Is the world mad

[Chris Parks]

I don't know about where you are Chris, but there's a COPE depot a couple of minutes away from me, and COPE are the biggest specialist sensitive freight operator in Australia. International shipping might be a challenge, but I'd have no qualms about sending fragile items within Australia with them having seen the local branch repacking items they thought weren't sufficiently protected. They seem to do good business.

Price a 90kg parcel Sydney to Perth and let me know how much. This sort of stuff was my job and at one time an income when I sold stuff and I saw exactly what was happening because I was doing it. COPE will send it on its way but if you are sending a parcel to a remote area it will get handed off to the likes of AP or TNT etc and they do not have a fragile service. AP are in the end the only company that delivers to every address in Oz, the others might say they do but in the end it is handed to AP for the absolute remote deliveries.

[Bohdan]

AP are in the end the only company that delivers to every address in Oz, the others might say they do but in the end it is handed to AP for the absolute remote deliveries.

I'm not that remote (10k out of town, 30k out of Geelong) but can't get a delivery from AP, I have to go and get my post from the Post office in town.

I do get deliveries from the couriers where one local driver covers several companies.

[richmond68]

Price a 90kg parcel Sydney to Perth and let me know how much. This sort of stuff was my job and at one time an income when I sold stuff and I saw exactly what was happening because I was doing it. COPE will send it on its way but if you are sending a parcel to a remote area it will get handed off to the likes of AP or TNT etc.

Ah, the good old I know better than you response with a redirection. No need to be so reactionary Chris, I was just providing an example of a freight company that do exactly what you said isn't done or that people would pay for. We all say things and get contradicted on them. How we handle that says more about us than our original comment does.

I do some relief driving for a relatives freight business, so I've seen plenty of times how freight is handled, dropped, kicked, forked and worse, even seen storemen playing a game of football with a small parcel wrapped in fragile tape which they thought was hilarious. I can understand why firms overpack items. But I've also had some laughable packing, and some auto parts have zero packaging. But the standout consignments for me were a stick broken off a tree with a con note attached, an empty box and last but not least an esky. The stick was the result of a boring day in the auto parts warehouse and an inside joke; the empty carton was because they needed a part from a branch office who didn't have a carton to pack the item in, so they sent them an empty box via courier to then return. The esky, well that was like being a blood courier except the contents contained a different bodily fluid from some of the nation's finest stallions going to the university for analysis. Now that was fragile freight. I used to tape the lid on.

[tonzeyd]

I wouldn't say the world has gone mad, as i've had both good and bad packaging. The most logical scenario I would imagine is the company in the past probably have had their fair share of stuff being received by customers where because of a lack of packaging was bent etc. As such over packging is the most cost effective method of ensuring this doesn't happen.

[Handyjack]

I used to work for someone who to keep cost down did everything possible so they did not need to pay for packaging. They obtained used packaging from various shops so they could pack their goods for shipping. It eventually happened, a parcel they sent ended up where the packaging came from, not where it was meant to go. An employee had to go there and collect the whole lot for re packing and re posting.

[Simplicity]

It was rumoured that.
Henry Ford,
Ordered all his engines be delivered in a certain wooden box in a certain style.
Said Wooden box then became the seating.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[richmond68]

Those rumours about Ford have been around longer than I've been alive, but there's no documented proof for them. A bit of romanticism perhaps, it would have to relate to the period the Dodge Bros supplied components to Ford but without proof who can say it happened? What might be closer to the truth was that Ford were operating a wood distillation plant that produced charcoal, acetic acid etc from wood waste that was a revenue stream in its own right.

[richmond68]

I used to work for someone who to keep cost down did everything possible so they did not need to pay for packaging. They obtained used packaging from various shops so they could pack their goods for shipping.

Seems they're not the only ones doing that. Got a delivery from Elraco today, it came packed in a carton that previously held 6 bottles of Jansz cúvee brut sparkling vino. That cardboard's been from Tassie to NSW via SA, it'll have more frequent flyer points than me!

[aarggh]

Price a 90kg parcel Sydney to Perth and let me know how much. This sort of stuff was my job and at one time an income when I sold stuff and I saw exactly what was happening because I was doing it. COPE will send it on its way but if you are sending a parcel to a remote area it will get handed off to the likes of AP or TNT etc and they do not have a fragile service. AP are in the end the only company that delivers to every address in Oz, the others might say they do but in the end it is handed to AP for the absolute remote deliveries.

Even AP very routinely farms out deliveries to contractors (read pizza delivery guys) and other couriers depending on load and destination. And the contractors they use can be so sub-par, they may as well be footballers the way the items are treated. The ones that don't end up "lost" that is!

cheers, Ian

[doug3030]

A few years back I ordered a 50 inch/1270mm aluminium straightedge from a company in the US. There were a number of options for the engraving of the scale and they kept getting it wrong/not as I ordered.

First straightedge turned up in a mailing tube - adequately packed, arrived intact, but not as ordered. I got in touch, they said they now understood what I had wanted and sent another.

Second one arrives similarly packed as the first, but once again wrongly engraved. I contacted them again and got them to email me a photo of the next one so I wold know it was right before it was shipped. They had told me tokeep the first two as return postage would have been about as much as their manufacturing cost.

Well the third one arrived - the box was six feet long and 18 inches by 12 inches. It contained about 25 mailing tubes, one of which contained the straightedge and the rest were empty. Reading between the lines I think that the person who delivered it to the mailroom probably said something about me supposedly being an Australian pain in the ass, and they assumed that I was the one footing the bill for the postage, which was fortunately for me, not the case. In fact I have not had to buy a mailing tube since.

Cheers

Doug

[DSEL74]

But what is it for Matt?

[Simplicity]

But what is it for Matt?

I needed a rod up my back to strength my persona.

Maybe a few little tools awl marking knife ext

Cheers Matt

[doug3030]

Matt, can I ask who you found with o1 tool steel in stock at the moment? Everywhere I have tried is currently out of stock in any sizes suitable for small tools, knives or anything.

Cheers

Doug

[Simplicity]

Matt, can I ask who you found with o1 tool steel in stock at the moment? Everywhere I have tried is currently out of stock in any sizes suitable for small tools, knives or anything.

Cheers

Doug

Doug I went through Amazone
Just typed in what I wanted 10 mm 01 tool steel