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What method do you use to ship?

How do you ship your animals?

  • Airlines (Delta, USAir, etc).

    Votes: 139 26.1%

  • UPS - with approval from them

    Votes: 91 17.1%

  • UPS - without approval

    Votes: 186 34.9%

  • Airborne Express - with approval from them

    Votes: 53 9.9%

  • Airborne Express - without approval

    Votes: 119 22.3%

  • FedEx - with approval from them

    Votes: 74 13.9%

  • FedEx - without approval

    Votes: 125 23.5%

  • USPS - with approval from them

    Votes: 37 6.9%

  • USPS - without approval

    Votes: 39 7.3%

  • Other

    Votes: 21 3.9%
  • Total voters
    533
oops, I forgot to add, the one thing I do not like about FedEx already is this. You cannot bill the receiver UNLESS they have a FedEx acct. THis can be tough because there is not a "specific" flat rate for boxes. Unlike Airborne, who charges extra for not using their boxes, FedEx does not have boxes large enough (or at all for that matter) to ship snakes. On the other hand, if you know what box you are going to use, you can go to the part of the website (already played with it a bit) where you can calculate the shipping costs. It asks weight, dimensions, etc.
Buyers are going to have a rude awakening if the majority of us get on board with FedEx, that it does NOT cost $30 to ship over night. It is considerably more.........CLOSE to Delta same day in some cases.
My point is, it can be tough to give an exact shipping cost unless you know exactly what size/weight box you are going to use. That is what I liked about Airborne (just used them today in fact) you can just check that box that says 'bill receiver'. I just cannot afford, as anyone else for that matter, to lose money on shipping an animal......in otherwords take money out of the cost of the sale to put towards any possible mistake made by quoting a charge.

Follow me?!
 
Brian,
What I mean by legal is that the carrier is aware of what's in the box. Shipping in unmarked boxes is illegal. It violates the Lacey act. That said, I'll be very interested in hearing how they deal with your packages once you have the paperwork in hand. In my experience, every person you talk to at these companies has a different story to tell. Most of the counter people don't have a clue, so they just say no. Most drivers could care less what's in the box, evidenced by the way they treat them. I'm sure that you will get some calls to come and get your animals, because they don't ship them. Keep us posted on how this goes. Maybe there has been a policy change at FedEx.
 
Brian,
I have a UPS account and I use the same size boxes for most of my shipments. So the charge is usually within a dollar or two. I charge a flat $35 which is usually enough to cover the shipping. Anything under that falls into the catagory of handling. Which covers the cost of hot or cold packs and the box itself. I just use my pre-printed labels, fill them out and take the boxes to the UPS store and drop them off. So far that has worked great. The drivers pick them up at the end of the day and no one is the wiser. Knock on wood. I used to have to drive 30 miles, one way, to drop them off at the UPS Counter. That was a real pain in the....You know what!!
Rick
Renegade Reptiles
 
I am not sure in which thread I poted this on, but it is looked at on a 'case by case' basis. My approval letter, from the Packaging Design and Development states the approval of such shipments. I have also talked with their Legal Dept. during all this and got the same exact instructions as far as who to contact.
I am not sure what the challenge is here. You were asking how to do this and I am telling you. I just got an email from Rich Z (owner of this site) and he got his letter today as well.
The Packaging Depratment is also within the "legal Dept" of the company (if I understood their structure correctly) and clearly state "APPROVED".
Not sure what else I can say. I am just following the steps that their "higher ups" told me to take. Only now am I dealing with a "sales rep." to get the final paperwork.
 
OK, I just got my boxes back with the approval forms enclosed. I sent two different sized boxes, since both need to be approved separately. Here's what the returned approval forms look like:

fedex001.gif

fedex002.gif

fedex003.gif

fedex004.jpg


Please note where the product description on page one says "LIVE HARMLESS SNAKES", as well as the Inner Description recognizes the contents of the deli cup and bag that were enclosed as examples of how the snakes will be contained within the box itself.

Now I have to fax this off to my sales rep to be forwarded to their legal department.

