A while ago I got a peek into a UPS sorting delivery center facility while the machinery was in operation and gazed upon it from an engineering POV. Outsiders might envision UPS sorting and delivery as a highly automated process, but it is not.
The "automation" part consisted largely of quite conventional conveyor belts, chutes/slides and such. There was not nearly as much as I'd expected in the way of high tech sensors/scanners or robotic actuators recognizing and shoving packages down chutes to the specific delivery trucks; humans do most of that stuff.
Aside from incoming package barcode scans and application of an additional label to designate target delivery truck (humans will subsequently read this target truck label, not machines), 99% of the electro-mechanical sorting system could have been constructed with dawn of the 20th century industrial technology.
No distinction in handling is made between UPS letter size packages and say a 50lb box of sheet-rock screws headed to some construction site. Pricy guaranteed next day express type things do get somewhat different handling, but ordinary non-express items do not. Requiring a delivery signature, or having something insured for a bunch of money, doesn't impart any special status to a package during the transport/sorting/truck loading process.
Ordinary UPS package handling is even more equal than the animals in Orwell's Animal Farm -- there are no pigs who are more equal than others.
The conveyor belts and chutes do not discriminate
The machinery makes no attempt whatsoever to segregate very light weight packages from very heavy, or odd shaped things from more ordinary boxes. If your small fragile box happens to wind up behind a heavy crushing brute, then you win, it doesn't get crushed. If its in front, then it gets battered, repeatedly, and unmercifully, sometimes into oblivion, as the boxes circulate endlessly around the belt system awaiting a human to pluck them off and send them down a chute to some particular truck for delivery.
"Fragile" warning tapes and "This end UP" type makings senders so optimistically apply simply don't factor into the system at all. They're totally ignored by the machinery and people who manually handle packages. Totally. Don't even bother; increase the quality of your packing jobs instead.
Remember the old commercial for American Tourister luggage with the gorilla baggage handler tossing things around like a rag doll? Pack as if that's what's going to happen, because it will, and your stuff might survive the UPS sorting process. If you pack flimsy, its strictly luck of the draw where your packages wind up on the conveyor belts and chutes if they'll survive.
As I walked around, the smell of wine was heavy in the air, clearly someone's inadequately packed case of wine had fallen victim to the machine recently. The floor was littered with bits of paper that looked like remains of some sort of pamphlets, stray bullets rolled around from some busted open boxes of ammo, along with considerable banding that had been torn off cases, and empty remains of boxes marked the passing of contents unidentifiable and scattered inside the soulless machine awaiting an end of shift cleanup crew to scoop them up and consign them to a trash bin.
So, if your package doesn't arrive, it probably wasn't "lost" in the sense of it got tucked behind something and forgotten, there's actually very few places in a UPS facility where one might tuck something away and have it get permanently forgotten. It was far more likely it was simply chewed up and physically digested by the machine to the point where it was no longer a deliverable package.
Based on what I observed, here are some recommendations for a successful UPS shipping experience.
- Pack sturdy. One strip of tape on a box flap seam IS NOT ENOUGH (Amazon, I'm looking at YOU bud). Tape each flap distinctly, then one around the whole mess. Think hard about using filament strapping tape applied around all 3 box axis, then cover that with ordinary packing tape.
- Don't use paper as filler on larger boxes. It has no resistance to crushing and box tape seams WILL FAIL under crushing load and contents WILL spill out and the package contents be lost.
- Select boxes sized to contents. Overly large boxes with small contents rattling around inside DO NOT fare well at all.
- Loose heavy metal/wood objects that are long act like battering rams and blow out the end flaps on long thin boxes, then the contents slide out and are consumed by the machine and the package gets destroyed.
- Do NOT affix UPS shipping labels so they span a box's flap seams. Use a box flap or sides.
To be fair, your comments apply to packages handled by USPS, FedEx, DHL, and probably all others around the world.
ReplyDeleteMy first high-school job was as a warehouse/shipping guy for mountaineering outdoor supplies (winter climbing gear, skiis, boots, ice-axes, crampons, etc as well as delicate fly rods, lightweight cooking gear, and so on). I found many sharp things benefit from pointy parts wrapped in loosely twisted ropes of newspaper, and nearly everything benefits from being surrounded by folded/bent scraps of extra box cardboard, and taped together internally prior to the outside box sealing.
Yep, anything sharp and moving around loosely will penetrate the box.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly is awhile ago? Been to a UPS facility lately? Lots of things have changed.
