New Shipping Rules

[Libby Ritchie]

I was wondering if any other teams out there have a major sponsor that is a shipping company and cannot use them due to the new rule that we MUST use either Fed Ex or the MCS shipping company. I called FIRST today to see if there was any possible way to use BAX Global, one of our main sponsors who donates any shipping we need, year-round to us, for free. My first call, I was told that I would be "stupid" to not use Fed Ex because it was free and why would I do anything else! I made another phone call and it was explained to me that FIRST would have to pay BAX (or any other shipping company besides MSC's or Fed Ex) to load/unload at the drayage site and that they will not do that.

Our problem is that we have fought hard for any sponsor we get and now are being told that basically we cannot use the gracious donation of our sponsor. We are paying FIRST a hard-fought $9k for two competitions and they cannot help our team out by allowing our main sponsor to ship for us? BAX does not donate money to us, but this wonderful service is worth a lot to us. They helped us tremendously with the IRI last year as well and they want to help out more with FIRST but are basically being told they cannot!

I think Fed Ex is great by donating this free shipping to FIRST teams and I am very greatful that they are doing this. It is saving many teams a lot of money. So I am not feeling ungracious to them at all. However, I would like the opportunity to use a company that I wish to use that we have built a strong relationship with and at least have that option.

Just wondering if any other teams out there are facing the same situation.