Exactly When Did We Have To Start Packing To Survive Armageddon?

savatage1973

Addicted Member
Needless to say I spent most of the day packing and shipping stuff that got sold on that auction site. I hate to use it, but for the stuff I was unloading, the local market is pretty much non-existent.

Anyways, during the course of this nightmare of wrapping, boxing, wrapping some more, and boxing again, I began to think about the good 'ol days when a solid box and a couple old newspapers used to get stuff to its destination unscathed.

What happened? When did it all change? Why do we have to pack for the inevitable nuclear holocaust just to transport something safely to an adjacent state?
 
When did we pack for severe abuse?? All Along - we pack to be "Bomb Proof" to make sure our gear survives the Samsonite Gorillas

 
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Ya know, we have to pack for Armageddon but suppliers feel very little compunction.
Here are today's deliveries. Note "If seal is broken check contents before accepting"
--but I'm never home when they deliver. Neither box had any packing material within.

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Actually it appears that the sealing tape itself is intact. ETA: The APC box did have some packing material.
 
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Shipping back in the day was a lot more expensive (in real, inflation-adjusted dollars) and less frequent. I am sure some delivery people are careless - but it's also a different industry now, with a lot more contingent and low-paid workers (USPS and UPS are unionized - not trying to start a political argument, but in my experience they also are the most careful with packages - aside from 1 or 2 letters damaged by USPS sorting equipment, I've never had an actual package damaged by either of those companies; and those two companies almost never leave packages outside my house unattended).

Along with the massive increase in volume and time pressure, there's just a lot of stuff shipped all over the place today that was not shipped 30 years ago. There was no eBay or Amazon, and you had pretty much zero average Joes shipping big pieces of audio equipment like they do now. It was almost all done by professional dealers, and occasionally by knowledgeable, very careful hobbyists who packed things very carefully and didn't scrimp on the packing materials. The majority of equipment was shipped long distances only when it was new, and therefore it spent its transit time professionally packed in its original box and custom packing materials, well-secured on a pallet with other similar items, in a professional shipping truck with hydraulic suspension. It would be delivered to a store, and the customer would carefully put it in the back seat and drive it home. After that, it would get handed down or re-sold locally, spending its subsequent "shipping" time on a padded car back seat.

Used equipment a few decades ago simply didn't spend much, if any, time in nonstandard packaging, shoehorned into the back of a local delivery truck with a bunch of other items of varying weight, size, and proportions. And keep in mind that an increasing proportion of our stuff as a society is now getting delivered from Amazon hubs by LaserShip and Amazon Logistics, which use regular cargo vans and sometimes personal passenger vehicles, none of which have hydraulic suspension.
 
Where I live, FedEx is by far the best. It definitely varies though, according to everything I read.

The photos above are both UPS, FWIW. I try not to use USPS for packages. They get mad.

EtA: had to come back and make a small correction--the apc box was a UPS job but the other one was USPS. In case anyone's keeping score.
 
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Trying to remember the last damaged package I received - and I get a LOT of packages ...

And yes, automation is the killer. Processing speed is ludicrous due to the volume generated by the web stores.

PS ... here's a new take on sorting that should take conveyor crunches out of the equation ... progress?

 
Robot Army! I saw someone yesterday pointing out that if we can have robots driving tractor-trailers on our nation's highways then we can certainly have them operating harvestors and combines on our 'factory farms'. Remind me again what we'll need people for? Oh yeah, to buy stuff.

I'll just say two more words after watching that vid: DOUBLE BOX
 
The internet changed to world.
A LOT!

The volume of individual packages increased a LOT.

My info says FedEx is contract delivery drivers.
I have the best service from FedEx.

USPS is union workers with govt foundation.
There are many reasons involved in USPS as to why any worker could not care less.

UPS is founded on fast service. They push hard. Workers are under tight time pressure. I’ve seen some automated or mechanical handling systems of theirs. Their whole system is NOT designed for fragile items.

Consumers prefer instant service.
Speed and volume are the forces at play, quality of service is based on that, not on delivering every package carefully.

I ship hundreds of items annually.
I pack for reasonable handling,
I get very few shipping damage issues.

I see too many people here over concerned about shipping and some of the stuff I got here was over packed and damaged anyway. Either due to silly mistakes or too much stuff packing.

The box and padding are expendable!
Put some cushion on every side, it doesn’t need to be solid or total, just in good places to allow cushion for impact. Like a 6-8 inch drop. Oppsie set down. Dropping off a high stack of pallets is next to impossible to pack for.

Look how original packing was done.
A firm system like styrofoam end blocks that protected the corners and held the piece in the center of the box. The styrofoam would cushion on impact and crush if needed.

There will be wear and tear. There will be bumps and shaking. There will be an accident that you cannot pack for.

I have about 2-3 car garage bays full of packing boxes and padding material, I use the least possible so doing packing smart is key.

Years of Ebay selling and shipping taught me a lot about how much will work. Using materials smart gives me great success.

