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Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

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Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#71

Post by at-fates-hands »

userbinator wrote: post #63

I wonder what sort of damage these bikes are receiving, because they're designed to be ridden by a person... a TV is definitely far more fragile.

Honestly I'm not sure. I worked at a bike shop and we would box and ship a bike for $50. I sold and shipped probably 4 bikes when I worked there and they all were received without so much as a scratch.

I'd lay this one on the bike company. I'm guessing they didn't have big enough boxes for cardboard to sit between the bike and the outer box, or didn't add enough padding around the tubes or some combination of both.

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#72

Post by maxerickson »

logicallee wrote: post #51

True, but they could reduce damage even more by putting a picture of a stained glass window and giant letters "HIGHLY FRAGILE DELICATE STAINED GLASS WINDOW! HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE!!" on it. That would certainly reduce damages further. The problem is that it isn't one (a TV). Why would someone feel mortified if they accidentally drop a packaged bicycle from 2-3 feet (typical carrying height) when a fully assembled b…

With the smallest bit of planning you can just never drop any box.

I honestly wouldn't expect a packaged bicycle to survive a 3 foot drop; the air in the tires does a lot of the work when you are riding it, in the package you might accidentally drop much of the load on a sensitive point or whatever.

I get that you are arguing they should package the bike to your expectations so that it shouldn't matter if you drop the package 3 feet onto the most sensitive point, but I wonder why you expect them to accurately read your mind instead of skimping on packing material.

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#73

Post by Retr0spectrum »

WalterBright wrote: post #13

Unfortunately, the boy who cried wolf will apply if this is more widely adopted, and then pity the poor folks who order TVs.

I'm going to guess TVs are significantly more common than bicycles, so at worst its efectiveness will be "diluted".

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#74

Post by thaumasiotes »

civilian wrote: post #46
markdown wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do you disseminate that the information that "look guys, bicycles are fragile too" to ten of thousands of logistics workers? A 3 paragraph email.

Sarcasm? Reading comprehension for emails is so bad. And these are blue collar workers that you're targeting. If anything I'd have it be an item in a weekly team meeting, but don't you think these workers are _always_ hearing the same thing? "Hey guys, HQ said we need to break less stuff. I know we're only at 0.2% breakage but corporate says we can do better." They probably don't really give a shit, or are already do…

If they were already doing their best, a picture on the side of the box wouldn't improve their performance.

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#75

Post by HCIdivision17 »

aluhut wrote: post #68

It seems like people who are responsible don't care anymore. Maybe it's the wages, the pressure or whatever. It looks like it's about time to replace even more humans from the equation.

I strongly contend that there very likely has not been a decline in the give-a-damn factor. My experience is that it really hasn't ever been too high. Just look at cartoons 50 years ago, and packages getting wrecked en route is a staple joke; the jokes were rarely obscure, but often topical. There is always a few great operators, but mostly you just fix you processes so people default to failure less. Hence hacks like the TV stamp.

But the answer is (as always) more automation. Mind, this can lead to really neat edge cases where you accidentally build a package smashing factory. But in general repeatability (machine) beats out diligence (people) every time.

You just have to, you know, pay for it. The cost benefit analysis probably strongly favors the marked box in this case.

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#76

Post by gruez »

lowleveldrone wrote: post #30
jrockway wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will any delivery company actually just leave a TV on your porch?

It happened to me. A TV intended for someone else ended up at my front door, and I had to chase the delivery guy down. Not even the correct street. It was shipped from Walmart, no signature required.

hypothetically, what would happen if you kept the TV, leaving it unopened for a month or so (so you can be sure nobody wants it anymore), then used it yourself?

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#77

Post by late2part »

lowleveldrone wrote: post #30
jrockway wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will any delivery company actually just leave a TV on your porch?

It happened to me. A TV intended for someone else ended up at my front door, and I had to chase the delivery guy down. Not even the correct street. It was shipped from Walmart, no signature required.

You did the right thing morally. Legally you had no such obligation. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchan...

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#78

Post by slyall »

jrockway wrote: post #40
muthdra wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BREAKING: Television manufacturers receive threats from printing companies.

Why?

The joke the previous poster was making is that the boxes were printed "by" bicycles instead of being printed by printers. Hence the printer companies would be unhappy.

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#79

Post by sctb »

Someone wrote: post #36
TorKlingberg wrote: post #10

Blogspam. Original: https://medium.com/vanmoof/our-secrets-out-f21c1f03fdc8

I saw that, but decided to go for the secondary source because they hugely improved the title. "Our secret’s out" is way less informative and, IMO, too much attention-seeking. Yes, I could have tried to mix the new title with the original post, but I feared that would get changed back. Also, in a sense, https://twitter.com/jasongay/status/772556605548326912 is the original, but that's "[citation needed]"

OK, we've updated the URL from http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/bike-manufac... but kept the title.

Re: Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on box

#80

Post by Symbiote »

civilian wrote: post #21
douche wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shippers huck stuff around with little regard for the contents, particularly if they aren't blazoned all over with fragile/biohazard stickers. Fedex and UPS tend to be just about one-half step above the folks handling baggage at the airport, and how many times have you seen those people wing around suit-cases like they were throwing the hammer in the Olympics, and seeing just how far back they can toss from and still…

A solid example, with biting British commentary to boot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbNq2xdvU_g

I'm reasonably sure that's a New Zealand accent.

(I'm British, so I know it's not British.)

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