ReplyDeleteWe used to ship overnight to california, then ground back to our plant on the east coast to test for vibration/shock handling of electronic equipment. It would weed out problems that conventional testing would not catch.
ReplyDeleteIf you're shipping something crushable, buy a cheap cooler, and pack your stuff inside of it, then pack the cooler into the box.
ReplyDelete"What exactly is awhile ago? Been to a UPS facility lately? Lots of things have changed."
ReplyDeleteNot in a few weeks.
Not in a few weeks? Don't be snarky.....tell us when. Just going on what YOU wrote in this blog. Which facility?
DeleteInteresting, as I've never lost a package from UPS and never received a damaged one. And I've done a lot of shipping. I have however lost packages in the USPS system.
ReplyDeleteDitto.
DeleteYour recommendations are spot-on. I would add one more: try to use a box that is as close to a cube as possible, even if it requires more packing material.
ReplyDeleteI use UPS at work and they do a great job. Only rarely in my experience does a package get destroyed. It is indeed the sender's responsibility to ensure that the box is properly packed. Like the old real estate saying, "location, location, location" in this case it's "packaging, packaging, packaging". If you shake the box and stuff is moving around, you need more cushioning material.
ReplyDeleteAfter my mom died, my dad asked me to ship an antique oil lamp to her sister in California. I first disassembled the lamp. There were two or three glass pieces and the rest were metal. I wrapped each glass piece in newspaper, then put them in separate boxes with styrofoam. The boxes were large enough for plenty of styrofoam. I wrapped each metal piece in newspaper and put them together in another box.
Then I packed each of those boxes in a really big box with still more styrofoam. It arrived in perfect condition. That sucker would have survived being drop-kicked out of the cargo plane.
Though the facts in this story are true, the author presents them entirely out of context. Yes boxes are chewed up and their contents damaged or destroyed. Glass gets broken, packages punctured, liquids spilled--but only a tiny percentage of total packages suffer those fates. The vast, VAST majority of packages--including the ones poorly prepared by the senders-get to their destinations safely and in a timely manner. The story makes it seem as though it's a 50-50 proposition. However,( full disclosure--I don't work for UPS, but I do work for a competitor) the comment about Amazon and their miserly use of tape is spot on.
ReplyDelete"The story makes it seem as though it's a 50-50 proposition."
ReplyDeletePardon me for not stating the completely obvious. Were that the case, UPS would be out of business. OBVIOUSLY, the vast majority of thing arrive OK.
I work for FedEx, and much as I appreciate you kicking UPS in the teeth without the barest minimum of equal time, some of these problems apply to us, too.
ReplyDeleteDamaged boxes affect our bottom line, so we really do attempt to make it so all of the boxes survive the sorting process. That said, my and my coworkers' primary job is getting all of the packages from the big tractor-trailer trucks to the smaller van-trucks you know and love as quickly as possible, and the fastest way to do that is by letting almost all of them flow into the same river. Only the ones that are truly unfit to go onto conveyor belts don't: any HAZMAT packages, totally odd-shaped or heavy ones, or ones so big they might cause a blockage that would result in a logjam and a lot of smashed boxes (as one easy example, any TV larger than 32" does not go on the belt). But also small packages, especially envelopes, would never go on the belt because they could too easily slide unnoticed in between belts.
I would add to your list a couple more things:
1. If you're conversation-minded, it's okay to reuse a box that might once have held a package delivered to you. But if it looks like that's already happened, just get a new box, especially if you're packing something heavy. And "heavy" is relative: you wouldn't believe how many times I've had to seal shut a worn, overused box that had one hardcover book in it.
2. I don't care if the box lid has some kind of tongue-in-groove or interlocking system: tape it shut.
3. If you're sending one box that has a bunch of tiny things in it, consider placing all of them within a bag or another box. One tiny hole could let out a bunch of your novelty condoms or whatever, and even if it eventually gets seen and taped shut, you may not get all of them back.
I obviously meant "conservation-minded" in my example #1. PIMF.
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't intended to bash UPS. The UPS volume that does arrive intact speaks for itself and has established the largely positive company reputation.
ReplyDeleteAny description such as this necessarily focuses on the minority of fringe/edge cases where the system fails. There is room for improvement at UPS that could minimize destroyed packages even further, but it would require capital investment to modify machinery. It may simply be that cost is more than taking a small number of acceptable loses.
Individual envelopes do wind up on the UPS delivery center belts, along with totes full of envelopes. The lead/tail ramps that segue onto the belt are designed such that small flat things don't normally get sucked under edges. The system does actually contain intact items fairly well.
ReplyDelete