I can ship a Pioneer SX-1080 in a $3 box from Lowe’s with a free medicine mailing cooler cut with a hot wire to fit on each corner on the bottom and a bit of pad on top with the box sides cut down and folded over to make 4 layers on the top. That’s it!
 
Robot Army! I saw someone yesterday pointing out that if we can have robots driving tractor-trailers on our nation's highways then we can certainly have them operating harvestors and combines on our 'factory farms'. Remind me again what we'll need people for? Oh yeah, to buy stuff.

I'll just say two more words after watching that vid: DOUBLE BOX
I have this vision of autonomous vans with auto opening side doors and something like a depth charge launcher chucking the package towards the front door -
Mobile delivery catapults at the ready ... kerchunk!
 
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Maybe it's just the amount of packages now, compared to pre, or early internet, (shopping). More packages to move, same time as before, equals "just get it on the truck and delivered mindset".
 
I just had a cylinder head delivered from a rebuilder yesterday. I want to leave it boxed (it appears to be fine, and shipped in a very thick reinforced box), but I hope some jackass at UPS or their automated equipment did not drop it, meaning I'd have to get it machined again on my end before installing it...
 
Look how original packing was done. A firm system like styrofoam end blocks that protected the corners and held the piece in the center of the box. The styrofoam would cushion on impact and crush if needed...I can ship a Pioneer SX-1080 in a $3 box from Lowe’s with a free medicine mailing cooler cut with a hot wire to fit on each corner on the bottom and a bit of pad on top with the box sides cut down and folded over to make 4 layers on the top. That’s it!

This post put me in mind of this one earlier in the thread:

The majority of equipment was shipped long distances only when it was new, and therefore it spent its transit time professionally packed in its original box and custom packing materials, well-secured on a pallet with other similar items, in a professional shipping truck with hydraulic suspension. It would be delivered to a store, and the customer would carefully put it in the back seat and drive it home. After that, it would get handed down or re-sold locally, spending its subsequent "shipping" time on a padded car back seat.

Things are constantly damaged by shipping 'in the original box and packing' and the sender can't understand why. It's because it was packed to stack on a pallet, not fall off a 6 ft high conveyor onto concrete. That's what we have to pack for. Well, I do anyway.

Aside from that, it's the speed and the number of packages and the automation that leads to a lot of damage. Forcing the employees to RUN to your door and back to the truck does not make for gentle handling.
 
Things are constantly damaged by shipping 'in the original box and packing' and the sender can't understand why. It's because it was packed to stack on a pallet, not fall off a 6 ft high conveyor onto concrete. That's what we have to pack for. Well, I do anyway.
That is why, even back in the 80s, any component I purchased came double-boxed, with the original box inside a larger box which had a lot of cushion on all sides to absorb any shock. Everything I received back then arrived in perfect condition.

I was a little taken aback when the seller of my Oppo 105 had it double boxed, meaning, the outer box (which was double corrugated) was fit like a glove to the inner box. But, it arrived looking brand new and works perfectly to this day, so I guess I can't complain. Still...
 
Now lets give the USPS some credit.
First, many employees with USPS are former veterans put into a job they may be able to handle. That means they qualify for the position and do their best as their abilities allow. Some still suffer from PTSD and many others are doing their best.
So if the USPS were not there they probably could not maintain a successful position at another job. Of course there is a union. But mostly to protect workers from discrimination due to previous PTSD or battle injuries.
The union does it's job. But they can never go on strike.
The USPS is a department of the government as mandated by law in the constitution. It also is the only branch of the government that makes a profit from services. Yes,....the profit is short lived as any monies from that profit are quickly turned around to provide for other parts of the government as per Congressional requirements decree. Congress sets the quality of the USPS and is often reluctant to upgrade equipment as any upgrade must be covered by monies from the operations. Seldom the USPS is short of cash but when it is Congress must authorize funds as stated in the constitution.
So you think a large profitable company has issues getting funds for projects just imagine what happens when Congress gets involved.
Cats and dogs fighting make more sense.
 
I do give USPS lots of credit. My guy has delivered to me for a lot of years, always on time and has always had a pretty good hunch what he was carrying to my porch. He can't miss my system as he walks past a window to my front porch.
I've watched him and even though he has a more than average distance to walk from his truck, has always handled my LPs with care and heavy boxes of amps with care, again, he knows. Several times while at the post office myself I would comment to whatever clerk was at the front desk "My guy is great, he needs a raise!" Then I asked him one day what his name was and after that it was "Hey, Scott should get a raise. He's the best I've ever had!"
BUT...about a month or so ago something changed and now Scott is gone. :( I've got some (ahem) gal that doesn't give a shit about what I do for a hobby, what it looks like or what it sounds like. Instead of setting my watch every morning exactly at 10:30, it can be anywhere in the afternoon. I never know.
BUT...the worst part of all this is that she doesn't want to carry a 35 - 40 lb box from the street nor does she want to gently lean a stack of LP mailers up against the inside wall of my front porch, she just wants to pitch them instead.
I've asked down at the local PO "What the hell is going on? What's happened??"
The answer I get is "There's nothing we can do about it....":confused:
Damn, I miss Scott!!
 
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