I have worked in a shipping and receiving department before and have seen some pretty incredible damage. On one occasion fedex actually managed to break a solid steel control arm that belonged to a Ford Explorer. I don’t see how that is possible short of running it over with something. Another time, we received a shippment of rusted sheet metal brackets, in a waterfilled bag with an appology note taped to it. Other times packages would simply disappear or come in with boxes mangled beyond belief.
http://powerstandards.com/FedExVerdict/
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/consumer/a/fedexpays.htm
Nope, wouldn’t even come close to covering court costs, right adam?
Every team has a right to be treated fairly, and if it takes one team taking legal action to show FedEx that we are paying customers, then so be-it.
I have no doubt hat FIRST tries to stamp out the damage caused by deliveries every time it happens and somebody complains to them, but what they do obviously isn’t showing FedEx anything, because it keeps on happening.
Note to adam: Next time, please don’t respond to something that I’ve posted in a rude/demeaning way, because I am not trying to argue… Only to have my opinion be known.
I recommend not shipping batteries in the crate it has caused our crate to be overweight twice. Take the batteries to comp via someone driving, it is a lot cheaper than having to pay overweight charges. We made a lighter crate this year, we were over 400 because our crate alone was weighing in close to 250. Also they do make composite skids and crates that can come apart and are very light, it is a good investment. Normal wear and tear and objects that protrude are obviously gonna be hit, scraped or broken. Remember FIRST and FedEx sometimes stack crates, you must design your crate with the ability to withstand 1000 pounds on top of it.
Which is as good a reason as any to mark the crate “Do not stack”, “This side up” (with an arrow), etc…
They will still be stacked
Unfortunately, some teams cannot drive. For us to go to Nationals it is a 1720 mile drive one way…not big savings of $$$. The thought has crossed my mind to drive there anyway so we can have all of our tools, extra batteries, extra raw materials, etc.
6.3.2 Crate Specifications
All Crates must:
• NEW: Comply with the Wood Materials Regulations above if the crate ships into the U.S.
• Weigh 400 pounds or less in order to avoid drayage overage charges
• Be sturdily built to prevent damage to your equipment
• Have plywood construction to ensure stacking capability during transport
• “Sit” on 2 pieces of 4" by 4" lumber, spaced at least 28" apart so it can be moved by a forklift.
• Have a footprint no greater than 4’ by 4’ and be no taller than 5’10" (70") high. This maximum
includes the 4" by 4" lumber mentioned above.
• Be capable of being moved by a forklift
…
While most of my team(s) fly, We always designate one person to drive to tow the trailer(s)
i personally have not had very good luck with FedEx about a year ago i ordered about $800 of audio equipment from 2 separate places. the arrived on separate days. the first shipment was a rack amp that was very sturdy and very well packed. when i received it there was a large dent in it as well as striped and broken screws. luckily it was covered by the warranty. the second shipment came a few days later from a completely different direction. in the boxes were 2 very large speakers. the first i opened did not strike me as damaged(i later discovered some damage to the casters on the base). the second had a hole that i could stick my hand through going through several layers of cardboard a plywood base that the speakers were siting on and the actual speaker. the grate and woofer had been completely ripped out of the speaker cabinet and internal parts were lose inside the speaker. what shocked me even more was the fact that the casters were almost completely flattened (they are very Hevay duty, the speaker weighs like 80 pounds.) the metal was bent and the plastic wheels were crushed to me this meant that they must have been dropped from fairly high and wee also impaled by something.
i found it strange that 2 packages from 2 different states that were delivered on 2 separate dates could both be damaged so badly.i eventually got a refund on shipping and to my surprise made the store i ordered them from pay for the speakers!claming they were already broken. :eek:
Big companies ship from multiple places. The damage sounds more like improper packing than anything.
I’ve never had anything too large shipped (15" monitor was the largest I think) but I can tell you this. About half my packages that come through UPS appear to have been dropped.
Freight is regularly packaged in non-stackable forms. Consider goods shipped on pallets and shrinkwrapped, for example. Or cardboard shipping containers on skids. Or 300 gallon tanks. These things might be able to handle another object being placed on top of them, but the material handlers will use their judgment in deciding whether or not to actually do so, because they, like the rest of us, want to avoid damage (and corresponding liability).
I realize that FIRST says that crates should be stackable, but if you violate 6.3.2, it’s an issue between you and FIRST (and FIRST doesn’t really enforce this, or especially care). Your carrier is still obligated to take care of your freight, provided that it meets their own requirements for transport and storage. If your container meets their specifications, and they stack it, or invert it, and it’s marked in such a way as to clearly state that these actions are unacceptable, then you should easily be able to file a claim with them for the damage incurred. (For example, FedEx’s requirements for freight are here, and here.)
This isn’t to say that a strong crate is a bad idea—because even normal handling is often hard on packaging. Just give the carrier some credit for being able to read and understand simple instructions. They’re not generally in the business of breaking their customers’ wares.
If you think FedEX is bad about handling things, be glad that UPS is in no way involved, When I worked in a Shipping dept, sometimes boxes would come in that were so beaten up that they just fell apart, were completely crushed, sometimes soaking wet, even got an empty box with a hole in it once, contents nowhere to be found.
Our crate has faired pretty well, just a small tear in the vinyl U on the door so far, after 2 years, and a few splinters on the edges here and there
Of course our crate has came back with marks and scrapes on it, and a few splinters, but we have never seen these horrible things people talk of. While an occasional accident does occur, it might be the dryage company’s fault more than FedEx. Most of the problems I see relate to very weak crates that had no framing. Remember most of the unloading, loading is done by the contractor from the warehouse to the site, not fedex.
When we arrived to our pit in Philly this year our robot crate was damaged. It looked like the person on the fork life didn’t have it low enough and the lift went right through the wood. The bottom part of the other side of our robot was ripped open and our battery box inside was ripped apart with just batteries laying there. They took off all the locks on our crate and left some other minor damages that didn’t need to be worried about. We had a crate since 2001 that had been modified to fir the robot and this year we built a brand new crate and it got damaged. As soon as we seen this we went up to pit admin and they said to write down everything that was wrong and damaged and that they would handle it from there. As far as I know nothing has been done about it. Thankfully our robot was not damaged. I hope that nothing will happen to anyone Else’s robot like I had heard. Hope you get everything resolved.
The bottom of the crate and bottom 12 inches or of each side need to be reinforced for forklift pickups. When the fork lifts pick up the crates out of a truck they slide them back and forth using only the lip so they can slide them in.
If your crate has been damaged in transit then you need to get assistance from someone who builds crates as part of their job.
A crate needs to be very solid to endure *normal * handling enroute. If the crate slips off a forklift then it needs to be even more robust to survive.
If your robot is tie-wrapped or strapped to the bottom of the crate then it is going to take a pounding.
We always use bungee cords; they keep the robot in place but have enough stretch that the robot can move a bit and not completly absorb all the shock.
The same thing happened to us after Lonestar. We spent like four hours on the phone for Fed Ex to finally say, ‘OH! Your robot is still in Houston!’ The robot was shipped back to the school a few days later.
The contractors stack crates during storage while you are at the event. The tunnel access to the dome last year at Nationals, if you remember correctly, had all the crates lined up stacked on each other. Crates will be stacked and we have to accept that.