, over one that particularly good.

Thank you to all who has replied and voted the input is great any one else have any opinions please post them all the info I get can is great again thanks everyone

Hello I have one more ? Delta Dash seems to be the shipper of choice they do have live arrival and they allow harmless reptiles but there cost is higher then most of the others what do you do if the customer doesn't want to pay that much for shipping

Delta is obviously the best choice for shipping reptiles, but it's hard to include them in such a poll because their service and cost is so much different.
Added to that is the required trip to the airport to pick up the shipment. Many people live considerable distances from the nearest airport. For me it's a 3 hour round trip to pick up a package.

Everyone has their own cutoff point, but most anybody paying $1,000 plus fo ran animal has no problem paying for Delta Dash, and many actually require it. For some people the amount is considerably less.
I do occasionally see people offering snakes such as a pastel ball for $2,000 "including UPS overnight shipping". I consider this foolish on the part of the seller as well as anyone buying the snake. I know I for one do not want to shoulder the repsonsibility of guaranteeing live arrival for a snake worth 2 grand, and I often wonder what the seller would do if the snake did die during transit. While I have to date never lost a snake in shipping, I just don't trust any of the overnight carriers to that degree.

Few people however are willing to pay $70 for shipping, plus a trip to the airport if they're buying a cornsnake or a couple of leopard geckos.
In these cases, the only option is one of the three overnight carriers.
FedEx is currently providing a means for us to openly ship our snakes, whereas the other carriers still are not. Airborne/DHL are actively halting shipments, and some have managed to get UPS approval while many have not.
So at this point FedEx may be the best choice. I would list them first among the three with UPS second. I used Airborne for a few years, but I too have abandoned them as a carrier for anything.

I have never used Delta Dash, as for the other 3 were i was the buyer.

Fed Ex totally lost a shipment before it was ever scanned. Seller's Fed Ex insurance only gave him $100.00 for $400.00 worth of snakes. And i had to repick $400 worth of what snakes seller had left and the next shipment was a day late. I was not happy. But everything arrived ok.

I heard UPS driver drop my box of Green Tree's ($830) when he came to my door. I screamed at him. Green Tree's were fine though.

Airborne Express- today the driver showed up at 11am drove thru the condo's i live in, turned around and left. I called Airborne at 11:15 after standing on the corner waiting for him to come back by, and finally he showed back up a little after 12 and everything was fine.

None of those 3 impressed me. I am always super stressed on delivery day and always up before sunrise worrying.

i`ve recieved and sent thru all the shippers. they are all about the same minus airborne(no pressurized cabins from what i was told). the thing you should be most worried about is the quality of the boxing it was sent in. i use double layered 3/4 in insulation lining and then put the animals in a styro container and insert that into the box. this way it is pracically crush proof and wont accept or loose heat very easily. i add gel packs between the layers in extreme conditions. if you package properly you can almost make it foolproof to whatever service you choose. a little more expensive but i believe it`s well worth it. i have had mint terribilis get lost for 5 days and a rhac chahoua get lost for 4 days and have never had a problem. i even had e. tricolor take an unexpected trip to guam for the weekend and all arrived fine.
aaron handzlik
aaron`s frog farm

I liked Air Ex because they had a small customer service department and problems were resolved quickly. Now that they merged, I feel a little lost. Everything is computerized, I know, but I guess I am old fashioned. I liked being able to ask for "Lindsey" and she practically had my account memorized.

UPS has also been wonderful to me. The one time they incorrectly billed me, I didn't even notice it, and I got a check in the mail for $120 out of nowhere!

what do you do if the customer doesn't want to pay that much for shipping

Three obvious choices:

1. Tough luck. Pay the shipping, or don't buy the animal(s).

2. Eat part of the shipping cost yourself, for the convenience of same day arrival, live arrival guaranteed insured.

3. Raise the price of your animals to cover the difference in shipping charges.