I've resisted jumping into these conversations about shipping, but since I
own an independent "pack & ship" store, have three AMPC certifications in
packing and shipping in the small parcel environment and I'm a ham, I
thought it was time for a comment or two.

Here are a few facts that should influence how you think about packaging:

1) A corrugated cardboard box loses 60% of its strength after one shipment.
For that reason, I almost never ship in a used box, unless the contents are
something like used clothing where strength is less important.

2) The original packaging - especially the styrofoam - is generally
optimized for the particular item. It's good to reuse, but special
attention must be given to the box. Many items are shipped on pallets. The
corrugated boxes used to do so are much less strong that those used for the
small parcel (FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS) environment. In these cases, I will
used the optimized styrofoam, but will double-box.

3) Not all packaging materials are created equal. In general, air
cushioning works well (bubble wrap, pillow pads), but other times foam is
better. Polystyrene is different than styrofoam. The primary factors are
flex (the ability to absorb impact) and resilience (the ability to return to
shape after impact). Foam-in-place is used in some applications, but it has
poor resilience. For this reason, I don't use it in my store.

4) The small parcel environment is largely automated these days. Items are
barcoded early on in their travels. These barcodes are used to determine
the routing of the parcel. Parcels are generally routed to a sorting center
where they are dumped into a chute and on to conveyor belts. Sorting
equipment scans the barcodes and decides which is the next belt is should be
shifted to . Shifting from one belt to another is accomplished by means of
a steel plate that "shoves" (and not so gently) the parcel to its next belt.

5) For items of average fragility, the accepted standard is that the item
should have at least 2 inches of padding on all sides. The padding used
must take into account the weight of the item and the cushioning curve of
the packaging materials (a little too much to delve into here).
For a ham radio, I would package it by double boxing it. At least 3 inches
of padding on the inside box and at least 2 inches between boxes.

6) As a rule of thumb, I package every item so that it can survive a drop
from 4 feet onto a hard floor.

7) Some items are simply not acceptable for the small parcel environment
because of their size, weight and/or fragility. These items are more
suitable for crating and shipping via truck or a blanket-wrap service.


As far as carriers, I'll share my experience. The store I own is
independent, so I use all carriers. I have no particular axe to grind.
These are my own opinions derived from my own experience:

UPS: Good reliability, but a well-earned reputation for finding any reason
not to pay damage claims. Lower cost to Canada. More expensive for most
ground shipments. Union (teamster) employees.

FedEx Express: Like the old commercial "When it absolutely positively has to
be there overnight...", there's nobody better. If it's mission-critical, I
send it FedEx Express. Expensive, but worth it. Employees, but (I believe)
non-union.

FedEx Ground (formerly RPS): An unmitigated disaster. Almost every time
I've used FedEx Ground, it has been a problem resulting in a refund to an
unhappy customer. FedEx Ground does use independent contractors who buy
both the route and the vehicles and operate as 1099 independents. About a
third of independents responding to an informal survey agreed. The other
two thirds had different experiences. Some were much better. In my
opinion, FedEx Ground is doing untold damage to the FedEx brand name.

DHL (includes the former Airborne): An excellent competitor with a good
delivery history. Actually bigger than FedEx and UPS combined, though much
of their size comes from EU operations. Internationally there's nobody who
can touch them. They're both faster and less expensive than FedEx Express
to almost every international destination. They use some independent
contractors but are moving away from that position. Other employees are
teamsters. For most parcels, DHL is the least expensive alternative.

I hope that adds something useful to the conversation.

Charlie, KS1C