I was curious as to whether you all preferred FedEx or UPS when shipping entries?? I’ve been homebrewing for ~6 years now and have been into competition brewing for the past 2 years successfully.
I pack the shit out of my entries and think that I do a pretty decent job at padding them…however, I’ve always gone through FedEx and they have just now recently been breaking bottles and causing me headaches when shipping entries to competitions.
I wanted to know what your experiences were with either shipping company? Maybe any particular tips that really helped decrease your breakage percentage other than “padding each bottle well”…maybe like a particular marking on the box, etc. (I typically just put “This side up” with large arrows pointing to the top on each side).
I would never expect “this side up” to be honored. I pack so it doesn’t matter. Each bottle is individually bubble wrapped, not touching each other, and filled with enough packing material so that they can’t move.
I use UPS and print my own label and have them pick up at work. So far so good: no breakages, returned packages, or questions.
At work, we had a terrible problem shipping product that would leak if left on it’s side or upside down. No matter how many arrows or labels we used, the product would arrive leaking.
We solved it - pretty much with human nature. We put the products into buckets. No UPS or FedEx driver will load a five gallon bucket on it’s side - they just don’t want the delay they’d get if there was that kind of leak.
Pretty much overkill I think, for a bottle going to a competition though.
BrewArk - that is actually a pretty solid idea! Nice! But yeah, not sure how practical it is for sending homebrew entries to comps though.
And yeah, I like how I’m seeing only positive things for UPS so far…I had a friend say they never had a broken bottle once they switched to UPS but part of me thought they wouldn’t treat it any different than FedEx. Maybe they do…
I’ve never had any bottles get broken, but I recently switched over to these shipping boxes and really like them (though I’ve only sent two of them out so far).
They don’t require any additional padding, are fully recyclable, and are easy and fast to pack.
I haven’t shipped any yeast samples via either service but I have also never seen a video on the internet of a UPS driver throwing a flat screen TV over a 6’ fence and calling it delivered.
I’ve told my shipping horror stories from my personal computer manufacturing days so I won’t bore everyone. Suffice it to say they both have problems now and then and neither one is ever happy to pay an insurance claim (a direct quote “Your packing must be able to survive one, or more, of our trucks driving over it”).
narcout - those are very interesting…thanks for the share! I like the price. Do you then put these boxes into a larger box so that the beer is kept upright instead of being handled on its side and all around??
Slowbrew - Ha yeah…right. Yeast samples of course!
I’ve only used FedEx because it’s close to my office and it’s usually more reliable. I’ve had UPS tell me they had to attempt delivery for packages three times before I could change anything. I don’t like UPS and with FedEx I typically get text updates when something is left at my door. I like their website also. It’s just a personal preference and I honestly wish people would use FedEx more but I assumes it’s because it costs a few bucks more.
I’ve only ever used Fedex, out of convenience. Out of about ten shipments over the last year and a half, they have broken two but I blame my packaging, not their handling. I read somewhere to preprint labels to avoid the conversation they want to have over packages marked fragile and I think that has helped. Every package where I’ve preprinted the labels, they treat it more like a drop off and don’t seem to care about contents and reasons for the fragile label.
I agree with pete b: pack it so doesn’t matter.
I’ve shipped for bottle shares not competitions. Since I am sending out bombers to friends, I invested a bit in a 6 pack of U-Line wine bottle shippers. I add a little bit of brown paper or bubble wrap to fill the extra space. None of my shipments using these shippers has been a problem–both packages that ended with broken bottles were hand packed with other materials.
I have also had success re-using the packing material my Noble Brewer subscription comes in. I have had one breakage re-using those shippers, which hold four bombers very neatly. In that case, the packaging was damaged on receipt, even though the bottles were intact. I tried to shore it up with packing tape and bubble wrap, a mistake I won’t repeat.
I am not sure I’d recommend the U-Line shippers for competitions, though, due to the added expense. When doing bottle shares, I ask my friends to send them back, even empty, since they stand up very well to re-use.
I am a UPS guy. Years ago, I had a bottle break in a FedEx shipment. They brought the dripping box to my office, and told me I was blackballed from ever shipping with them again. :o
I actually go to a private shipping store to ship UPS, as I do not like dealing with UPS directly.
