pic: Surprise! Your crate was crushed by _____ .

[Andrew Blair]

I'm surprised at the low level of handling of these crates. I realize robot's were smashed and thats terrible, but what about companies who ship stuff Fed-Ex all the time? We are looking at a big pool (1000+ teams shipping stuff 2-5 times apiece) of examples, but the odds are still not real pleasant for an average private user. Looking at the shipping industry at a whole, I would *think* that complaints would force freighters to be more careful. Look at the airline industry: People are very rarely improperly shipped. Airlines tend to get a lot of complaints if that happens.

So, why is this happening? I can think of a few possibilities:

1. Containers are shipped this badly usually. We just need to complain more.

2. Such large containers are not commonly shipped and as a result are not handled carefully.

3. Afflicted crates are not built well, and cannot hold up during normal shipping procedures.

4. Fed-Ex puts a "FIRST ROBOT" sticker on the sides of all the crates and instructs forklift operators to search and destroy.

I kinda like # 4...

[lukevanoort]

After seeing this, I'm tempted to put a hazardous material triangle on the side of our crate saying that it is highly explosive...

[santosh]

Wow. That is horrible. We haven't gotten ours back yet. I am quite scared

[SURVIVORfan44]

I can't believe how damaged the robot is. For my old team, the regionals and championship were just the beginning. The whole life of the robot begins after that when we would show it off to companies and in front of our whole school and everything. I can't imagine how your team is taking this.