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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

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More shock stickers on all products please!

Thought experiment: for sufficiently fragile & expensive products, attach a small black-box style "smart tag" equipped with a accelerometers. It's reset when yielded to the shippers, and read when the shipment is delivered. If the recorded accelerations are out of bounds (e.g. beyond the shipper's SLAs, beyond packaging standards, etc.), then there's ready evidence of shipper abuse.

I've been kicking around the implications of falling costs for electronics, and improvements in battery design.

SOC (system on chip) computers are now in roughly the $5 range, less in cases. Costs fall by roughly an order of magnitude a decade (Moore's Law, generalised). So we're looking at a world of $5 heading to $0.50 complete system indicators, with a battery life (think an Amazon Kindle) which can easily extend weeks, possibly months. In fact the battery is probably the most expensive part of this.

Simple systems could be even simpler.

You can create a datalogger which notes every single acceleration noted by a package from the time it leaves the factory, down the the second. Wireless capability means it can log in and report periodically en route, whenever it finds itself within WiFi range.

For sufficiently expensive goods (anything over about $100 in price), this becomes a part of the shipping package. Even if you're not getting 100% reporting at endpoint, the data trail itself is going to be sufficient to point out where and when within the delivery chain problems occur.

Shippers (that is, the originator of the goods) and their insurance carriers will likely collectively have sufficient leverage to open carriers (the shipping companies -- FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) to identify where within their own process the damage occurred. Hotspots -- locations or transport segments with high-damage incidence -- will be pretty much immediately obvious. Even just a few hundred tracers would provide that information.

We're headed to a world of highly inexpensive devices and if not ubiquitous, highly probably WiFi access at multiple endpoints. Self-logging of this sort seems exceptionally probably.

Adding general 4GL WiFi access and even just a few minutes of data transfer capability should be possible for little more, and would allow systems to phone home directly.

It would surprise me if much of this doesn't already exist.

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

#143
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thought experiment: for sufficiently fragile & expensive products, attach a small black-box style "smart tag" equipped with a accelerometers. It's reset when yielded to the shippers, and read when the shipment is delivered. If the recorded accelerations are out of bounds (e.g. beyond the shipper's SLAs, beyond packaging standards, etc.), then there's ready evidence of shipper abuse.

Simple and cheap versions of this exist: https://www.uline.com/Grp_332/Damage-Indicators [edit] Uh, maybe not so cheap from this particular company. You probably could do this for less with a little electronic device.

One of the items I saw costs $146 for 50 units.

But the best was reading that they are delivered by truck (to avoid airplanes shocks?)

And would be funny too receive a box and find that all your 50 units were activated due to their delivery:-)

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

#144
post #11

Printing wolf on the box would see them some careful handling too, for a while...

Or a bobcat. Or just put one in the box. Is the success rate of printing the decoy box that much better for the relative cost compared to just putting shock stickers on the box, though? Probably. But one is an accidental effect with no guarantee that it will work, versus a tool that is designed for this specific purpose.

https://www.xkcd.com/325/

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

#145
post #103
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.

The wage for a UPS driver is somewhere around $11 an hour, with seasonal temporary help making less. Most of them are part time drivers, so they have to work a second job to make ends meet. Surprisingly, if you pay people crap and force them to look for new employment while working for you due to low wages, no hours, and poor advancement opportunities, you tend to get bad service. And if you rely on seasonal temps yo…

Isn't it also the incorporation of metrics into the delivery drivers schedules? As in, those trucks have been heavily wired with remote telemetry for everything, all of which goes to the local regional managers.

Who get told "we need an X% increase in productivity" - so they look at their metrics and come up with some idiot conclusion like "drivers just need to spend on average X seconds less per delivery...so I'm going to start measuring people by how long they're stopped making a delivery and have reviews when they are stopped too long".

Meanwhile, the delivery driver who has a route full of apartment buildings without easy truck access gets screwed.

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

#146
post #90
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.

People care as much as they're paid and treated well to care.

They also care as much as they think their ideas and creativity are actually being respected/rewarded.

Doesn't matter how much you pay someone if you make it clear at every point that you don't care what they think about trying to improve the job they do, then they'll adjust their enthusiasm accordingly. Or if trying to be better is used as a form of punishment i.e. "that's a good idea Barry, you can be in charge of implementing it without any change in pay or responsibilities!"

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

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The law does not declare misdelivered merchandise to be a "free gift" like unordered merchandise. In fact, the code states: "Whoever, without authority, opens, or destroys any mail or package of newspapers not directed to him, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both." 18 USC 1703

So you don't have to return it, but you can't open it?

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

#148
post #5

Wonderful (part) solution. I love things like this that tap into the mind so subtly.

My favourite is how it's easier to sell a couch for $20 than it is to give away. Proven three times in undergrad.

Maybe the thought process is "well, if it's free, it must be so bad he doesn't even want $5 for it, so I'll pass". Could be wrong though.

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

#149
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck trying to automate a system where the vehicle has to unload a package of anywhere from envelope size to a 90" TV. It has to bring this across a driveway of varying shape or size, or even no drive way at all, bringing it inside an apartment complex or condo. It has to realize the correct address or room, collect a signature, or realize that no human being is present to sign for it. Then it returns the item t…

I think it likely that if we see a significant amount of automation in delivery, the last mile will eventually see it too. Right now, my neighborhood has grouped mailboxes[1], and anything more than a semi-flat package will not fix. Small boxes that don't fit are delivered to the shared larger compartment, which is locked, and the key is then left in your mailbox. When you use the key, it does not come out of the sha…

Are there really enough individuals (not businesses) that want to-the-door delivery that it's even worthwhile?

My shipping experience is a constant fight to get them to hold the package for pickup because I'm not going to be home during their delivery hours (~9-5 Mon-Fri) and I don't want to wait four or five business days for them to make several delivery attempts before I go pick it up.

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

#150

I wonder if the number of stolen boxes (either while in shipment or when left on porches) went up?

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

That's the only way they do it at my place, UPS and FedEx. I've had an electric Yamaha piano and other instruments left leaning on my apartment door, in full view of the parking lot and the high school on the other side of the fence.

Anymore, if I get to choose then I choose FedEx, because it's very easy to have the delivery re-routed to a FedEx/Kinkos store, and pick it up there. UPS re-routing has been impossible for me.

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