Different ways to take tools to Atlanta

[Cory]

I think that teams talking about shipping tools to the event through discounted or free means need to take a careful look at the shipping guidelines.

254 shipped a pallet to the Hawaii regional, and will be shipping it to Atlanta from here.

We intended to FedEx it at a substantial discount to the drayage site. After talking to Shepard, they made it clear to us in no uncertain terms that we had to ship it through Shepard Logistics. They didn't care that we were providing our own waybills for every leg of the trip.

This seems strange to me, as FedEx is one of their official partners, and their airbills give you a choice of FedEx or Shepard Logistics. Furthermore, in 2006 we sent tool crates to Atlanta for 1868 and 254 directly to drayage through FedEx, and had no problem. Last year we shipped a pallet home from Atlanta via FedEx using our own airbills, through Shepard, and had no problems. I don't know if the rules changed this year, or what.

[Cappeh]

716 usually does this: the students on the team and most of the mentors fly down to Atlanta. Two of our mentors pack up one of their trucks with all of our tools and equipment, and they switch off driving the whole way down.

We're out of Connecticut, so it's a long drive already- if you're coming from farther away than that, I would probably reccomend trying to find an alternate method; it'll probably make your life easier than driving. (:

[Storcky]

This year 1629 is taking a different approach. All of the students and most of the mentors are flying down, but one mentor is driving the tool truck to Atlanta. He's also taking all of the luggage that we would normally check so that we don't have to bother with baggage claim.

Then again, we are from Maryland so it's a considerably shorter trip than from California.