INFO: UPS-will they honor their agreement?

John makes a good point, and we should probably take repeated measures under different circumstances to increase the value of the test. ”). So here is what I propose if Marcia cares to participate with her box I’m willing to take part of the experiment (that is returning the box in a timely fashion). If we have enough people across the country, which care to participate we can come up with something very useful. It could turn out to be very valuable information for people who regularly ship animals and most importantly for the security of the animals themselves. This is probably among the coldest spots in the country. Temperatures are going to be around 15-20 for a high next week. It would be interesting to ship the box completely unlabeled (except for “fragile) and see what happens. One thing that could also be done is check the outside temperatures at certain “key” hours during transit (using weather.com) after all is what most of the people do when shipping. So what do you say? Why doesn’t everyone provide ideas about the “design” of such an experiment and we launch asap?

Regards

Hah! I can remember an incident where I was standing in line at a UPS hub waiting to get some packages shipped and some guy ahead of me had a large box with FRAGILE stickers all over it. The woman at the counter gave the guy a sour look and said "I'm sorry, sir, but UPS does not DO fragile shipping......."

I certainly agree that much more data is necessary in order to actually benefit from it. There really should be a more scientifically designed experiment with a baseline control established... not just a 'quick and dirty' like Rob and I did. I truly expected to see the recorded temperatures from the outside of the box much lower.

What might make more sense at first would be to use a electronic temperature probe to measure sealed box interior temperatures using 1, 2, and even 3 heat packs over a period of time. Ideally, it would be in a geographical area that has overnight external temperatures into the teens. This could be done by putting heat packs inside the box, sealing it up, making a small hole in the box to insert the probe into the interior, and letting the box sit outside in the cold for about 24 - 36 hours.

The closest information I have seen published on this is from Superior Enterprises for determining what heat-pack to use for shipments:
http://www.superiorenterprise.com/tips.htm