I would say this pretty much shows that FedEx is open to provide us a shipping avenue for live harmless snakes. :dancer01:
 
Brian,
I get what you're saying. I'm just not sure that they will follow through. Please keep us posted on how this turns out. Especially how the first few shipments are handled....Thanks,
Rick
Renegade Reptiles
:)
 
Rick,
You said you have a UPS acct. Do they know what you are shipping?

On my end, being that I have to sign some paperwork, like Rich also mentioned, that comes form the "Legal Dept", this will be a contract between the two parties. I have seen them before from another individual who posted his right here on the BOI. They must have some system in place to identify me and my approval to ship snakes as they would obviously not want to be in "breech of contract".
 
Brian,
No, they do not know. If they did, they wouldn't ship them.
I'm encouraged by your progress so far. Lets just hope that this will be the way to ship in the future. Maybe if FedEx starts shipping them, UPS will follow suit. We can only hope!!
Rick
Renegade Reptiles
:)
 
Not sure what it is with Fed ex, but I know UPS has a set dimensional weight.

I have found with UPS if you charge 35$ for shipping you should be ok, assuming your box is NO LARGER THEN 12" x12" x 12". Smaller boxes are the same price, but larger and your gonna pay. I did a 16 x 12 x 20 box ups a few months back, it was almost 70$ (bummer as I quoted 30$....lol)

I have not checked, but does anyone know what the general cost would be on a 12 x 12 x 12 box Fed ex (est 2lbs).

Mickey Hinkle
The Lizard King Reptiles
 
Ok, here I am confused. I went to the little "rate" page on FedEx.com. If I sellect "own packaging" and ship it overnight by 10:30 it is $57.93 if I do by 3pm it is $50.31.
If I select "FedEx Box it is $34.30 and $30.36. Confusion part is that I was told that there are not fed ex boxes. Now that I think about it, that might have been when I was ordering supplies (lables, etc.) and maybe they do not have them there for ordering because if you have an acct. the labels and smaller stuff is free. I bet that is it. So my earlier post about it being so much would not apply....ONLY if you can find FedEx boxes somewhere. Playing dumb today, I cannot think if I have ever seen one before. I only use letter holders and such.
 
I used my zip code and the dad's zip in Tennessee to calculate the above rates.
I just got off the phone with FedEx. and the only boxes they have with their logos 12x10x2, a medium size that I forgot and a large wich is 17x14x3 1/2. They do not have ANY fedex logo boxes that would be good for our shipping needs. I asked about any demensions (size) that are more "Square" and she said that would be our own packaging, not fedex logo boxes.So the HIGHER amount would be the one that applies to this situation.

Like I was saying, that will be a rude awakening for buyers when quoted those kind of rates. They are going to feel ripped off, but there is nothing I can do about it.

You all follow me here?
It would be better, unless you live far from an airport, to use the airlines for 10 dollars more and get it the same day!
 
Yea, that is what I was afraid of.

I sent a snake fed ex a few months back (no labled of course) and it was approx 60$ for the shipment. Come to think of it, the box was one of my 12 x 12 x 12 boxes.

So now I guess its time to see what happens from here. I still think most people will perfer fed ex to delta for a couple of reasons.

For shippers they can shcedule a pick up, they dont have to have their facility inspected, and they dont have to ship 3 packages in x amount of time to secure their status as a shipper.

For coustomers they will not have to drive to the airport.

That all being said, I would have to agree with Brian that it would be better from a sellers stand point to ship delta. As such you would get it there in one day, as Brian stated, but more importantly your package will be insured.

Also with Delta you can send VERY LARGE packages for the price of tiny boxes via fed ex.

On the bright side, I was able to ship UPS today, but it was torts not a snake. However with the way they have been lately , even with my "waiver" I still get worried they will not accept my packages.

Maybe its just time for customers to start to expect higher shipping cost on snakes. But we all know more people will continue to ship snakes via ups and airborne untill they are called on it. As such that will make it difficult on thoose of us who cant, and will likely at some point cause the end of all live animal shipments via ups, as they will soon realize that many people with "waivers" are shipping snakes, against policy. But then again when that happens, atleast all shippig will be priced the same across the board, and that would make me happy, even it if does mean 60$ boxes.

