**FIRST EMAIL**/Robot Transportation Section Now Available

[Richard McClellan]

Greetings Teams:

Section 4, "Robot Transportation", of the 2008 FRC Competition Manual is now available for download at http://www.usfirst.org/frc/2008/manual

Please make sure your team's shipping contact reads and understands this section prior to the robot ship date, February 19th, 2008.

Go Teams!

[Richard McClellan]

The only thing I noticed different from last year is that you aren't required to ship the two KOP MK Batteries in the crate, you can just bring them with you if you want to. Anyone see anything else?

[Cory]

I'm a bit confused about the free FedEx shipping.

Our plan is to drive our crate to the drayage location for SVR, use free shipping to Hawaii, free shipping to Atlanta, and free shipping back home.

In the FedEx free shipping section, it makes mention of the distinction that FIRST is not longer shipping via FedEx Freight Express (air) and solely through Freight Ground.

It also makes mention of the 48 contiguous United States.

As Hawaii clearly is not one of the lower 48, and cannot have a crate delivered to it via ground shipping, should I take it to mean that we cannot use free shipping to/from Hawaii? However, it does clearly state that you may use free shipping to any one regional event (emphasis mine).

Is anyone else reading this the same way I am?

[Ricky Q.]

I have briefly looked at this and while it does make mention of the 48 CONUS, it does not say anywhere that you cannot ship it across the border or to another state.

We (FRC269) used our free shipment from Wisconsin to Toronto last year after talking to FRC team support, they mailed us 2 international airbills (one to Toronto, one to Atlanta).

My suggestion is to throw them a phone call and email and they will tell you what is up.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Cory

I'm a bit confused about the free FedEx shipping.

Our plan is to drive our crate to the drayage location for SVR, use free shipping to Hawaii, free shipping to Atlanta, and free shipping back home.

In the FedEx free shipping section, it makes mention of the distinction that FIRST is not longer shipping via FedEx Freight Express (air) and solely through Freight Ground.

It also makes mention of the 48 contiguous United States.

As Hawaii clearly is not one of the lower 48, and cannot have a crate delivered to it via ground shipping, should I take it to mean that we cannot use free shipping to/from Hawaii? However, it does clearly state that you may use free shipping to any one regional event (emphasis mine).

Is anyone else reading this the same way I am?

yeah as per what that says iw ould have to say your shipping to hawaii is gonna have to be out of pocket

[Cory]

I intend to follow up with FIRST and find out directly from them (as clearly CD is not the place to find official answers ). In the meantime I was just curious what others thought, and hoped to alert anyone else to the possibility that things may be different than they thought.

Ricky--

That's a little reassuring that they shipped your robot to Canada, but I'm more worried about the distinction that FRC bots are only being shipped FedEx ground, and not Air. If that's the case, and exceptions aren't being made for Hawaii, everyone going to Hawaii is going to be in for a surprise.

[Rich Kressly]

Cory,
I'm reading this the same way you are. I'm thinking Hawaii is going to be out for the free shipping deal, but good luck with the follow up. I'm sure a few other teams will be interested in what you learn.

[TKM.368]

Believe it or not, there is still FedEx Ground in Hawaii. Things sent FedEx Ground to Hawaii are just ground transported to the nearest FedEx facility that flies to Hawaii and then your robot will be flown in. No need to worry.

You guys are lucky to be able to get FedEx to bring it in. We're contemplating going with another carrier to get it to Oregon and then FedEx to bring it back. Otherwise, we have to rely on Sheperd to get it back and we don't know (yet) how much that is going to be (keep getting an error message on the Sheperd Freight Estimation site).

Anyhow, no need to worry, FedEx Ground will fly your robots to Hawaii.