Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bicycling.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 278 posts

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

#191

Post by c3534l »

reaperducer wrote: post #91
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…

the drivers are basically incentivized to break the law When a delivery company has a line item in its budget to cover parking tickets as a cost of doing business, it's already decided at the corporate level to disregard the law in favor of making a profit.

Every company is required by GAAP to estimate and accrue legal liability they encounter in the course of doing business. You've managed to turn actually following the law into a conspiracy to violate it.

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

#192

Post by paradoja »

mc32 wrote: post #125

It makes sense for them to do this, from a selfish perspective, but this is an iconic example of why we can’t have good things. If more shippers do this, handlers will just ignore the caution signs.

Handlers are already ignoring the caution signs, though, just not for (at least) one product, TVs.

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

#193

Post by ElKrist »

cortesoft wrote: post #148
chrsstrm wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked on multiple shipping and loading docks. If you haven't had this type of work experience it would be difficult to understand that the entire line is one big connected system. If just one person stalls their part of the process, the other pieces both upstream and downstream are affected. And believe me, everyone on the line instantly knows who is falling behind and you'll begin to feel the eyes on you immed…

That all makes sense, but it doesn't explain why shipping workers would be EXTRA careless with items marked fragile. I would expect equal carelessness with all packages.

I believe it does: "Retaliatory action isn't seen as an inconvenience against the customer, it's a middle finger to corporate. You treat us like shit and we're going to make you feel it too, proxied through customer complaints about broken or missing items"

As a customer, if my box arrives smashed I am angry. If my box arrives smashed with a "Fragile" sign printed on it, I feel insulted. I guess in the second case the complaint is going to be worse and the reputation of the shipping company damaged even more ("They can't even deliver a 'fragile' parcel properly")

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

#194

Post by xbmcuser »

chrisseaton wrote: post #109
eridius wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cute, but wrong. Even the most law-abiding delivery company is going to end up with some parking tickets, so it makes sense to budget for them. You may as well decry the budgeting for legal as saying the company wants to break the law.

> 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.

You should watch a few episodes of caught in providence on youtube. Shows how traffic tickets can be given out wrongly or some laws are simply too hard to follow.

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

#195

Post by ce4 »

jdietrich wrote: post #185
ce4 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just the other day a videotaped balcony delivery by a german Hermes driver went viral (he climbs the van throwing it from the street onto the 2nd floor balcony, successful on 3rd attempt). This has sparked the same discussions and Hermes now faces some really bad PR and is searching for the culprit. https://youtu.be/r4adBQf7R0Q

If this had been filmed in Britain, I guarantee you that the person filming it would have given a sarcastic cheer when the parcel finally landed on the balcony. We're a strange little island.

If you listen closely, there's female commentary in the video - albeit german.

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

#197

Post by mratzloff »

mcv wrote: post #51
justinhensley wrote: post #31

I've always been curious about the shipping process. I have met or know 7 people who work/worked at the shipping hub in my city. I always ask them how the packages are handled. Every one of them said that they (and all of their coworkers) handle all packages on a scale ranging from rough to purposefully damaging. One guy told me how he targets boxes marked Fragile for extra abuse when he's exhausted/angry/having a ba…

That fits my limited experience in that industry. A TV on the box certainly doesn't protect it against abuse. When I was a teenager (around 1990 I think) I had a very short (surprisingly well-paying for a teenager) summer job unloading trucks at a warehouse. The first truck contained Atari monitors. One guy showed how it's done: remove the bottom box, and the rest comes tumbling after. Stack them on a pallet, race th…

Well, he sounds like a sociopath.

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

#198

Post by inferiorhuman »

masonic wrote: post #188
inferiorhuman wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engines are typically bought from the engine manufacturer. The bigger ones cost tens of millions of dollars each.

I was referring to the quoted price and asking whether that price point includes engines and/or avionics.

Given that the airplane manufacturers typically aren't the ones selling the engines (or the required maintenance) the list price is for the airframe itself. I believe Chrichton touches on this in his book, Airframe.

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

#199

Post by Sir_Substance »

undersuit wrote: post #150
leeoniya wrote: post #28

high quality, expensive bikes are usually designed to withstand a good amount of physical abuse and dynamic loads under a 90kg rider. i wonder what kind of damage they sustained. bent spokes? brake/shift levers?

My last bike came damaged. The box with the steel frame suffered a minor hit I didn't even notice it until after my shop reported the damage. Bent the right rear dropout less than two millimeters, dropouts are where the wheel axle connects to the frame. This prevented the rear tire from inserting and had bent the location of the rear derailleur mount. Repairing wouldn't necessarily be safe and would definitely invali…

This kind of thing weirds me out to be honest. I've had this kind of conversation with serious cyclists before where I've been told that it's impossible for cyclists to ride on the footpath in places because the uneven cement slabs would damage {some part of the bike I don't remember or care}. You're here telling me that a 2mm twist in part of the frame is a serious problem for attaching the rear wheel, and that it would be "unsafe" to have a skilled technician fix it (presumably by just twisting it back?).

What kind of piss-poor engineering is going into high end bikes? $400 bikes don't have this problem. I've legit thrown (albeit cautiously to make sure it doesn't bounce) my bike over a 1m drop on it's side several times and it's fine other than the kickstand being a little bent.

I'd never spend $1500+ on a bike that can't handle a 2mm deviation in the rear fork. Over the lifespan of the bike it's /definitely/ gonna have some part of it deviated by 2mm through normal wear and tear, so if that's gonna break it beyond safe repair then that's a pretty useless bike. Am I the crazy one here?

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

#200

Post by will_pseudonym »

masonic wrote: post #144
chrischen wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it be a great way to make some money? If you know they target fragile boxes, and you get insurance on it under $1,000, you're guaranteed a payout! As a bonus, right some politically charged messages on it or troll-y statements.

That idea was a story arc in a "Seinfeld" episode (for USPS).

For more detail, it's "The Package" episode, Season 8, Episode 5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Package_(Seinfeld)

It's also the episode with the "boudoir" photographs of George taken by Kramer, for the benefit of the photo development clerk, who he thinks slipped in a suggestive photo of herself in the photos she gave him of his last roll of film. You may have seen the images of George posing before even if you're not a Seinfeld fan. It's a pretty memetic set of images. People have done oil paintings of them, lol. Here's a screenshot example (mildly NSFW, male in only boxer shorts): http://www.inpapasbasement.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Ge...

Post reply on HN