Mickey Hinkle
The Lizard King Reptiles
 
When I was shipping with Airborne Express, I was using boxes that measured 15x11x7 inches approximately. Airborne dimensionalized this box to be 6 or 7 pounds, depending on the phase of the moon. With UPS, this same size box was below the floor level where they would apply the dimensionalized rate, so it was actual weight. That made a substantial difference in shipping price. So it is all going to depend on FedEx and how low they have the floor level for the minimum size box that is dimensionalized. UPS didn't start dimensionalizing until I went to the medium sized boxes ( 15.75 x 15.75 x 7 inches).

We need to check with the sales reps we are working with. It is entirely possible that they have plans that would be more cost effective based on volume, daily pickup, or any number of other options. There may even be a waiver of dimensionalizing too, since Airborne Express once mentioned that to me, but I never followed up on it.

But yes, we are still going to have some work to do with this. There are still going to be inequities for a while until the playing field gets leveled a little bit more. But first things first. We only have a toe in the door right now. I didn't believe for a moment we would even be this far with this issue at this point, so a little bit of patience may be in order.
 
I like the idea of rate slashing (as I would call it) based on volume. One challenge for me is that you ship in a month what I ship in a year.
Maybe there could be a pirce thing for all 'registered' shippers with FedEx. If we could contact them, do some marketing for them to increase the 'registered' users and then put us ALL in a pile and give breaks based on the business rather than individuals. That IS asking alot of them, but we have the means to get the word out with sites such as this. Who knows what can happen.
All it would take is each of us to send a email (which I already did by the way) talking about this waver and then those sending it on to others and so forth. Word would spread like CRAZY once people saw that there was a company actually working with me and others.

Just a thought!
 
I put a message up on a couple of the KS forums about it (Brian already had one there, too), and I offered to send the link to anyone who emailed me. Several people already have emailed me (including some old friends I hadn't heard from in years!).

I also went to FedEx to get samples of their own boxes and found the wrong dimensions for our needs. But if they decide we are a big enough industry, maybe they will consider adding a couple squarish ones in a couple of standard sizes for our use. We could them put our styros inside of their boxes. No telling where it might go if we can only impress them with volume and professional actions.
 
"No telling where it might go if we can only impress them with volume and professional actions"

I agree with that statement 100%. Hopefully we can get alot of the "old timers" to jump on board, as without some of the bigger guys this will not be done easily.

Good work everyone

Mickey Hinkle
The Lizard King Reptiles
 
I think that some of the "bigger guys" now using UPS or Airborne Express, unless they have a specific waiver for shipping snakes, should strongly consider getting on board here with us and FedEx. If those shipping companies get their feet placed to the fire to either ship snakes for ALL of us or NONE of us, to be fairly and evenly treated, no telling what might happen.

When UPS pulled the plug on me, I was out of the loop for a couple of weeks. Still am, matter of fact. And if it can happen to me, it can certainly happen to them. The only warning I got was when my wife asked the driver to stop back later that day for a pickup, and he looked puzzled and said "Didn't anyone call you yesterday?"

A word to the wise should be sufficient.
 
Thank you

Hello. Just like many others I've been following this and the related threads with great interest. I've had a FedEx account for a while, but primarily use UPS. In the past they've provided me with better service out here in the country, I know the driver, he knows what I'm shipping, etc. Well, now thanks to the efforts of Rich, Brian, and others it looks like I'll happily be changing carriers. I called FedEx a couple of times last week and never got a call back. Finally, I went to their website and sent them an e-mail. I then promptly received a call from my local sales rep, Mark Dodson. He couldn't have been nicer about it and acted like it was no big deal, "Oh yeah, no problem, we'll get the ball rolling right away" he tells me. He was just as friendly and helpful as could be. Wow! I just want to thank Rich, Brian, and everyone else who has made this possible. This is a great thing that should have a profound positive effect on all herpers.

THANKS AGAIN & GOD BLESS!!!
:D
Phil Frost
ZNJ Exotics
[email protected]
 
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