Which shipping company is kindest to your packages?

study has its limitations for sure, but a good read for those who ever wonder what a box goes through on its journey...

Study Link

I can attest to this.. I shipped some acrylic displays to a lady via Fed-ex ground. There was "Fragile tape" on every seem and a "This end up" sticker. When they arrived the box was crushed and the displays were totally messed up..

I later found out from the maker of the plastic that in order to break the Acrylic I had used is would take 1200lbs pre-square inch of continuous load to break them or a sudden impact of 900 lbs. The box had a total crush depth of 6".. and they had the balls to deny my claim stating there was no damage to the box..

I meet my UPS driver at a multi truck pickup point often to get my packages when I am in a pinch at my screen printing shop. I can get them about 5 hrs ealier by meeting them there. I have witnessed these driver "hurling" boxes from a trailer to their trucks, crashing to the floor. They throw them up to 20ft sometimes. I have never saw them inspect a box for any markings, fragile, etc. Luckily they can't break the shirts I get through them but who know what other stuff they break while chunking these boxes around!!

Very interesting article. I too can attest that adding "Fragile" to a package is a really bad idea.

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Originally Posted by FatBoy

I meet my UPS driver at a multi truck pickup point often to get my packages when I am in a pinch at my screen printing shop. I can get them about 5 hrs ealier by meeting them there. I have witnessed these driver "hurling" boxes from a trailer to their trucks, crashing to the floor. They throw them up to 20ft sometimes. I have never saw them inspect a box for any markings, fragile, etc. Luckily they can't break the shirts I get through them but who know what other stuff they break while chunking these boxes around!!

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I've always wanted to open a screenprinting shop. I took a class in high school at the tech building and loved it. Do you have a link to your business I could check out?

On a side note, I worked at Fedex Ground 4-5 years ago where I loaded the 53 ft trailers. The packages come in too fast for the guys to handle so a lot gets dropped into the bottom and stepped on or crushed by other boxes. I don't remember anything ever being thrown, the supervisor at this particular location watched every move to make sure things didn't happen to packages. He was a good guy. If things get damaged there really isn't anyone to blame from what I saw

I took a tour of UPS as seasonal job 5 years back and would say I didn't see anything being damaged. The whole operation looked extremely smooth at said terminal.