On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 21:34:33 CST, you wrote: >Leon posted: >> UPS is wonderful. In America. Once you go beyond that you have >> problems. ... > >Their reputation IN the USA isn't great >either.
One of the many hats I wear at work requires I keep an eye on the shipping performance of several major carriers we use, which includes thousands of shipments per month ranging from one package to full truckload quantities. Rest assured every shipper loses or destroys or damages or delivers to wrong address at least 2% of all shipments. There are really no exceptions - all carriers are about as good (or bad, depending on how one looks at it.) Sometimes the poor performance will spike up over 5% per month for a carrier, but generally they stay in the 2% - 3% range for what we call carrier errors. So if one ships enough packages, the law of averages says there will be a plenty or horror stories for everyone. Today we are preparing a rush replacement order - we shipped 64 cartons on a pallet, when they arrived at the customer most were soaked with oil. 30-weight, looks like. Somewhere between one and ten gallons. How in the heck could that have happened. So when selecting a carrier, look for the things that make them easy to live with, such as easy reimbursement for lost/damaged insured packages, or low cross-border fees. -- John Mustarde www.photolin.com
