North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[jim <jmc1@epix.net>]

John, you've really hit the nail on the head -- your experience is exactly
the same as ours.  We have the impression that UPS really doesn't
want our business.  Like you, we are particularly hard-hit on orders
for 3 to 10 trees, weighing only 5 to 15 lbs.

Some of their odd quirks you didn't mention:

They make a $2.00/pkg surcharge if delivering to a residence.  If a package is addressed to Hillcrest Farm, and if there is a marked Farm office separate from the residence, they will deliver there and charge only a $1.00/pkg surcharge -- but if the office is in the same building as residence, the full $2.00/pkg applies.

Our boxes (@$4.00!!)) we had custom-made exactly to UPS specs.  Unfortunately, when filled with trees, the ends may bulge half an inch.  UPS now measures boxes electronically, and even 1/8" over their length+girth nonsense results in all the penalties to which you refer.

We've 5 or 6,000 bags on hand that now are only scrap paper;  sure were mighty handy for shipping rootstocks, brambles, etc.  Now useless.

We have usually had good delivery service from UPS, but occasionally (maybe 5 packages out of 100) part of a shipment will get lost and sit in Pierre for a week.

I wish there were viable alternative.  RPS has similar rates but even less interest in our business.  We'll be trying Postal Service this spring for small packs.

Presumably UPS interstate rates are under ICC oversight.  John, maybe that could be a chink in the UPS armor!

//Jim
www.cumminsnursery.com

john bunker wrote:

Some time ago there were a number of emails posted discussing shipping
charges of nursery stock.  There was some suggestion that shipping and
handling charges were excessive and may be used as a way of simply
making more money for the nurseries.

As someone who owns (cooperatively with a number of other people) a
mail-order nursery, I thought I  might attempt to shed a little light on
the problems of shipping trees and why it might seem so expensive.

What you may not know is that it is hugely expensive to ship trees by
UPS.  If it were simply a matter of weight, it would be pretty straight
forward, like most other products you might receive via mail-order. But
this is not the case.  UPS in essense does not want our business.  They
want to send out small-medium sized regularly-shaped packages that are
easy to process at the shipping centers, fit easily in their trucks and
are are easy for the delivery men to carry.

What this means for nursery owners:

Bags v Boxes. We used to ship our trees in big bags, or wrapped in brown
paper.  The bags/paper are inexpensive and easy to use.  As of several
years ago, UPS now adds a surcharge of $5.00 per package if the  package
is not a box.  That alone forces nurseries to buy boxes or pay an
additional $5 for every order.  We were paying about $1.00 per bag. Now
we pay $2.50-5.00 per box depending on size.

Addtional handling. UPS adds a $5.00 surcharge for every package over
60" in length.  That includes virtually any order we might send.

Residential v Commericial destination.  UPS adds another $1.00 surcharge
for any package sent to a "residential" address. That's most customers,
since it's those folk who tend to buy nursery stock.

Oversize 1.  If the combined lengths and widths (ie "girth") of a
package is more than 84" and less than 108" and less than 30lbs, then
the package is charged at 30 lbs, regardless of weight.  This means that
for most nurseries, even very light packages of one or two tree are
routinely being charged the 30 lb rate.

Oversize 2.  If the combined lengths and widths (ie "girth") of a
package is greater than 108" and less than 70 lbs, then the package is
charged at 70 lbs, regardless of weight.  This means that for most
nurseries, larger boxes -even those that are not heavy- are charged at
the 70 lb rate.

Combining the automatic bump up to higher rates with the forced expense
of using boxes and the unavoidable surcharges of $5.00-6.00 per pacakge,
you might be able to see why it looks as though you're being ripped off
when you buy a tree.  It is quite possible that if you buy one tree, the
actual costs of the packaging  combined with the shipping costs and
surcharges might easily exceed the cost of the tree itself, not even
including anything for the labor of processing the order and packing it
up.

And, not only that, but these charges go up and up every year. As I
said, it appears that UPS is doing a lot to discourage nursery business.

But, even so,  why not just figure each person's shipping charges on an
individual basis and charge them accordingly?  It sounds equitable, but
to do this for evey customer, with all the variables, would add even
more expense to every order.  Someone has to figure this out, and do the
paperwork involved in the billing. And, it's incredibly complicated. We
do everything we can to give our customers a simple -and fair- way of
figuring charges while at the same time not overcharging them. In the
process, we know some customers get charged slightly more than the
actual shipping expense and some, less.  However, every year we analyse
our figures and it always comes out about even. We're not making money
on shipping trees to our customers, and we're trying to be fair.

Perhaps this just sounds like a rationale for gouging customers with
excessive shipping/handling charges.  If so, so be it.  Perhaps there
are some companies who engage in such pratices.  But my guess is that
not many companies are getting rich on shipping.  It's particularly
complicated and expensive for anyone who ships trees.  I know of at
least two mail-order nurseries who called it quits this year. This is
not an easy business.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but perhaps this might help in the
discussion.

John Bunker, Coordinator, Fedco Trees  Box 520 Waterville Me 04903

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