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It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

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Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#121

Post by xwdv »

jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

A flight isn’t the only way either. Around here, a team of two brothers with a van will charge several thousand to transport parts at a moments notice to anywhere in the US, Canada or some of Mexico. They drive non-stop, one drives while the other sleeps.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#122

Post by jedberg »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #120
jedberg wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2000, our SF based company had a server in a datacenter in the UK die. The quickest and cheapest way to fix it was to have our IT guy take a replacement server in a suitcase and fly to the UK to replace it.

The UK die?

The server in the UK died.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#123

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

readingnews wrote: post #110
jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

>> And each day of non-operation cost hundreds of thousands of dollars... My close relative worked off shore for decades. Sometimes a down large production platform is a MILLION dollars an hour. Flying someone anywhere with a $250,000 part in their hands is nothing. There are entire industries built around "getting things to the rig/platform" faster.

I'm surprised that I haven't heard of small jets (fighters/jet trainers) being used for commercial courier services (although there are instances of military jets transporting organs for transplant, https://apnews.com/article/c1309c58720c78347c1ebbbade56d35d).

They can be privately owned and operated, are very fast, and tend to have hundreds of kilos of payload capacity.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#124

Post by wcunning »

deepspace wrote: post #51

Since I discovered the availability of anvils on Amazon, I have always wondered about the economics of shipping them. Right now, I can order a 66lb "Happybuy" anvil for $153 with free prime shipping. One assumes that the $153 includes the cost of shipping it all the way from China in the first place. For comparison, a similarly sized anvil from a reputable local dealer costs $949 plus tax and shipping at the lowest r…

Two things: 1) that "anvil" is cast iron or potentially at that size, semi hollow steel. It's not great for doing anvil things and will likely break, whereas the "reputable" one is cast steel or wrought iron, both of which are much much much tougher for beating on. 2) The more interesting thing here is the market for kettlebells and other heavy weights -- they can go up to hundreds of pounds, though typically top out around 100 lbs. Kettlebells that prime ship are all cheaper than any reputable manufacturer since they use their own logistics. I've unfortunately graduated to sizes that the main suppliers don't list on Amazon (40kg+) which have to be paid for UPS shipping and a non-trivial portion of the cost is the packaging to prevent damage to something that heavy. At this point, when I need to buy a new round of them, I'll be driving to the manufacturer in Ontario (including expensive Canadian gas and bridge fees) because that's cheaper than shipping more than one...

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#125

Post by giantg2 »

Ancapistani wrote: post #104
giantg2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a part off an aircraft (nobody seems to know what part or what aircraft). I imagine it's partially tungsten since it's not much bigger than a 4x4 cube and has to weigh close to 50lbs.

I’d love to see some pictures of you have them handy. Tracking down obscure stuff like this is soothing :)

I'll have to get some pictures next time I'm at my parents'.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#126

Post by giantg2 »

quercusa wrote: post #111
giantg2 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend worked at UPS. He said you could always tell when someone had bullets shipped because of the rattle and heavy weight. He said those were probably the most common heavy shipment they saw.

The big ORM-D* sticker was a pretty good clue as well. *'Other Regulated Materials - Domestic'

Finished cartridges aren't nearly as dense as actual bullets. Those don't require ORM-D sticker.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#127

Post by toufka »

Spooky23 wrote: post #117
jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

One time someone in our family needed drugs delivered on a very time sensitive basis. The specialty pharmacy fucked around and found out. I social engineered my way up the chain of command, interrupting the medical director’s dinner. They ended up hiring a courier to fly it halfway across the country. A dude showed up the doorstep at 4AM (four hours before it was needed) with a box packed with dry ice. The poor couri…

There are opposite versions of that story where the drug is a specialized 1-off custom living biological product (often a patient's own engineered immune cells). An entire company's years of effort and existence are tightly coupled to a patient's survival, and sometimes they're hundreds of miles apart.

Those plane tickets, with coolers of ice in hand, are crazy to me.

And yeah, there are those cases where batch 1 was sent 'on time' with Courier 1 who didn't realize what they had, and let it thaw. And so backup batch 2 was sent 'super-express' with Courier 2 with minutes notice.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#128

Post by Nicholas_C »

jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

Smaller scale but it’s not uncommon for investment banks to fly junior analysts to deliver pitch books for a meeting.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#129

Post by labcomputer »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #120
jedberg wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in 2000, our SF based company had a server in a datacenter in the UK die. The quickest and cheapest way to fix it was to have our IT guy take a replacement server in a suitcase and fly to the UK to replace it.

The UK die?

It’s a tool used for stamping out new UKs.

Re: It is physically impossible to exceed the weight limit for a Small Flat Rate Box

#130

Post by hsnewman »

jmyeet wrote: post #78

What many may not realize is that there's a thriving industry in sending passengers on planes for the sole purpose of them taking things from A to B. Years ago, you could get discounted flights to Europe where you couldn't check in any luggage. Why? That allowance was taken up by documents for various clients. This was usually quicker than any courier services at the time. I've had friends who worked in the oil and g…

When I was in college I worked for Texas instruments, I had a summer job flying from Houston to Dallas, Plano,and other sites doing just that.
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