When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#221

Post by btrettel » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:35 PM UTC

joejerryronnie wrote: post #217

btrettel wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not surprise me much. I think it comes down to incentives. The package handlers only have a certain amount of time per package. There are few if any consequences for being rough, and it saves time, so of course the package handlers end up being rough. This isn't the only time you see this sort of selfish behavior from delivery companies. As a cyclist I commonly encounter delivery trucks parked in the bike l…

I guarantee more cyclists break the law than delivery drivers. Would you suggest I immediately pull my truck in front of every cyclist I see blow through a stop sign?

No. Brake checking people is dangerous and illegal. What I did is neither.

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#222

Post by gambiting » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

toweringgoat wrote: post #218

gambiting wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can put any value on the parcel and it won't matter in the slightest. You can declare the value to be $1M and it has no bearing on the final customs charge paid. Chinese shops have been sending everything declared as "gift" with $1 value and customs officials don't give a shit - the parcel is opened and the official makes an assessment on the worth of the item - if it roughly matches what the shipping document sa…

You are completely wrong. Customs officials in most countries do not open packages, they use the customs sticker declared value. (Source: I actually receive international packages regularly. I've had one opened package.) The courier/post office will generally validate that that sticker matches the value you told them for insurance purposes either way.

Well, clearly your custom officials are different than mine then. I've received thousands of international parcels(mostly from asia) and yes, parcels are definitely opened(I know this because many times I had to personally drive to the nearest customs office and they would bring out the stuff they took out of my parcels for inspection).

Of course you can choose to not believe me, but I was explicitly told that the "value" field is completely ignored especially on any post from China, because 99% of the time it's just nonsense and pretty much everything arrives as a "gift"(I once had a brand new Asus laptop worth about $800 that was declared with value of $15, contents: "electronic cables" and "gift" - the customs officers wanted to see receipts of all payments I made for it before releasing it).

>>The courier/post office will generally validate that that sticker matches the value you told them for insurance purposes either way.

Now this seems completely bogus. I've also sent thousands of packages and no one has ever "validated" if what I am sending is actually worth as much as I put on the declaration. As long as it wasn't illegal to send it in the post no one cared.

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#223

Post by btrettel » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:42 PM UTC

danilocesar wrote: post #206

btrettel wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not surprise me much. I think it comes down to incentives. The package handlers only have a certain amount of time per package. There are few if any consequences for being rough, and it saves time, so of course the package handlers end up being rough. This isn't the only time you see this sort of selfish behavior from delivery companies. As a cyclist I commonly encounter delivery trucks parked in the bike l…

Honestly, I think the truck drivers are also a victim of this system. They have to deliver what's handled to them in a tight schedule. Often breaking some rules and sometimes being rude on trafic is the way they found to meet the requirements and don't get punished. I'm shure they could avoid doing a lot of those things, but blaming and punishing the truck driver is not fair.

I recognize this and am sympathetic. Ultimately changes need to come from management.

But parking in the bike lane is not necessary a large fraction of the time. I always point out a convenient alternative parking spot when talking to drivers parked in the bike lane. It's not uncommon that the alternative spot is really no worse than the bike lane for the delivery driver. The problem seems to be that many drivers don't consider more than the most obvious parking spot, and that often ends up being the bike lane.

Also, don't underestimate the number of delivery drivers who hate cyclists and intentionally block the bike lane. Having talked to dozens of delivery drivers I can say some of them seem to genuinely hate cyclists.

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#224

Post by jakobegger » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:49 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #213

hyperman1 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember how a few years ago a company paid a speeding ticket for one of the workers, and was promptly fined itself for contempt of court. Judge summoned the manager who approved the expense to court, gave him an earful, and told them in no uncertain terms that if they tried that again, contempt of court fines would go up until they stopped this. The ideas was the whole point of the ticket was to punish the driver,…

How the fuck can you expect people to drive 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and never get a fine?

By being careful? It's their fucking job!

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#225

Post by citizenpaul » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:49 PM UTC

I had a large electrics/computer supplier tell me they would no longer sell my company TV's due to the fact that so many that were shipped in the southeast US arrived damaged and had to be returned. This is one of those think outside the box things that don't scale.

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#226

Post by leeoniya » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:51 PM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #216

gomox wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite hard to damage a dropout with the wheels mounted if not by way of a major crash. But the rear triangle of a bike remains pretty weak in shipping as the rear axle is not in place.

Isn't that something that could be solved by shipping it with a 50c piece of metal between the bars during shipping as a surrogate for the wheel axle? Given the list prices, seems like they could stretch to that, and it'd be more reliable than hoping the delivery man will be more gentle because he thinks it's a TV box.

yeah, with proper supports in the right places, none of these shenanigans/hacks would be needed.

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#227

Post by pofilat » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:53 PM UTC

rightbyte wrote: post #209

closeparen wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a crowded urban neighborhood, there is not going to be anywhere for a delivery vehicle to legally stop. Unless the delivery company refuses to service the area, it’s going to do some double parking. Downtowns address this problem with yellow commercial loading zones but those don’t really exist in residential neighborhoods.

Ye. Service vehicles usually are exempted from the actual parking rules in practice. A sewage utility vehicle wont get ticketed if it has a pipe going down a adjacent drain and has the wheels on the sidewalk etc. Walking from a free parking spot to the delivery location is not included in the price. Unless all delivery companies are forced to follow the parking laws (for real) at the same time they will just go out o…

Surely that sewage pump operator obtained a permit to block the street that day?

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#228

Post by pofilat » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

ascar wrote: post #147

chrisseaton wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the most law-abiding delivery company is going to end up with some parking tickets Why? If you don’t park illegally you don’t get tickets. They aren’t random or accidental.

The GP was talking about a delivery company budgeting for tickets. All the answers to the parent miss the point. The discussion is on a large scale with a significant amount of tickets. If it's a hundred tickets for 1,000 drivers a year, that's a few thousand bucks for a multi-million dollar salary. Doesn't something like that run under miscellaneous and isn't explicitly budgeted for?

If they don't budget it, then is shows that they don't care about parking tickets at all, they just pay whatever. Budgeting it shows they are tracking tickets which is a necessary component of reducing ticket counts.

Rhetoric is fun; it's easy to prove both a proposition and its opposite.

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#229

Post by pofilat » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

jdironman wrote: post #167

ascar wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is the company just pays the ticket. End of story.

The solution should be repeat offenses equals harsher consequences.

You are still blaming the laborer for management's policies re (not) allocating sufficient time for correct work.

Re: When a Bike Company Put a TV on Its Box, Shipping Damages Went Down (2017)

#230

Post by pofilat » Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 5:02 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #63

metaphor wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One guy gleefully told me how he targets boxes marked Fragile for extra abuse! A close friend who owns a UPS franchise warned me of this behavior and advised against placing any indication of fragility on the box. If I recall the threshold correctly, $1,000+ declared-value packages are identified and set aside in a separate group within the store. When a driver comes by to pick up daily packages, the store clerk al…

You pay a premium for that high value declaration which means what you are really paying is a premium to have your package not kicked. This is like the airlines who have unbundled seat size and the right to bring a carry-on.

Sounds rough, but it fair. You can package your item properly to be safe it the world (costs time and money, depending on fragility), or pay for gentle handling. Similar to how you can carry your own umbrella in the rain, or pay someone to carry an umbrella for you.

I don't want to pay an extra $10 for every shipment.