Restricted Shipping Days

I am wondering if anyone eles restricts the days the ship on and if it hurts their business?
We have learned that our nearest Fed X drop off point is 100 miles away and the drivers will only do a pickup if they happen to have a delivery on our road. Because of this we will be limiting our shipping to one day a week, Tuesdays.
Anyone else have this problem?

John E Dove

I don't have that kind of a problem, thankfully my UPS store is only like 10-15 minutes into the village so I can drop off just about anytime I want. But from a purchaser stand point I have dealt with people who only ship on one day and it has not bothered me at all. I don't know if that helps you at all.

I only ship on Monday-Wednesday. I just have that restriction so that an extra day is allowed during shipping just in case of a delay in delivery, so they won't get stuck in transit over a weekend.
It's a milder restriction, but it's not caused me any problem so far.

When you say the closest FedEx drop off point is 100 miles away, are you referring to FedEx staffed locations or any drop off point period?
You're probably aware of it already, but I wanted to mention that there are businesses everywhere that act as drop off locations but are not operated by FedEx.
I started using one of these places myself so I didn't have to stay up all day waiting on the FedEx truck to come.

Originally Posted by Clay Davenport

I only ship on Monday-Wednesday. I just have that restriction so that an extra day is allowed during shipping just in case of a delay in delivery, so they won't get stuck in transit over a weekend.
It's a milder restriction, but it's not caused me any problem so far.

When you say the closest FedEx drop off point is 100 miles away, are you referring to FedEx staffed locations or any drop off point period?
You're probably aware of it already, but I wanted to mention that there are businesses everywhere that act as drop off locations but are not operated by FedEx.
I started using one of these places myself so I didn't have to stay up all day waiting on the FedEx truck to come.

, I am the same way, only shipping Monday - Wednesday. It is not worth the risks shipping close to weekends.

I ship with DHL most of the time, they will pick my packages up anytime I request it. However, I drop mine off right before 6pm to reduce stress to the animals.

Mr. Davenport,
In answer to your query on the drop off point: Yes according to the Fed Ex driver I must drive to Pueblo Colorado to the nearest drop off point. From here to the city limit of Pueblo is almost exactly 100 miles.
There is a UPS office roughly 30 miles from my location and they would even do pick ups but of course they do not like handling snakes and being a rural area they know what I would be most likely to be shipping not to mention the fact I would not feel right trying to slip one past them or having to outright lie to them.

Mr. Hill,
DHL is an even worse option for us out here on the high plains desert due to their restricted days of delivery. They only come this way 2 or 3 days a week.
I was forced to request suppliers to ship via another method when a package of rodents was shipped for a Thursday delivery, as per that companies norm, and because DHL does not come down here on Thursday or Friday my shipment sat in their storage facility until the following Monday. To Rodent Pro’s credit they did replace the shipment of rotten rodents without question and no longer ship to me via DHL for my once a year order.
Good shipping prices but poor service to some of the more rural areas of the country. I really wish they had not purchased Airborne Express.


I also agree on the not risking animals getting stuck in a hub somewhere over the weekends so had planned on restricting shipping to Mondays - Wednesdays anyway. I guess all this will do is just tighten that down a little more.

I understand with you being so rural. In that case, I doubt that the majority of customers will have a problem with you only shipping one day per week. Just make this clear to them before they send you any money and they have no room to say anything.
If I were in your shoes I wouldn't drive there twice in a week either.
As a matter of fact when I was still selling the roaches on a large scale I finally restricted my shipping to one day per week only just because I was getting tired of going to the post office on a daily basis. If I happened to be going to town anyway mid week I'd pack any outstanding orders and ship them early, but I stopped making special trips just for the time involved.

Just to be absolutely sure, you might want to run a check on drop off points. It only takes a second.
Go to this page http://www.fedex.com/Dropoff/start?locale=en_US
Put your zip code in the space and on the right side check only "FedEx Authorized ShipCenter". Then hit the find locations button.
It's worth checking just in case the driver was only referring to FedEx staffed locations.

Thank you very much for that link Mr. Davenport. On the surface it would seem that the driver misinformed me. Using the zip code look up it appears that there may be a pick up/drop off point 70 miles closer. I will have to inquire in person at the bank indicated as a drop off point to be sure they can do overnight deliveries. If it turns out that they are a reliable drop off for overnight deliveries I will be able to offer shipping 3 days a week since my wife drives past there every morning on her way to work and works only a mile or so away.

Of course I will do a test run through them first before ever risking a live animal.

We have also already included a section on shipping etc on the website my wife is building for us, though until recently we have not begun to even try to narrow down exact dates. Unless I am mistaken, she included UPS along with Fed Ex as a possible shipper. Luckily our site is not up so everything is still fluid at this point.

It is wonderful to be able to draw on the wisdom, experience and knowledge of the members of Fauna to iron out these things before problems arise.

Thank you again for directing me to that look up link.
John E Dove

Hopefully the bank does handle express shipments, that will help you out a lot.
On the page where the locations were listed, the far right column lists the services available at each location. It should say Express, Ground, and any other services which the location offers.
FedEx treats express and ground separately, so I guess it is possible that a very rural location might only handle ground shipments.

Another tip. Once you have your own FedEx account, you can schedule shipments online through their site. Doing this provides a 10% discount to the shipping charges. You can still drop it off, you just won't have it labeled or pay for shipping at the bank.
I do it this way myself since dropping it off not only saves me from having to wait at home on the truck, but it also saves the $4 per package pick up fee.
With shipping charges increasing every year, every dollar you can get knocked off helps.
At the current rate it's going within 5 years it will be cheaper to ship Delta.