Why do things get so damaged in transit?

[Breaddrink]

Is it just me or are things sent via the US postal service, UPS, FEDEX, or by freight companies getting more damaged than they used to?

It seems to have become one of those perverted facts of life that anything that is sent through a mail system has seven shades of poop kicked out of it before it arrives, even if the distance between pickup and delivery is fairly short.

I wondered if any people in here who know freight, or even the postal service could explain how this actualy happens?

I mean...I could understand scuffing, and perhaps the odd opened edge on parcels not secured properly, but I receive things frequently that have clearly been damaged to the extent of me wondering if it could even be intentional.
I can even understand how just through sheer scale of the amount sent, some damages and lost packages will happen, but surely this can't explain the very thorough and consistant smashing up of EVERYTHING?

You take a package, lets say a box 2' x 2' x 2'.
I can't equate what can possibly happen to an item that is really much too large to throw to cause it to be so utterly damaged during shipment.
The box goes into transit as a fresh new and unsoiled box, and comes out at the other end, torn, scuffed, covered in dirt...Sometimes tire marks...
Surely picking up packages, and especialy large boxes, and putting them in a van/truck doesn't mean half the side is torn out and the contents ruined?
Even my recent tablesaw shipment, which was a heavily crated item had HUGE gouges in the side of the cardboard surrounding the crate frame.
Something of this size couldn't possibly have been thrown, and surely can only really afford to be picked up by a fork lift truck or a pallet dolly, yet theres the huge gouge, as though something has driven into the side of it. (No damage to the contents thankfully).

Is it simply a matter of people not doing their job properly any more?
It's not just my imagination is it?
I swear things didn't used to be like this.

When you think this through, the very fact that shipping insurance even exists is a ludicrous concept.
You're PAYING them to deliver the package in one piece, and they no longer even promise to do so.
The only way to be sure is to insure and track the hell out of everything, greatly increasing the price.
That level of shipping should surely be the very first tier, where they can insure your package reaches you, because that's their damn job to get it to where you're sending it...

Rob.

[Super Ry]

A little insight from what my brother deals with from time to time. Part of his job is to repair ceiling support tubes in GIAGANTIC WAREHOUSES - like 400,000 + sqft. They look alot likek lamp posts for the city cept they support the roof. Seems evey once and a while a guy will just drive a forklift square into one. Kinda surprised me as I would be running as fast as I could to get out if someone did that while I was around. Granted that doesn't happen all the time.

Maybe the post office just plain hates you :)

[dicklaxt]

I recevied a pretty damaged cyclone DC about 1 1/2 years ago, sent it back, received the 2nd one ,same story but not quite as bad. I did a little body work with a hammer and hung it in a closet and closed the door.Got tired of f#####g with it. This was definitely a shippers problem, the way it was packaged sucked.

dick

[Breaddrink]

But isn't it wrong for them to be handled so badly in the first place that THAT degree of packaging is even nescersary?

It's like the trash guys dumping bags of trash all over your front lawn and saying it's not their problem as you didn't package it correctly for them to handle it...

Now if they hadn't picked up the bag in the middle in the first place...

See what I'm saying here?

Just seems like some sloppy nonsense going on and more people who don't care about their job enough to actualy do what the job description says.

Rob.

[dicklaxt]

Oh yes, I don't doubt that a bit,,,,,I once heard if a "Handle With Care" label were attached it was nearly guaranteed it wood be damaged.No offence to any associated workers,,,,,,,,,,,

dick

[Randy Privett]

I have a friend that has the 12" HF Disk Sander, and I've used it a couple times, it will really take the material off, use it for metal more than wood, but I saw it in one of the HF flyers that I got. It was $99.00 on sale, I had a coupon, so I ended up getting it for $89.00, the first one got here, it looked like the UPS man drug it behind the truck all day, called they said they would ship another one. UPS picked up the old one, and I got a post card saying the item had been back ordered. After a long wait, it came today, it was just as bad as the first one, I asked the UPS driver if he took the first one home and re-delivered it today, he laughed. He asked if I wanted him to take it back, I have waited for this thing for about 5 months now and I need it, so I said no I'll fix it. Boy am I glad I have a full machine shop at my disposal, cause I needed it. Sorry for the long post but it's running fine probably better than it would have been new. This is the first time in all the years that I have had a problem with any shipments. Always the first, I hope it's the last.

Randy

[randall]

Well I don't know from the inside, but I can say that all these shipping companies use a variety of things to move packages, mostly conveyor belts in the terminals. So all the packages are tossed onto the conveyor belts, they get handled a number of times for the scanning, weighing, sorting etc. Some fall off the conveyor, jams happen too.

I've seen how the drivers pick up boxes from the customer and throw them into the back of the truck into one big pile, no doubt they get thrown again out of the truck into the conveyor system.

As far as insurance goes, they insure the item as long as it's not breakable, if the item is breakable don't even bother with insurance because they will deny the claim anyway, and the paperwork and hoops you have to jump thru are another headache.

The insurance is only really good for loss- the driver delivers it to the wrong address and it's gone.

The shop buys hand built organ blowers from Germany and they are the best made, they also come with a price tag to match. They usually pallet, strap and semi crate the machines, but one big machine came simply strapped to the pallet. The damage to this $5000 machine could only have been from a forklift blade- totally destroyed the back of the motor housing and in doing so pushed the motor hard enough into the plenum's steel plate that it bent the steel plate, couldn't even turn the turbine it was jammed.

Insurance adjuster comes does his thing, month or two later another machine comes to replace it- shipped exactly like the first one strapped to a pallet!!!
Once out of the shipper's hands they are not responsible, the mystery is why the shpping companies don't REFUSE to accept shoddy packed goods that are obviously begging for damage?

Back in the 80's when i shipped via UPS , once at the customer service counter the lady asked about the contents and if they were breakable.

She actually made me open the box so they could see if it was double boxed and had the required 3" of packing around it. It wasn't up to their snuff and they said I'd have to repackage it- after having waited on a log assed holiday rush line for over 45 minutes and having driven 15 minutes to get there I was pissed and told her just what I thought of her AND ups.

She started shaking while trying to reclose/tape the box up and I just gave her a few choice words and grabbed it out of her hand and walked out, took it to the Post OIffice and mailed it there with no problem and no hassle.

[brentp84]

I work for an IT company.

A couple of years ago we ordered three large laser printers for a customer. Two of them arrived just fine. Two weeks later the third one arrived. It was scraped and scuffed and the paper trays were out of the printer and stuck in the box beside it. Best of all is the fact that the box it showed up in was not the manufacturers box. It was just a random, generic, corrugated cardboard box. For this incident we coined the phrase, "drive-by shipping"

BP

[Breaddrink]

I supose what interests me, is the guy who was driving the forklift that hit your shipment with that amount of force.
In what other industry on this planet could such an action be gotten away with?
This is the work equivilent of your carpenter or decorater picking up your sofa and throwing it through your front windows.

Again...I know it happens, and has happened for long enough for people to be used enough to it to expect it and (usually) package accordingly, but I just don't understand how it got this way.
Not to this level.

Rob.

[Breaddrink]

I'm ashamed to say I understand the joke in your signature. :D

Rob.